http://www.chinahearsay.com/crappy-expat-lawyer-salaries/ China law, business and economics commentary Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:24:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://www.chinahearsay.com/crappy-expat-lawyer-salaries/comment-page-1/#comment-62159 Chris Devonshire-Ellis Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:51:23 +0000 http://www.chinahearsay.com/?p=1110#comment-62159 Stan, he only interviewed 15 expat lawyers, and I suspect they were all relative newcomers. The salaries you mention I would suggest are at a "China-entry level" grade only and are not indicative of what would pass as a generally acceptable or achieveable salary for a China commited expatriate lawyer in a career here. We have a number of expatriate lawyers at various degrees of China competency within our firm across China, none earn less than USD60,000 per annum and most are in six figures. But at the end of the day, it's also true that an expat lawyer, fresh off the plane, with no China experience or language, is not really going to be worth much except as a de facto "salesman" liaising between the overseas client and Chinese staff - the latter of whom will do most of the actual legal work. Such expats are not really working as a "lawyer" in China and aren't worth so much, which I suspect is what is really being demonstrated here as opposed to any revalation about actual Legal professional salaries. Stan, he only interviewed 15 expat lawyers, and I suspect they were all relative newcomers. The salaries you mention I would suggest are at a “China-entry level” grade only and are not indicative of what would pass as a generally acceptable or achieveable salary for a China commited expatriate lawyer in a career here. We have a number of expatriate lawyers at various degrees of China competency within our firm across China, none earn less than USD60,000 per annum and most are in six figures. But at the end of the day, it’s also true that an expat lawyer, fresh off the plane, with no China experience or language, is not really going to be worth much except as a de facto “salesman” liaising between the overseas client and Chinese staff – the latter of whom will do most of the actual legal work. Such expats are not really working as a “lawyer” in China and aren’t worth so much, which I suspect is what is really being demonstrated here as opposed to any revalation about actual Legal professional salaries.

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