The Legal Cheek View
For over 35 years global full-service law firm Hogan Lovells has advised on corporate, commercial and contentious matters in Hong Kong, helping international clients on their regional expansion or local clients go global. The firm represents Spotify in the Asia-Pacific region as well as Tencent and Google.
With clients, the firm’s lawyers (there are 17 partners and over 30 associates) have a reputation for being “straight to the point” and getting deals over the line. With each other, they’re down to earth and friendly. “A sense of team spirit and a collegiate environment makes Hogan Lovells a great place to work,” says a HogLovs lawyer. “Not only is everyone in the firm incredibly warm and friendly but the firm also ensures that every member of staff is valued for their contribution, no matter how junior,” adds another. It explains why so many lawyers choose to spend their entire careers at the firm, which has a significant number of ‘Hogan Lovells lifers’, so to speak.
Training at the firm lasts two years, and trainees gain experience in four practice areas, including a six-month secondment to one of the firm’s many international offices. Seat options include corporate, finance and litigation. Trainees are paired with a senior lawyer mentor whom they can turn to for support as part of a formal training scheme.
The office occupies a floor and a half in Admiralty’s One Pacific Place. The main reception in the building is very luxe and the lifts are encased in wood. The High Court of Hong Kong and Pacific Place mall with its numerous lunch options are a stone’s throw away. So is the JW Marriott hotel, which is a hotspot for HogLovs lawyers to meet with clients over lunch — one of the hotel’s restaurants has a swimming pool which you can see from the firm’s lobby, just as you can other fancy hotels like the Conrad. The firm’s office interior is very slick and modern, having been renovated two years ago. There’s co-working space and a moss wall in the reception.
The Hong Kong office runs two summer vacation schemes of four weeks each in June and July each year. They take around seven interns each month with the view to making four training contract offers, primarily from those who attend the schemes, but also those who apply directly for a training contract. Interns can expect to get involved in live deals and cases in two departments, plus social and pro bono activities. Every spring the firm hosts insight days for first and second-year law students.
Prospective applicants must be fluent in English. Cantonese and Mandarin skills are strongly desirable but not a pre-requisite for a Hogan Lovells training contract, and the firm recently made two English/Korean-speaking trainee hires.