YVONNE POON & KRYSTAL CHIANG
Associate Editors

Traditionally, law students have played fair maiden to the relentless pursuit of law firms. From sponsoring events to delivering publicity spiels, law firms have been anxious to make their presence felt and students are accustomed to being so wooed. But the recession that has the world in its grip today is unprecedented in its reach and severity, and perhaps even its term. Will law firms thus change their hiring policies in a way that can only bode ill for graduating students?

Fortunately not, judging by the answers given by the law firms interviewed.

Recruitment Partner Ms. Margaret Chew of Allen & Gledhill LLP, one of Singapore’s largest law firms, assured us that the firm will “continue to be committed to recruiting the best law students.” The firm has even increased their participation in this year’s annual NUS Law School’s Careers Fair by adding a talk.

Over at Rajah & Tann LLP, similar sentiments were conveyed, with the firm declaring that it will still be “on the look-out for talented pupils and lawyers to train and work with.” NUS law school has also seen an increased participation from WongPartnership LLP, with the firm sponsoring International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition as well as the annual law ball.

When interviewed, recruitment partner Mr. Ian de Vaz emphasised the firm’s commitment to fortifying the relationship it has with the school, adding that “campus recruitment is a very important recruitment strategy” to the firm.

For students who prefer medium-sized outfits, the same applies.

Perhaps the only thing that has changed at Colin Ng & Partners LLP, a medium size law firm with around 60 lawyers under their umbrella, is their hiring focus. Partner Mr. Colin Ng, explained that their new focus  is centered on “emerging client requirements and new areas of work in the market (e.g. Insolvency).” His advice for emerging graduates would be to “keep an open mind to take on available areas of legal work” and to “take on available job offers without being overly picky on the type of work and location of job posting.”

FOREIGN FIRMS

Having said that, one wonders about the outlooks of the 6 foreign law firms, Norton Rose, Clifford Chance, White & Case, Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith, and Latham & Watkins, that have recently been granted their Qualifying Foreign Legal Practice licenses to practice locally. Not being as firmly entrenched as the local firms, the incoming outfits have more uncertainty to contend with. An instinctive expectation would be that firms would shelve growth plans and implement cost-cutting and risk-moderation measures. Yet, while most expressed some measure of caution, all seemed confident, even positive, about their firm’s local endeavours.

“I suspect all law firms operating in Singapore will be more cautious when hiring,” said Mr. Jeff Smith, Partner of the Singapore office of Norton Rose (Asia) LLP. “But our policies have not changed-we have continued to hire lawyers in our key business areas during the economic crisis.”

Mr. Smith’s sentiments were echoed by Allen & Overy’s Mr. Kenneth Aboud, Managing Partner of the Singapore office. According to him, the spectre of the economic crisis has not affected the firm’s plans “to encourage the legal industry in Singapore to become one of the most developed legal service markets in Asia”.

“We plan to grow our Singapore practice in a measured way,” said Mr. Aboud, adding that the firm “intends to hire top quality Singapore qualified lawyers to develop our local law capability.”

Indeed, many firms have expressed their intention to hire more Singapore lawyers. When asked how many, White & Case LLP, which is planning to launch its practice here with an initial headcount of 30 lawyers, had a succinct answer: “Many of them.”

For all their optimism, most of the firms have been careful to factor in the effects of the economic recession in their plans. White & Case LLP’s Mr. Doug Peel, Executive Partner for their Singapore office, acknowledged that while it was too soon to estimate what the overall impact might be, he nevertheless revealed that the firm had been making preparations for the recession. “We are re-orienting ourselves towards areas that are more active-for example, there will be more restructuring work and less new finance. As always, we will be looking hard at costs.”

Norton Rose has not been idle either. Said Mr. Smith, “We have continued to stay close to our clients and to understand their businesses… to provide the services that they require.”

“For example, we are now leveraging on the experience we gained during the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 to assist our clients in debt and corporate restructuring, distressed M&A (mergers and acquisitions) and default-related dispute resolution.”

Mr. Austin Sweeney, Managing Partner (South-East Asia) of Herbert Smith LLP, stated the firm’s stand. “We are of the view that law firms should adopt a more long-term view on recruitment during an economic downturn.

“Rather than treating this merely as a cutting-back period, law firms should review their recruiting policies and practices and its approach to professional development.”

For others like Clifford Chance, work goes on as usual, crisis or no crisis. “We were conscious of the current economic conditions when we prepared our license application,” explained Mr. Philip Rapp, Managing Partner of Clifford Chance.

While mindful of the short-term economic climate, Mr. Rapp indicated that the firm “remains committed to [its] long-term plans for growth.”

Clearly, these law firms are here to stay.

RESTRUCTURE, NOT RETRENCH

On the local front, the pervasive worry is that local firms might take a leaf from the Australians and Americans and retrench lawyers to cut costs. It seems that this worry is unfounded. Retrenchment seems a clichéd solution unpopular with law firms, with many opting to employ innovative internal adjustments to stay commercially viable.

Mr. de Vaz, of WongPartnership LLP, was quick to denounce retrenchment as a possible cost saving tool. He added that even during the bleak Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, lawyers were not retrenched and the same policy still applies today.

Vehement about not playing the retrenchment card, Rajah & Tann LLP has instead re-deployed lawyers who are familiar with corporate restructuring issues to work on complex insolvency cases, an area that is unsurprisingly seeing growth this grim season. It would seem that smaller firms are also dealing with the crisis adequately, without resorting to the guillotine. Mr. Ng of Colin Ng & Partners LLP expressed his firm’s dedication to “right-sizing rather than downsizing” with efforts to “redeploy, retrain and focus resources on emerging opportunities.”

When asked for their views on the possible effects of the crisis on Singapore’s legal industry, Clifford Chance’s Mr. Rapp did not deny that these were difficult times worldwide. “However, we’ve been in Singapore through earlier downturns… we are [still] optimistic about the prospects for the legal market here.”In fact, so optimistic is Clifford Chance that it is even exploring “the possibility of offering graduate training places to Singapore graduates in the future.”

As to whether growth areas might shift, Norton Rose’s Mr. Smith stated that they “anticipate increased activity in corporate and debt restructuring as well as dispute resolution.” Mr. Sweeney of Herbert Smith concurred. “The key growth area for international firms has been the dispute practice in light of the economic crisis.”

From a local viewpoint, Rajah & Tann LLP deduced that “competition amongst firms will increasingly be focused on the ability to give to-the-point and practical solutions. Profit margins may be eroded and the pace of practice will increase.”

For now, it seems that the dark clouds hanging over our heads will not rain on our parade.

As Mr. de Vaz charmingly puts it, “It is not all doom and gloom.”