As Singapore becomes Naples

More than a few Lamborghinis on the road – the sign of a Singapore legal-market traffic jam?

Early January, I visited Singapore. After a meeting near One Raffles Quay I had the mixed pleasure of waiting in a long line for a cab. The mixed part was the weather – Singapore even mid-January is relentlessly hot and humid, like New York in July. The pleasure was the parade of latest-model, beautiful cars. It was 5 PM, which meant there would be a wait for the cab but a guaranteed stream of stunning cars dropping off someone at the building, picking up a girlfriend or husband, or simply heading home. Drivers and passengers seemed on average not older than 45 (which explains the absence of Bentleys in the streets of Singapore), but the automotive tastes in evidence were at the highest pitch of sophistication. Their cars were wonderful to watch – from the sleek white Maserati with a white silver finish, to the always reliably beautiful red or yellow Ferrari, and the rare and riveting mustard Lamborghini.

As an Aston Martin glided by (whatever happened to that marque?) the guy next to me in line – a jovial Australian, it turns out – kept on saying: “It’s never been like this, so many people waiting for a cab – it’s never been like this.” He kept repeating that, as if perplexed, over the next 30 minutes as we advanced slowly through the queue. The Australian’s perplexity made his comment stick in my mind as I shifted gears from looking at beautiful cars to my other favorite subject – lawyers and law firms.

When I started in legal headhunting back in 1990 in New York, no one talked about Singapore or even Asia. By the mid 90s, as several US-based sponsors and developers became more involved overseas, Singapore was the first point on US law firms’ Asia compass. However by the late 90s, as those sponsors left Asia, Singapore receded. Japan, and the urgency to hire bengoshi, became the new horizon – until shortly after SARS around 2002, when China became the hot topic. By then Singapore seemed to have become a backwater or curiosity.

As the years passed and as China and India stimulated the global energy and natural-resources market, financed by Japanese banks, Singapore yet again twinkled. Slowly and quietly, the international offices there became increasingly busy, even under-lawyered. By 2010 and 2011 the secret was out: Singapore was busy and its three marque practices – energy/finance, M&A/PE, and arbitration – were a go-go.

The story with Singapore is complicated. On the one hand, it had been under-lawyered because law firms hadn’t replenished as associates or even partners left. And because the market that Singapore services is relatively small – mostly focused on Indonesia and India – any shortfalls in supply are quickly felt. Yet while business remained at 2011 levels – with the right amount of lawyers for the right amount of work – Singapore was something of a paradise.

Finally my turn came and I got my cab to the airport. The ticketing area at Changi on past visits seemed barely populated. Now it was packed, and for the second time in the same afternoon, I found myself waiting in a long line – this time for immigration (and without any beautiful cars to watch). An officer approached to check passports. My flight was about to board and I had to send emails beforehand, so I asked her about the wait. How she responded could be out of fiction but I swear it wasn’t: “It’s never been like this, so many travelers,” she said. “It’s never been like this.”

All of which is to say Singapore is getting crowded. A small market which got busy while it was under-lawyered may soon become very crowded and over-lawyered.

Not long after my visit, I received a link from a friend that’s going viral – about a Fiat maneuvering a narrow street in Naples. As I watched the video, I realized that Singapore could get this crowded soon. And while the Fiat comes out without a scratch, I fear that law firms, being bigger than a Fiat, may not be so lucky. Here’s the link for your enjoyment – it’s less than three minutes, and two of those minutes are pure Italian gold:

How to assess when and whether to go into a new market is a hard decision for law firms. Do it too early, and chances are funds will be invested with little return. But if a firm waits until the market is in full swing – especially for a smaller market like Singapore – chances are it’ll be already too late.

Not any one firm gets it right all the time in every office with every practice. It’s a question of striking the right balance – as the hapless driver of the Fiat was aiming to do – and success is a mix of luck and skill.

You can also bend it like Beckham

Tags

Asia legal recruiting, lawyer career path, legal recruiting

He’s got the moves.

There’s been a curious trans-Atlantic migration of players out of European football (soccer) and onto US teams. It’s an instructive tale of talent, timing, and managing the trajectory of a career.

The typical soccer migrant I have in mind hails from Europe, especially from the English Premier League, and comes to join the US’s Major Soccer League (MSL). Names like Beckham, Henry, Keane, and Cahill illustrate. These were all European-based players coming close to signing their last contract when they jumped. While still competent, their value in the field was diminished by age, and by competition from younger, faster, less-expensive players. Those same pressures exist in the US, but at nowhere near the intensity as Europe. The upshot is that any good 32-year-old European player can assume a leading, superstar role in the US, creating a moment in the American sun when the European sky would otherwise have gone dim.

Something almost like the reverse has been taking place in Greater China recently – and, no, I’m not referring to Didier Drogba, the Ivoirian and former Chelsea star who now plays for Shanghai. I’m referring to several US practicing equity / capital-markets partners who arrived in Greater China over 10 years ago and enjoyed superstar status – as do Beckham and Henry in the US presently. These lawyers brought a unique skill-set enabling Asia companies successfully to tap into the US equity markets. Ten years ago they left New York or Northern California as very good lawyers – among many dozens of such very good lawyers. Moving to Greater China made them more or less alone in a market that demanded their services desperately, just as US soccer requires the likes of Beckham today.

After a very good run in China, these partners face a new migratory challenge when they return home. Coming back to the US after 10 or 15 years as stars in the Asian pitch is a less traveled road that’s hedged with uncertainty. It’s not clear whether the US market (whether New York or Northern California) can bear an influx of high-end US capital-markets talent. In particular, it’s not clear whether their own firms can successfully integrate these returning partners, whether they can build a practice that provides a business case for each of them. It must be a difficult time for those in this situation. Even though many of these lawyers are still at peak career age, they must feel like a 35-year-old player returning to Chelsea without a contract hoping, despite a deep bench of good younger players, that they can find a productive role on the team.

Yet in the face of disruptive change, most of us eventually find a way to land on our feet. Once we start this process, the old juices, the electricity which was there all along, floods the system and the machine starts working again. For these partners returning from China, that means a new practice in place, probably different though by no means of lesser quality, and a career that’s once more secured.

Thinking all this over, I found it all the more impressive hearing the news a few days ago that David Beckham would be leaving Los Angeles Galaxy and the MLS at the end of this season. At first it didn’t make sense: he and the Galaxy stand a chance to win their second title. Following on its heels, he could win a third next year, securing him a place in the pantheon of American soccer. Three straight MLS titles would give him a career ending that he couldn’t find anywhere else in the world. So why give this up for a new start with the Australian Football League?

Then I thought about Beckham and branding, and suddenly I got it. Beckham for sure built up a brand in Europe (there’s even a movie with his name in it, ‘Bend it like Beckham’) – a highly exposed brand that was even recognized in some circles in the US. Then he came to Los Angeles, on a very substantial package with different ways to generate revenue. For the last few years, in addition to bending shots and defying gravity, he’s become widely recognized without getting over-exposed. Beckham added substantial value to his name in the US which he didn’t have before. Now he’ll likely move to Australia and this 37-year-old will probably get another two years in the pitch, do some magic with both his feet, and build up name-recognition Down Under, in what’s a highly sports-oriented market. Once Beckham retires, his platform of retail goods will be all the wider and richer. The big question, however, is Why not China? Why not move to Shanghai or BJ and build the brand there? It would be a great question for Beckham’s next press conference.

Generally when lawyers think about moving laterally – whether from the US to Asia, or just from one firm to another in the same city – it’s because something’s ‘wrong’ with their current situation. Maybe the comp is too low, an office or firm doesn’t have a skill-set to build client relationships, there are personal issues, or the firm isn’t committed to Asia or a particular practice area. Therefore it’s a ‘reaction’ move, a response to something that isn’t working. Beckham’s move to Australia, however, is impressively proactive. He wants to build up his brand globally, beyond Europe and the US. From that brand-building perspective, moving laterally can be a way not just to fix a problem but a tool to build a bigger house yielding far more equity at the end of a career.

The hedgehog and the fox

Tags

Asia legal market, headhunters, lawyer career path, Wall Street law firms versus City/UK firms

Focus or trickiness?

I’ve had almost 30 years to recover from the misfortune of taking a college degree in Philosophy. Still I feel an impulse to find in everyday life some manifestation of the abstractions I learned in school.

For instance, I tried very hard to find the underlying philosophical significance when Chelsea’s Fernando Torres – after years of being unloved in England – scored against Barcelona. Or when Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero won a well deserved championship after almost everyone had given up. I’ve had to conclude these were feats too grand and glorious to make their mark within philosophy’s fusty confines.

But on the subject of global law-firm strategy – seemingly beyond philosophy, like football – a famous philosophical metaphor strikes me as perfectly apt.

The question is ‘Which approach will win the day?’ – The Wall Street law-firm strategy of globally exporting essentially one type of product to a particular set of clients? Or the UK/City strategy of exporting a wide spectrum of loosely relevant products to a wide variety of clients in a wide variety of places?

Isaiah Berlin may have had something like this contrast in mind when he wrote ‘The Hedgehog and The Fox.’ On this schema, Wall Street firms would count as the hedgehog – focused on one big thing – while UK/City firms act more like the fox.

At present, it’s hard to say conclusively which has proven the better approach. I’m not even sure the word ‘approach’ reflects what UK firms do, as they don’t have much of a choice. Wall Street firms can live well enough on the US market alone. UK firms, if they want to bolster profitability, pretty much have to go outside of England, outside of Europe, and into the Asia.

Most people, based on visuals, may conclude that the Wall Street firms have the upper hand these days. There are almost no native Mandarin-speaking partners left at the major UK firms. However, as with Manchester City’s magical finish to the season, it’s just too early to tell who will win, hedgehog or fox.

As I’ve thought about different approaches to lawyering in Asia, I realize Berlin’s critterly contrast applies as well to search firms. Having been recruiting lawyers since around 1990, and beginning to focus in Asia in 1995, I’ve developed a specific approach. To switch to a culinary metaphor, that approach is not to throw a lot of spaghetti up to the ceiling and see what sticks, but rather look at the spaghetti, make sense of the entire meal, and determine the most suitable and delicious sauce. This is a slower process that requires more than rolling the dice. It frequently means putting one’s own interests on hold until the right mix is found. The hedgehog’s nature is more prone to keep the client’s interest front and center, to move deliberately on the client’s behalf, to act smartly with less movement more action. The hedgehog is introspective and checks what it does, making sure it works.

Headhunting as a hedgehog means representing not more than 5 or 6 law firms at any given time. That allows the hedgehog to look at the broadest possible spectrum of lawyers at other firms, the better to learn whether a particular candidate is the right candidate. (The fox, on the other hand, may want to represent a lot of firms, and by virtue of non-solicitation agreements, is left with a very narrow spectrum for seeking possible candidates.) The hedgehog’s natural deliberation helps to isolate the small moving pieces that together makes the whole – details often decisive to the overall success of placing a candidate.

For example, the phrase ‘portable business’ generates excitement, but it’s not an answer in itself so much as a cascade of new questions. Can the hiring firm execute those specific pieces of the new business well enough, at the same cost, and at the same realization? Moreover, what synergies can the new firm bring to the table to so that the incoming practice can multiply its volume at the same or higher realization? When that happens it’s electrifying, and the hedgehog smiles.

I write this blog delighted to have seen the Asia market mature in the last 15 years into a world-class lawyers’ market. Asia enjoys a bigger legal brain trust today than ever before. It’s no longer a backwater, and soon we’ll likely see law firms’ global standing made (or broken) because of Asia. With a market so developed and fine-tuned, mature, professional headhunting is called for. Recruiting at this level requires thoughtfulness and an intellectual architecture behind it more than hoping for the best, sounding good, and acting badly. Of course the hedgehog – for all his careful nature – can act badly. But bad behavior is easily spotted when the speed is deliberate.

I’m hopeful then that my colleagues will be worthy of their clients and contribute in some way in making Asia a world-class market. Not without some philosophical basis, I say ‘Go hedgehogs!’