US firm
Gibson Dunn
A US firm whose Hong Kong office stays deliberately small, around 50 lawyers built on private equity, investigations and disputes rather than IPOs, and recruits so few trainees, one or two a year, that the summer vacation scheme is effectively the only door in.
- Category
- US firm
- Origin
- Los Angeles, founded 1890
- HK presence
- Opened 2010, the firm's second Asia office after Singapore; around 50 lawyers
- HK strengths
- Private equity & fund formation, investigations & anti-corruption, M&A, disputes & competition
The Hong Kong practice
What does Gibson Dunn's Hong Kong office actually do?
Gibson Dunn opened in Hong Kong in 2010, its second Asia office after Singapore in 2008 and ahead of Beijing in 2013, and it has stayed small on purpose. Around 50 lawyers, most of them long-term Hong Kong residents qualified across Hong Kong, US, English and other jurisdictions, practise under office head Sébastien Evrard. Source ↗ Rather than compete with the Magic Circle and Wall Street firms for IPO and bond mandates, the office has built its name on private equity and fund formation and on high-stakes investigations and anti-corruption work, with the M&A, competition and disputes matters that sit around them. Chambers' Greater China Region 2026 guide ranks the office in Band 1 for both Investment Funds: Private Equity and Corporate Investigations/Anti-Corruption, with further bands across Corporate/M&A, acquisition finance, litigation, competition and financial services Source ↗; the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2026 ranks it across eleven Hong Kong categories in total, from antitrust to tax to private client work. Source ↗
The office has been building out that bench. Financial regulatory partner William Hallatt joined in 2021 leading a four-lawyer team from Herbert Smith Freehills, deepening the practice that advises financial institutions facing SFC and HKMA investigations Source ↗, and global finance partner Daniel Abercromby joined from White & Case in June 2024 to expand acquisition and leveraged finance. Source ↗ The client base runs from Asian and global corporates and financial institutions to high-net-worth individuals and trusts. It is the kind of work Gibson Dunn's own recruitment material bills bluntly as "global high-end legal work where the financial and reputation risks are at their highest."
What matters for a trainee is scale. The office runs on what the firm calls a low leverage model, a small ratio of juniors to partners, so you sit inside live matters early rather than as one of a dozen associates on a single deal: due diligence and drafting on a private equity buyout, verification work on a cross-border acquisition, or fact-gathering on a regulatory investigation, with a partner or senior associate close by rather than several layers removed.
Trainee & vacation scheme programme
How do you get into Gibson Dunn Hong Kong?
There is one route into a Gibson Dunn Hong Kong training contract: the Summer Vacation Scheme. The firm is explicit that you must apply to the scheme to be considered for a training contract, and it does not accept direct training contract applications. The scheme itself is small: up to four students for the 2026 cohort, run over just under three weeks in the Hong Kong office. Assessment runs in two stages, a first interview with the Graduate Recruitment and Development Team and Hong Kong associates, then a second-stage interview that typically involves discussions with partners and other associates. It is open to penultimate- and final-year law students, final-year non-law students, graduates, and anyone already on the JD or PCLL, and the firm draws no line on university attended or subject studied. Source ↗
The training contract that follows is smaller again. The firm's own 2025-26 graduate recruitment FAQ puts the current number at one or two trainees a year, for a programme that took its first Hong Kong trainee in 2015 and has stayed deliberately small since (Chambers Student). Seats run across Competition, Compliance & Investigations, Corporate, Finance, Funds and Litigation & Dispute Resolution, supervised directly by senior associates and partners under the low-leverage model above. The firm covers PCLL fees for anyone who hasn't started the course when they get an offer, plus a maintenance allowance, and graduate-recruitment listings (Legal Cheek) put first-year pay at around HK$52,000 a month, rising to about HK$55,000 in year two, with newly qualified pay listed at HK$1,759,500, roughly US$225,000. Source ↗
Academically the bar is a strong 2:1 or a minimum 3.5 GPA, with mitigating circumstances taken into account; Legal Cheek separately lists a minimum of ABB at A-Level. Beyond grades, the firm names four traits it looks for directly: intellectual curiosity, entrepreneurial spirit, maturity and sociability. Its own advice to applicants is blunter than most firms manage: do your research but don't just repeat the website, connect your own experience, legal or not, to commercial reasoning, and don't expect to be judged on legal work experience alone.
Watch out
Deadlines move every cycle, so check the Elite Pathfinder deadline tracker instead of trusting last year's date. If you land the scheme, the Vacation Scheme Academy covers how to convert it into an offer.
Recent matters worth knowing
Which recent deals has Gibson Dunn's Hong Kong office run?
These are the matters the Hong Kong office has publicly advised on, and they are the raw material for a good interview answer. They cluster where the firm is strongest: private equity buyouts and fund formation.
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KKR-led consortium's ~US$10.9bn buyout of ST Telemedia Global Data CentresFeb 2026
Gibson Dunn advised KKR on the consortium's agreement with Singtel to fully acquire ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, at an implied enterprise value of around S$13.8bn (US$10.9bn), with the corporate team led by Hong Kong private equity partner Tyler Cohen. Source ↗
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TPG's Rise Fund invests in BillEaseSep 2024
Gibson Dunn's Singapore and Hong Kong offices advised TPG's The Rise Fund on a strategic investment in BillEase, a Philippines-based digital consumer finance platform, with compliance partner Oliver Welch advising on the compliance side. Source ↗
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Hahn & Company's ~US$3.4bn fourth Korea buyout fundJul 2024
The Hong Kong office, led by funds partner Albert Cho, advised Korean private equity house Hahn & Company on closing its fourth buyout fund at around US$3.4bn, above its US$3.2bn target and reported as the largest single-country fund ever raised in Asia outside China. Source ↗
Insider tip
Deals like these only help you if you can say why a sponsor structured them the way it did. Learn the framework in our commercial awareness guide, and the paid Weekly News Digest breaks down one Hong Kong deal a week and tells you what to actually say about it.
Interview & selection intel
What does the Gibson Dunn Hong Kong selection process look like?
Gibson Dunn publishes more of its own process than most firms this size: an online application, a first-stage interview with the Graduate Recruitment and Development Team and Hong Kong associates, then a second-stage interview that typically involves discussions with partners and other associates. Beyond that structure the firm doesn't publish a format, and most of the detailed candidate accounts available online, timed case-study exercises and specific interview lengths, describe Gibson Dunn's London process rather than Hong Kong. Read them as a guide to the firm's style, not a confirmed Hong Kong script.
What the firm does say is unusually direct for a law firm. It tells applicants not to just repeat what's on the website, to connect their own experience, legal or not, to the firm, and that it doesn't expect every candidate to have formal legal work experience so much as the ability to think about the commercial angle of whatever they have done. The firm names four traits directly: intellectual curiosity, entrepreneurial spirit, maturity, sociability. Both interview stages are almost certainly screening for exactly those.
Given the practice mix, prepare for commercial questions anchored in private equity and investigations rather than IPO mechanics: why a sponsor structures a deal the way it does, what a regulator is actually worried about in an investigation, or why you want a small, high-responsibility office over a bigger name. With only one or two trainees hired a year, a generic answer has almost nowhere to hide at either stage. 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 Gibson Dunn Hong Kong?
With one or two trainees a year, every stage sits close to a final interview, so your edge is a specific, evidenced application, the ability to build and defend an argument, and rehearsed answers to why this small office. Here is where to put your preparation.
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1Answer the brief, not the brand. Gibson Dunn tells applicants directly not to parrot its website and to connect your own experience, legal or not, to commercial reasoning rather than reciting prestige. Build that specific, evidenced case in the Law Firm Application Academy.
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2Practise building and defending an argument, not just reciting law. The second stage leans on discussion with partners rather than a fixed script, so the ability to construct a case and hold it under questioning counts for more than technical recall. Knowing how firms mark case studies shows you what that reasoning should look like; drill it in the Online Case Study Centre and the Mock Assessment Centre.
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3Rehearse for a room with no cohort to hide in. One or two trainees a year means every stage sits closer to a final interview than an early filter. Pressure-test your answers, including why this firm over a bigger name, through in-person coaching.
Quick answers
Gibson Dunn Hong Kong, in five questions
How do you get a training contract at Gibson Dunn Hong Kong?
There is one route: the Summer Vacation Scheme. The firm is explicit that you must apply to the scheme to be considered for a training contract, and it does not accept direct training contract applications.
How many trainees does Gibson Dunn take in Hong Kong?
The firm's 2025-26 graduate recruitment FAQ puts the current number at one or two trainees a year. The vacation scheme itself is small, with up to four students for the 2026 cohort.
What are the Gibson Dunn Hong Kong vacation scheme and interview stages?
The scheme runs over just under three weeks in the Hong Kong office. Assessment runs in two stages: a first interview with the Graduate Recruitment and Development Team and Hong Kong associates, then a second-stage interview that typically involves discussions with partners and other associates.
What academic grades does Gibson Dunn Hong Kong ask for?
A strong 2:1 or a minimum 3.5 GPA, with mitigating circumstances taken into account; Legal Cheek separately lists a minimum of ABB at A-Level.
What does Gibson Dunn look for in applicants?
Beyond grades, the firm names four traits directly: intellectual curiosity, entrepreneurial spirit, maturity and sociability. Its advice is to research the firm without repeating the website and to connect your own experience, legal or not, to commercial reasoning.