Enjoyable post on the Reuters Changing China blog on where Hong Kong stands these days in the financial community:

Many Asia bankers and dealmakers are based in Hong Kong but nowadasys many of them only stay in the territory for weekends. So where are they during the rest of the week? China, of course.

With deal flow suddenly picking up, it’s getting difficult to fix lunch or dinner appointments with bankers in Hong Kong during the work week, because they spend more time in Beijing, Shanghai and other mainland cities to have food or drinks with the potential China clients. (Changing China)

I know some folks who fit into this category and who live in Hong Kong these days just so they can avoid PRC Income Tax. Nice, that.

In the international legal community, Hong Kong certainly has seen big changes over the past few years. Before I came to Beijing, I know that foreign attorneys here were looked at with either curiosity or disdain by the foreign firm guys in Hong Kong, who were essentially the gatekeepers to all inward investment deals in the Mainland.

The fact that many of them were shitty lawyers who did not understand China law didn’t seem to slow them down very much. As long as they could write their Chinese name in calligraphy, their jobs were generally secure  (i.e., many were Chinese scholars first, and lawyers second).

The rise of Shanghai in particular sent many Kong Kong lawyers and firms scrambling to adapt. There was a period of a few years where they all came hat in hand to local Chinese firms to establish alliances and partnerships. It was a nice change from being crapped on for so many years.

These days, many Hong Kong lawyers have adapted by simply doing more China work, despite the fact that they do not live here and have been trained in a completely different legal system. Some learn, some don’t, and others rely way too much on local agents in Guangdong to assist with enterprise setups.

Suffice it to say that a large number of Hong Kong corporate attorneys are really in the China biz these days. That can be a good thing, particularly if your business still uses Hong Kong as a gateway. It can also be a bad thing, though, particularly when unqualified HK lawyers try to pass themselves off as Old China Hands when they really aren’t.

Just another reason to do your homework before hiring a lawyer, in any jurisdiction.