[Sparkle]

Hello members

I am a British Born Chinese and am due to qualify as a solicitor later on this month. I was told by my employers some months ago that there were no vacancies for me upon qualification. Now the big day is fast looming, and I am still keeping my options open.

Moving to Hong Kong to look for legal work, of any level, is a strong consideration for me. I am prepared to work as a Parelegal/Clerk. I am working in a small high street practice consisting of 6 partners and a number of fee earners. My seats have consisted of: civil litigation, family and residential conveyancing.

Is there a high demand for these types of vacancies? Any good resources to use?

Any views or thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Thank you.

[kelvin]

I think u just have ur PCLL rite? and I suppose u can speak cantonese as well, since u may need to talk to ur client using cantonese, not only english. Solic in HK is more compatitive now, since more and more newly qualified solic appeared in the market. Initially may be hard to start with a good pay, especially walk-in candidate, but it'll be ok later once exp increased. Just find more friends in HK and share different views!!

[ZephyrinHK]

You could try and contact the Legal Recruitment Agents listed on the last few pages of HK Lawyers.........most of them are helpful and even though they could not put you through to an interview by those big city firms (their clients are mostly big city firms).........they'll be able to help you review your CVs in the least and give you some constructive feedback on it.

But one advice is......don't send applications on your own to the city firms before you contact the Legal Recruitment Agents cos they will not be able to help you if you've sent out applications on your own (they're bound by the so called 12 months' rule........that they can't consider you as a potential applicant when their clients have already received your applications before).

Also, for medium sized to smaller firms, you can send out your applications in batches but make sure you tailor made your cover letter and CV to cater to the particular focus or strength of that particular firm. As a starting point, you could look at the Yellow Pages (the Recruitment Circulars) in the Law Society's website (the Recruitment Ads are updated every Monday) cos some of the firms will post up the relevant ads recruiting newly qualified solicitors. Asking around your friends working in the same field may also be fruitful as they might be able to point to you which firms are in urgent need of NQ lawyers.

The legal recruitment market is booming these days and it shouldn't be too hard for you to find a job with a decent firm........so good luck on your applications!