PRC firm
Han Kun
One of mainland China's elite corporate firms runs a compact Hong Kong office that takes just two trainees a year — and picks both of them from its own interns.
- Category
- PRC firm (内资所)
- Origin
- Beijing; Hong Kong office opened 2014, its first outside the mainland
- HK presence
- ~22 lawyers incl. 7 partners, The Landmark, Central
- HK strengths
- Capital markets, PE & M&A, funds, compliance, disputes
The Hong Kong practice
What does Han Kun's Hong Kong office actually do?
Han Kun sits in the top rank of mainland Chinese law firms for corporate and capital markets work, and Hong Kong was the first place it planted a flag outside the mainland, opening in 2014. Source ↗ The office now runs a bench of roughly 22 lawyers, including seven partners, from Edinburgh Tower in The Landmark, many of them qualified in more than one jurisdiction. Source ↗
The practice mix is the cross-border engine room: equity and debt capital markets, private equity investment, cross-border M&A, fund formation, regulatory compliance and dispute resolution, with the office working in association with Hong Kong solicitors Miao & Co so the team can deliver Hong Kong law alongside PRC advice. Source ↗ In practice that means the same deal team can sit on both sides of the boundary: PRC counsel on a Hong Kong IPO one month, English and Hong Kong law counsel on a bond programme the next.
For a trainee, the draw is exposure to the northbound-southbound deal flow that defines the Hong Kong market right now — mainland issuers listing in Hong Kong, offshore bonds, cross-border licensing — from inside the Chinese firm advising them, rather than watching from the international-counsel side of the table.
Internship & trainee programme
How do you get into Han Kun Hong Kong?
The front door is the internship programme. Per Legal Cheek's Hong Kong coverage, Han Kun offers about 14 internships across winter and summer, and hires its two Hong Kong trainees each year from that pool. There is no separate open training-contract gateway worth banking on: intern first, convert second. Source ↗
- Route inWinter or summer internship, then conversion. Apply via the firm's careers page; the Hong Kong recruiting contact is hr.hk@hankunlaw.com. Source ↗
- Intake sizeTwo trainees a year — smaller than almost every international firm in the market, so conversion competition is intern-versus-intern.
- The contractNo rotations: two years in one department — corporate, commercial or litigation — under partner and senior-lawyer supervision. You pick your lane early. Source ↗
- LanguagesTeam members work in English, Chinese, Japanese or Korean; for the China-facing deal flow, Mandarin is the working assumption.
Watch out
Han Kun does not publish fixed application deadlines for the Hong Kong internships — windows open and close by intake. Track the moving parts alongside every other firm on the Elite Pathfinder deadline tracker so a quiet posting never costs you a cycle.
Recent matters worth knowing
Which recent deals has Han Kun's Hong Kong office run?
These are the mandates to cite in an interview, and they show the office's range: record-setting bonds, Hong Kong-law debt work, cross-border pharma licensing and the year's biggest listings.
-
Baidu's RMB10bn offshore renminbi notesMarch 2025
Han Kun counselled Baidu on PRC law for a RMB10bn (USD1.4bn) two-tranche senior notes offering listed on the Hong Kong exchange — per CITIC Securities, the largest five-year offshore RMB bond by a Chinese issuer as of March 2025. Source ↗
-
Guangzhou Metro's USD3bn MTN programme update2025
Han Kun served as international counsel to the underwriters and the trustee, advising on English and Hong Kong law — proof the Hong Kong office runs offshore debt work in its own right, not just as PRC counsel. Source ↗
-
Hengrui Pharma's USD1.25bn licensing deal with GSKJuly 2025
Han Kun advised GSK as China counsel (with Davis Polk as global counsel) on one of the year's marquee China-to-global pharma licensing deals. Source ↗
-
Seres Group's HKD14.28bn Hong Kong IPONovember 2025
On Hong Kong's largest carmaker IPO of 2025, Han Kun counselled Chongqing Industrial Investment Master Fund, whose HKD2.18bn ticket was the largest single cornerstone investment in the Hong Kong IPO market in the second half of 2025. Source ↗
Insider tip
Interviewers at PRC firms hear "I'm interested in China work" all day. Beat that by explaining one deal properly — start with our commercial awareness guide, and let the Weekly News Digest keep you supplied with a dissected Hong Kong deal every week.
Interview & selection intel
What does the Han Kun Hong Kong selection process look like?
Per Chambers Student, the published shape is simple: HR evaluates your credentials, experience and skills, runs a phone interview, then a second interview with a partner practising in the area you said you were interested in. Source ↗ Note the trap in that structure: naming a practice area is part of the application, so "I'm open to anything" reads as unprepared.
The real filter is the internship itself. Interns are put on live matters under experienced lawyers across different practice groups, and with only two conversions a year, the four-to-eight weeks you spend inside are a continuous assessment of your drafting, reliability and fit. Treat every task as scored — because it is. Our guide on how to shine during a scheme applies here almost verbatim.
There is no Watson Glaser or aptitude-test stage in the published process — the screens are human. That shifts the weight onto your CV, your interview answers and the impression you leave in the room; our breakdown of the Hong Kong vacation scheme interview covers how these partner conversations actually run.
How to stand out
How do you stand out for Han Kun Hong Kong?
Two offers a year means the maths is brutal, but the criteria are legible: pick your practice area early, prove cross-border fluency, and outperform inside the internship.
-
1Commit to a lane before you apply. The no-rotation training contract means Han Kun is hiring a future corporate, commercial or litigation lawyer — not a generalist. Build a written case for your chosen department and run it through the "So What" test; the Law Firm Application Academy drills exactly this.
-
2Arrive commercially bilingual: able to explain why a mainland issuer lists in Hong Kong, what a cornerstone investor does, why offshore RMB bonds exist. Practise case-style reasoning on real transactions in the Online Case Study Centre, then pressure-test it in the Mock Assessment Centre.
-
3The internship is the interview. With a 14-to-2 funnel, how you take instructions, handle feedback and behave around senior lawyers decides everything. Those are rehearsable habits — one-to-one coaching fixes them before they cost you the offer.
Quick answers
Han Kun Hong Kong, in five questions
How many training contracts does Han Kun offer in Hong Kong?
Two a year, per Legal Cheek's Hong Kong coverage — one of the smallest intakes in the market. Both usually go to people who have already interned with the firm.
How do you get a training contract at Han Kun Hong Kong?
Through the internship programme. Han Kun runs about 14 internships across winter and summer in Hong Kong, and hires its two annual trainees from that intern pool. Applications go through the firm's careers channels, with hr.hk@hankunlaw.com as the Hong Kong recruiting contact.
What does the Han Kun Hong Kong training contract look like?
Unusual: there are no seat rotations. Trainees spend the full two years in one department — corporate, commercial or litigation — so you effectively choose your specialism on day one.
What does Han Kun's Hong Kong office actually do?
Equity and debt capital markets, private equity, cross-border M&A, fund formation, regulatory compliance and dispute resolution — the Hong Kong end of one of China's most highly rated corporate firms, working in association with Miao & Co on Hong Kong law.
How is the Han Kun internship-to-trainee selection run?
Per Chambers Student, HR screens credentials and runs a phone interview, followed by a second interview with a partner in the practice area you named. Interns then work on live matters under experienced lawyers, and trainee offers come from that pool.