By Tim Gilkison
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Last month, Hughes-Castell celebrated 30 years in the legal recruitment business with friends and long-term clients with a party at the China Club in Hong Kong.
Founded by the late Helen Castell in 1986 with the intention of sourcing legal talent in the UK specifically for Hong Kong, Hughes-Castell was the first specialist legal recruitment company to really focus on the then British territory.
Joining the company when it was barely five-years’ old, Doreen Jaeger-Soong has been the undoubted driving force behind Hughes-Castell’s success over the years. Having built a substantial practice and team with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai, covering 16 countries, Jaeger-Soong bought-out Hughes-Castell in 2011 to become outright owner.
After the party, ASIAN-MENA COUNSEL asked Jaeger-Soong to share some insights from her substantial experience of the industry in Asia.
AMC: What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen in Asia’s legal recruitment market over the years?
Doreen Jaeger-Soong: There have been several fundamental changes. The demand for talent that speaks local languages has grown enormously, not just in China, but also in the Asean countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and so on.
We have also seen, in the past 30 years, that corporate legal departments have grown tremendously and going in-house and becoming a general counsel has supplanted partnership in a law firm as a desirable career goal.
The internet has completely changed everything — from information, to access, to needing to be adaptable, to how we perceive time. The concept of joining one company or law firm for life is rapidly vanishing. Nowadays if someone spends 10 years at one place, it is already viewed as “almost forever” and not necessarily an advantage.
AMC: What do you see as being the biggest challenges the sector faces right now?
DJS: The rise of social media sites, such as LinkedIn, WeChat and so on, has been both a blessing and presented great challenges for us. On the one hand, there is more information and access to potential candidates as never before. On the other hand, corporations and law firms can and do take their recruitment in-house, building internal recruitment and talent acquisition teams. We have to constantly improve our market knowledge and increase our value-add as specialists in order to be better than in-house recruitment teams.
In the long-term, for the legal industry as a whole, artificial intelligence will be a huge challenge, as there will be disruptive technology — software that will be able to replicate humans for work such as contracts, patent filings, due diligence and even more high-end transactional work, so the demand for human lawyers will be reduced, and it is my belief that only very top, value-add legal talent will be in demand, which in turn will affect our business unless we also evolve.
AMC: What areas are the “hottest” at the moment in terms of demand for talent?
DJS: A lot of IT-related areas such as e-commerce, data privacy, fintech. Another major growth area has been corporate compliance and corporate governance.
 AMC: What’s next for Hughes-Castell? DJS: Looking at evolving and growing! Expanding our footprint regionally while still maintaining the heart and soul of our heritage.Speaking at the celebration, Jaeger-Soong said that the company’s principles remained those of its founder, Helen Castell, that “the clients interests always come first”, thanking them for their support over many years. “As a mother, I look on all my placements as my children … I’m thrilled when you’re successful and do well, and I’m so proud when you get promoted and become industry leaders. “And to our clients, we care that we can help you build great teams, add value and help grow your businesses. Our relationship is built on trust, mutual respect, good will and genuine friendship. And you have my sincere and heartfelt thanks.” |
