Cleary Gottlieb

The Hong Kong practice

What does Cleary Gottlieb's Hong Kong office actually do?

Cleary Gottlieb runs a lean, high-end capital markets and M&A practice out of a six-partner bench in Hong Kong, and that office now anchors the firm's entire Greater China business. The core work is equity and debt capital markets, HKEX IPOs, M&A and private equity, investment funds, antitrust and sovereign advisory for governments and state-owned issuers.

Cleary Gottlieb opened in Hong Kong in 1980, one of the first US firms to establish a presence in Asia, but it practised only US and English law there for three decades. The firm added a licensed Hong Kong law practice in 2011, built around new partner Freeman Chan, so the office could run US, English and Hong Kong law together on the same deal. Source ↗ That combination is still the core of the practice today: equity and debt capital markets, M&A and private equity, investment funds, antitrust and sovereign advisory work for governments and state-owned issuers in the region.

The office is small on purpose. Recent reporting puts it at around 30 lawyers, including six partners, which makes Cleary Gottlieb one of the leanest US operations in Hong Kong next to the likes of Davis Polk or Sidley Austin. In 2025 that footprint got more important, not less: Cleary closed its Beijing office that July and folded its mainland China work into Hong Kong, part of a wider exodus of US firms from the mainland. Source ↗ Hong Kong is now the firm's only Greater China base. Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2026 ranks the office in capital markets (equity) and investment funds, Source ↗ and Chambers Asia-Pacific 2026 quotes a client calling Cleary Gottlieb "the most reliable counsel to both issuer and underwriter." Source ↗

For a trainee, the small headcount matters. Seats put you close to the partners actually running the deal rather than several layers down a large team. A capital markets seat sits on live HKEX IPOs and placements. That means due diligence, prospectus drafting and verification, and the mechanics of signing and closing, plus the option of an international placement in the firm's London office, one of the few concrete secondment routes the firm publishes for its Hong Kong trainees.

Trainee & vacation scheme programme

How do you get into Cleary Gottlieb Hong Kong?

The route in is the vacation scheme. Cleary Gottlieb runs two four-week schemes a year in Hong Kong, one in summer and one in winter, aimed at penultimate-year law and JD students, or anyone seeking a training contract that would start two years after the placement. The firm is direct about what the scheme is for: "we generally recruit our trainees from those who have completed our Vacation Schemes." There is no meaningfully easier side door. See the firm's live Hong Kong vacation scheme page for current detail. Source ↗

On the scheme you are put on real client work rather than research exercises, alongside organised contact with partners, associates and trainees. The bar to get on it is a high 2:1 (or equivalent) from a leading common law university, fluency in English, and Mandarin proficiency, with Cantonese noted as a plus, a language mix that reflects how much of the office's work is mainland-facing.

Convert the scheme and the training contract runs two years across four six-month seats, with the option of an international placement in the London office. Cleary funds the PCLL, and the PCLL conversion exams for non-law graduates, plus a maintenance grant through that period, on top of what it describes as a market-leading salary and benefits package. The intake is tiny by design: the firm says it expects to recruit two to three trainees a year, so every place on every scheme is a contest for one of a handful of seats. Source ↗

• Route inTwo four-week vacation schemes a year, one in summer and one in winter. Trainees are recruited from scheme participants.
• Intake sizeTiny by design. The firm tells applicants to expect around two to three trainees a year.
• Who can applyPenultimate-year law and JD students, or anyone seeking a training contract that would start two years after the placement.
• The barA high 2:1 (or equivalent) from a leading common law university, fluency in English, and Mandarin proficiency, with Cantonese noted as a plus.
• The contractTwo years across four six-month seats, with the option of an international placement in the London office.
• MoneyPCLL fees funded, plus the PCLL conversion exams for non-law graduates and a maintenance grant, on top of a market-leading salary and benefits package.

Recent matters worth knowing

Which recent deals has Cleary Gottlieb's Hong Kong office run?

These are the deals the Hong Kong office has publicly led or advised on, and they are the raw material for a good interview answer. They cluster where the firm is strongest: HKEX IPOs, big-ticket placements and consortium take-privates, on both the issuer and the underwriter side.

1. Pony AI's ~HK$7.7bn dual-primary HKEX listingNovember 2025

   Cleary Gottlieb advised the joint sponsors and underwriters, including Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, Deutsche Securities and Huatai International, on Hong Kong and US law for the autonomous-driving company's dual-primary listing alongside its existing Nasdaq listing, reported as the largest global autonomous-driving IPO of 2025. Source ↗

2. Hesai Group's US$614m HKEX dual-primary listingSeptember 2025

   The firm acted as Hong Kong and US counsel to Hesai, a Shanghai-based lidar maker, on its US$614m global offering of Class B shares and dual-primary listing on the HKEX Main Board, the largest listing to date in the global lidar industry. Source ↗

3. Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals' HK$9.9bn HKEX IPOMay 2025

   Cleary Gottlieb advised issuer Jiangsu Hengrui on a global offering and H-share listing, the second-largest HKEX offering of 2025 by a mainland-listed company and the largest healthcare listing on the exchange that year. Source ↗

4. BYD's HK$43.5bn H-share placementMarch 2025

   The firm advised placing agents Goldman Sachs, UBS and CITIC Securities on the world's largest EV maker's share placement, the largest equity placement in the global automotive industry in a decade and one of the first deals to close under the new US outbound-investment rules. Source ↗

5. Sixth Street-led take-private of ESR Group (US$7.1bn)December 2024

   Cleary Gottlieb advised Sixth Street, part of a consortium with Starwood Capital, SSW Partners, QIA and Warburg Pincus, on the announced take-private of ESR Group, the largest privatisation off the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2021. Source ↗

Interview & selection intel

What does the Cleary Gottlieb Hong Kong selection process look like?

Cleary Gottlieb publishes almost nothing about the mechanics of its Hong Kong assessment process. Most of the detailed candidate accounts you will find describe a Watson Glaser test followed by an in-person assessment day, a presentation, a workshop and two interviews, but that detail comes from guides to the firm's London training contract, not confirmed to carry over to Hong Kong, so treat it as background rather than a script.

What is published for Hong Kong is simpler: you apply directly through the firm's Hong Kong careers portal or by writing to its HR team, with a CV, cover letter and transcript, for whichever route (qualified lawyer, vacation scheme, training contract) fits you. Given how small the office is and how mainland-facing the work is, expect any interview to test the two things the firm states outright: a high 2:1 (or equivalent) academic record, and genuine fluency in English and Mandarin rather than classroom-level competence. Expect too to be asked to talk through a live HKEX deal, since a team this size cannot carry someone who does not already follow the market. Our guide to the Hong Kong vacation scheme interview walks through how these conversations actually run.

How to stand out

How do you stand out for Cleary Gottlieb Hong Kong?

With two or three trainee places a year and a six-partner bench, your edge comes from a sharp written case, rehearsed deal analysis, and a language profile the office can use immediately. Here is where to put your preparation.

• 1Treat the vacation scheme application as the real application. Cleary Gottlieb hires its trainees from vacation scheme participants, so there is no easier training-contract door later. Get the CV, cover letter and transcript right the first time; that written case is the core of the Law Firm Application Academy.

  Law Firm Application Academy →

• 2Be ready to talk about a live HKEX deal from both sides of the table. This office has advised issuers, on Hengrui and Hesai, and underwriters, on Pony AI, in the same wave of 2025 listings, so a generic "I read about an IPO" answer will not hold up. It helps to know how firms mark case studies first, then build that structured deal analysis in the Online Case Study Centre, keep current with the Weekly News Digest, and rehearse a full assessment day at the Mock Assessment Centre.

  Online Case Study Centre →Weekly News Digest →Mock Assessment Centre →

• 3Make your Mandarin visible, and rehearse the "why a lean US firm" answer out loud. With six partners doing this much of Hong Kong's capital markets work, the people interviewing you are looking for someone useful immediately, not someone who needs three years to grow into the language requirement. Pressure-test both under one-to-one coaching before you're in the room.

  In-person coaching →

Quick answers

Cleary Gottlieb Hong Kong, in five questions