The laws in place will vary greatly across the globe and some countries are considered stronger than others in terms of the laws and jurisdictions that are in place.
China’s mainland domestic firms in terms of international practice standards may lag behind foreign counterparts, but within the domestic market local firms dominate and can often be seen in cross-border matters. Many lawyers have seen to continue moving between international and domestic firms in mainland China.
Hong Kong is arguably one of the world’s premier financial centres and arguably the most active. For the international legal profession, Hong Kong has become a market of intense focus and for many Legal jobs Hong Kong is the top place to practice law. Hong Kong has always had international connections and recently it has been seen that companies are actively head-hunting lawyers from overseas. Many of the new positions have been found on the IPO/ corporate finance side which may be due to the increasing number of multinational and mainland corporations that are based in Hong Kong. Honk Kong and the mainland have seen continued growth while other parts of the globe have been suffering. This will lead to the increased interest from lawyers to move out Hong Kong and work there.
Despite the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011 they have experienced for the most part, business as usual. Energy and natural resource projects lead the way in Asia with continued competition and focus among Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Korean companies. These countries are all trying to secure long-term access to natural resources but there are concerns over nuclear power and the laws will be more focused on this area to maintain safety.
Since the property crash, Spain has experienced a profound negative effect on their previously buoyant economy. In the latter half of 2010 there has been a slight increase in private equity deals and a number of firms are focusing on the restructuring of several Spanish banks.
Many companies have a compliance department and those employers occupying the Compliance jobs may need to research the various laws across the globe if the company is multinational and works across different countries. This knowledge is made even harder as many of these national laws will constantly be changing across the globe.