Evan here. Please check out our daily blog at www.theasiachronicles.com where we will have more posts than those that appear here. Today, for example, we have this post and also a post from Alexis Lamb regarding the Singapore market – “Singapore Swing.”
Please note that Robert Kinney and I will be working from our Hong Kong offices for a few weeks later this month and can be available for meetings with our readers then. Alexis, of course, is based permanently in Hong Kong.
Three Quick hits of the day (a new feature at theasiachronicles.com): One US firm in Hong Kong now has an expat / cola allowance of over $90,000 for single associates and over $100,000 for married associates; Almost every strong US cap markets practice in HK / China is hiring lateral associates now; It has recently become more common for US and UK firms in Singapore to offer an expat / cola allowance, albeit much smaller than in HK (for years, most firms offered no allowance in Singapore).
While interviewing for a US associate position in Asia can be quite different from interviewing for a spot down the street in New York or another major domestic market there are also some similarities to a job search in any domestic market. The key determining factors on whether you will have a chance at interviewing are top firm experience and impressive law school academics. The other obvious factor determining whether you will be asked to interview, at least for most positions in Asia, is language skills (Mandarin, Korean, Japanese).
However, once you are in an interview, whether by phone, VC or in person, your stellar resume is not going to help you as much as it would in an interview for a US position. Overseas partners are looking for the right personality fit much more so than in a large domestic office. A major reason for this is because the offices are much smaller overseas, making it harder to hide a misfit (even a junior associate can be the face of the firm), but there are other reasons as well.
At a basic level, the factors that are especially important to demonstrate in an interview overseas are these:
• you have an entrepreneurial nature;
• you have a high level of maturity for your experience level;
• you have an outgoing personality (not overly “academic” in nature);
• you are able to fit in with different cultures;
• your personal presentation is generally positive; and
• you are a team player (no prima donnas need apply)
• you have a demonstrated interest / connection to your target market
These are obviously all factors that are relevant in any interview at least as “plus factors”, but these particular factors are especially important in Asia.
Keep in mind that within minutes of your first interview, most partners can pretty much figure out whether you have these attributes. Any of us at Kinney Recruiting can figure this out about candidates we speak to in minutes as well.
There is a much less structured environment for associates in busy overseas U.S. practices (at the smaller offices or newer practice groups it can be similar to working in a exciting start-up company, albeit one extremely well financed).
The market is such in Asia, especially in China, that firm clients are not nearly as institutionalized as in the major US markets. Sure, many US firms in Asia opened offices there initially to follow major clients. Nevertheless, the pitch environment is much more of a free-for-all in Asia, especially in China. A firm not being on the preferred vendors list at an i-bank, fund or other entity often does not even prevent representation from happening in Asia (while it is more difficult, a series of one time waivers for a firm by a client are not uncommon). In China especially, considering all the state run enterprise business, the vast majority of the IPOs being handled by PRC banks, and many emerging companies and funds, there is a lot of pitching going on by firms for this work. Further, while in New York deals are done mainly over the phone, in Asia there are a lot of in-person meetings throughout the process.
Needless to say, there is a lot of client contact for even junior associates, especially when in China a non-Chinese partner may be leaning heavily on his Mandarin-fluent associates for a lot more than due diligence. Mid-level associates in Asia are typically running their own deals.
In many instances in Asia your training is one-on-one mentoring from a partner or two, quite commonly with no senior associates in between.
Maturity is especially important in Asia because associates are given as much responsibility as they can handle. Simply put, a mature person can balance his or her workload between competing demands more than an immature one. There can be a lot of travel to meet with major clients and each associate, no matter how junior, is usually a vital part of their office’s overall practice and client development and retention. Each associate is also expected to be a self-starter and figure out things on the fly much more than is the case in a domestic office of the same firm.
The smaller offices of course make personality fit and personal presentation more important, for obvious reasons. As an associate at a top U.S. practice in Asia, you are more of a vital piece of the entire office’s practice and your personality is going to directly affect the firm’s practice. Senior partners overseas, especially those that moved to Asia from U.S. offices, have in many cases put a tremendous amount of effort (and some career risk) into building their book of business and reputation in a foreign country. Thus, they can take a lot of pride in their accomplishments, as they should. Understandably they want to avoid placing their reputation and practice in the hands of an associate with whom they do not have a strong personality fit or who cannot be counted on to be at his or her best every day.
As an associate in a large New York (or other major US market) office, with hundreds of attorneys, you surely know a number of very impressive young associate colleagues who are perhaps a bit over academic, but perform just fine in that large office environment. However, being too academic and not well rounded will not serve well in an entrepreneurial and less structured environment of a busy small overseas US corporate practice of a top firm. We have seen countless cases where the less impressive candidate on paper wins out over the more impressive resumed candidates, due to being better rounded and the right personality fit.
Most US partners who have been in Asia for a few years or more have experienced a hire gone bad simply because the US associate ultimately could not commit to the geographic market. Asia, especially China, is hot now and is considered “the place to be.” There are many very well intentioned and able young professionals in the US who believe they would like to relocate there, but ultimately find out later that the region is not for them. Thus, many US partners will take a jaded approach into an interview with a US associate who does not have an obvious connection to the particular target Asia market. Of course, a connection to the market is not a requirement to land there (if it were, most partners you are interviewing with would never have landed there to begin with), but the lack of a strong connection will need to be dealt with in an interview. It is ok to want to be in Hong Kong, for example, because it is an exciting market, has great deal flow, and you have visited there a few times, but the message has to be conveyed loud and clear in an interview and you need to be prepared to take on this elephant in the room early.
Keep in mind that U.S. firms have more risk with hires they make overseas, due to the high level of responsibility each associate has, and also because associates are simply less fungible in small, busy overseas offices. The past two years of economic downturn in the West caused full and partial hiring freezes at firms globally, even during most of the recent 20 months boom in China. Many U.S. practices in Asia have found themselves to be severely understaffed when just one or two associates leave, combined with increased deal flow. In a busy and competitive lateral hiring market in Asia, it can easily take a U.S. practice up to six months to replace a key associate that has not worked out.
Further, there is the added cost a firm takes on when hiring a U.S. associate lateral, especially if from the U.S. markets, such as annual housing / expat packages (which can run from $40,000 to $140,000 depending on the Asia market and firm) and international relocation costs, which includes up to two months in a luxury serviced apartment. Some firms even handle private school tuition for associates’ children.
I have exciting news this morning. I am launching a campaign to recall Illinois governor Pat Quinn.
This is not a frivolous effort. It is a serious undertaking and one in which I intend to see to the end. It will take hard work and lots of volunteers but we will be successful.
I need volunteers to ...
- Gather signatures
- Talk to state legislative representatives to get them on board
- Provide legal help
- Design a website
- Help with advertising
I will pay for website hosting and domain names.
We need to be successful because Governor Quinn has plans that will destroy Illinois.
Massive Tax Hikes Will Drive Businesses Out Of Illinois
The Chicago Tribune reports Governor Quinn has reached a deal with top Democratic lawmakers including Senate President John Cullerton to ....
- Hike the state income tax by 75%, from 3% to 5.25%
- Hike the corporate income tax rate by 75% from 4.8% to 8.4%
- Hike the cigarette tax by $1 a pack
- Use the tax hikes to borrow more money to fund pension plans
The Tribune notes "As a measure of how desperate state government's finances are, Cullerton said the state would use the income-tax hike to borrow $12.2 billion. Of that, $8.5 billion would pay overdue bills and $3.7 billion would cover a government worker pension payment lawmakers skipped when putting together the current budget, he said."
Raising corporate and personal income taxes to borrow $12.2 billion is not "desperation", it is fiscal insanity. It will drive businesses out of Illinois and push many struggling taxpayers into bankruptcy.
Quinn is unlikely to get all of those measures passed, but it does not matter. Those are his intentions and they they show his blatant incompetence and disregard for both taxpayers and businesses. Moreover, he will try again.
Enough Is Enough
John Tillman at the Illinois Policy Institute says ...
Amazingly, the deal will also hike the corporate income tax rate. Combined with the personal property replacement tax and the federal corporate tax, Illinois would have one of the HIGHEST corporate income tax rates in the world. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out this means bad news for job growth in Illinois.Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels On Quinn's Plan
With high property taxes, high sales taxes and now high income taxes, the flight to low-tax states will only pick up speed.
Enough is enough.
The Illinois Policy Institute is not the only one who thinks Governor Quinn's proposal would be horrid for Illinois. So does Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels according to The Northwest Times of Indiana.
"We already had an edge on Illinois in terms of the cost of doing business, and this is going to make it significantly wider," Daniels said.Indeed, people get what they vote for, but how did Quinn win?
The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group in Washington, noted if the proposed corporate tax hike becomes law, Illinois businesses will pay the highest combined national-local corporate tax rate in the industrialized world.
That is the wrong course for Illinois to take, Daniels said.
"It does show that you can make very different choices, and the contrast between the choice we've made and the one they have is stark," he said. "Obviously I think ours is wiser, but self-governance means people get what they vote for."
Governor Quinn Bought The Election
Governor Quinn barely won the election against a very weak opponent in spite of an amazing 85% vote turnout for Quinn in Chicago. Sadly, Mayor Daley did nothing to stop this, although the mayor is complaining mightily now about the Governor's proposals.
“It’s worth remembering that Governor Quinn only found one program—out of thousands—to veto outright when he signed this year’s spending bill in July. Had he taken a closer look at structural spending reforms and not agreed to politically motivated “no layoff and closure” deals with public employee unions, we could be on the path back to recovery instead of being stuck in ever-mounting debt,” noted John Tillman at the Illinois Policy Institute.
Those "no layoff" agreements bought Quinn votes. So did other union-pandering deals. It did not matter that Illinois could not afford those deals. Quinn did what he could to get elected, taxpayers be damned.
There still is no serious discussion from Quinn as to how to rein in exorbitant taxpayer giveaways to public unions. His only "solution" is to raise taxes.
Four Big States - Four Big Problems
California, Illinois, and New York all have massive fiscal problems. They all have other things in common.
- Collective Bargaining
- Prevailing Wage Laws
- Illinois, California, and New York are NOT "Right to Work" states
In essence, Public unions own Illinois, California, and New York.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is starting to turn things around. Wisconsin and Ohio also have newly elected governors willing to take on public unions.
In Illinois, Governor Quinn remains beholden to public unions, not taxpayers, in spite of massive voter rejections nationally of tax-and-spend policies.
Organized labor contributed mightily to his campaign, and Governor Quinn wants to pay them back. His proposals will do that by taking money out of your pocket so that the public unions get wages and benefits that most taxpayers will never see.
Quinn bought the election, even if barely.
Constitutional Amendment To Recall Governors
Last November, Illinois voters were presented a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment allowing governors to be recalled. I am pleased to report the Illinois Governor Recall Amendment Passes With Two-Thirds Of Vote.
The Illinois constitution was changed last night, with an amendment swept in by a wide margin.What Does A Recall Effort Take?
Over two million voters approved a process for the public to recall governors during their term, giving the measure well over the 60 percent of voters required for its passage. The amendment is widely viewed as a reaction to the corruption charges against former Governor Rod Blagojevich.
- A voter has to file an affidavit stating his or her intent to circulate petitions to recall the governor. The affidavit cannot be filed until after the governor has served six months in office.
- Permission from lawmakers: The affidavit has to include the signatures of 20 members of the Illinois House and 10 members of the Illinois Senate. Half of the signatures from lawmakers have to be from Democrats and half from Republicans.
- Petitioners have to gather signatures equal to 15 percent of the number of people who voted in the last gubernatorial election.
- Of those signatures, organizers would have to get at least 100 signatures in each of at least 25 different counties. Petitioners would have 150 days to get them and the State Board of Elections would have 100 days to certify them.
- When would the recall election be held? No later than 100 days after the State Board of Elections certifies the signatures.
- Passage: A majority of voters have to vote to recall the governor in order for him or her to be removed.
- Who becomes governor: If the governor is recalled, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor until a special election is held. If there is no lieutenant governor, the attorney general becomes acting governor. If there is no attorney general, the secretary of state becomes acting governor.
- Special election: A special election to select a new governor has to be held within 60 days if the governor is recalled. That process starts on the day of the recall election if multiple candidates from the same political party file for the office. If that’s the case, a special primary election would be held on the same day of the recall election. Candidates must gather 5,000 signatures in order to run in the special election. The new governor will serve for the unexpired portion of the recalled governor’s term.
- The Better Government has noted that nothing in the amendment prevents the recalled governor from running in the special election after he or she is recalled. It also noted that the amendment does not require grounds for recall.
The above bullet points are from the State Journal Register.
Note that the amendment does not require grounds for a recall, but we have them: Blatant fiscal incompetence and vote buying.
The state House of Representatives consists of 118 representatives elected from individual legislative districts for a two-year term with no limits. The Illinois Senate is consists of 59 senators with staggered two- or four-year terms.
Thus, getting approval from 20 members of the Illinois House and 10 members of the Illinois Senate (half from Democrats and half from Republicans) is not a prohibitive task.
Governor Quinn Supports Recalls
It is a fitting sense of irony that Governor Quinn Trumpets Recalls.
"I think the ultimate way to get ethics in Illinois is have the power of recall in our constitution," Quinn said.
I could not possibly agree more with Governor Quinn. It is perhaps the only major political stance he has taken that I can endorse 100%.
Will You Stand Up To The Injustice?
We have to wait six months to file, but there is no sense in waiting. There are many tasks to be performed and I will need volunteers from every county to gather signatures. I estimate we need about 520,000 signatures. My goal is to get 700,000.
If you can volunteer, time, web design, advertising, legal help, or any kind of general assistance, I would appreciate it. We need to put a stop to Quinn's proposals that will drive businesses and jobs out of the state and massively raise your taxes as part of the bargain.
Please email Recall Governor Pat Quinn Today (RecallQuinnToday@gmail.com) and lend your support to the effort to save the state of Illinois from Quinn's fiscal recklessness. Please let me know what you can do to help.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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