UK & international
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
A disputes and corporate heavyweight, now merged with New York's Kramer Levin, whose Hong Kong office holds the largest arbitration and litigation practice of any international firm in the city.
- Category
- UK & international
- Origin
- Herbert Smith (London, 1882); merged with Australia's Freehills in 2012, then New York's Kramer Levin in June 2025
- HK presence
- In Hong Kong since the early 1980s; widely rated the largest international-firm disputes practice in the city
- HK strengths
- International arbitration and litigation, corporate/M&A, capital markets, competition, investigations
The Hong Kong practice
What does Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer's Hong Kong office actually do?
Herbert Smith Freehills has practised in Hong Kong since the early 1980s, and the office is one of the firm's most important anywhere. Its identity in the city is disputes. The Hong Kong dispute resolution practice is widely rated as the largest of any international firm in the market, and its China disputes team, reported at 13 partners and more than 50 lawyers, is the biggest of any international firm in the region. International arbitration is the flagship: Simon Chapman KC leads the Greater China arbitration team, and the firm's global chief executive, Justin D'Agostino, built his career on Asia arbitration out of this office. The firm keeps adding to it, hiring commercial litigation partners Paul Quinn and Truman Mak in Hong Kong in February 2025.
The other engine is corporate. Alongside disputes, the office runs a substantial corporate and M&A practice and a capital markets team that works on HKEX listings, H-share IPOs and public takeovers, most of it cross-border and China-facing. Clients run from mainland issuers and state-owned groups to international banks and private equity houses. In 2025 the office advised Sun Art Retail on the mandatory offer that followed DCP Capital's roughly HK$10 billion buyout of Alibaba's stake, and in 2024 it acted for S.F. Holding on the second-largest Hong Kong listing of the year. Competition, and crime and investigations, round out the practice.
For a trainee, the shape of the office decides what you touch. The two compulsory seats are corporate and dispute resolution, so every trainee spends real time in both engines. A disputes seat puts you on arbitration and litigation files: researching points of law, preparing bundles and evidence, and supporting submissions on cross-border and China-related cases. A corporate or capital markets seat runs the other way, with due diligence, prospectus verification, drafting ancillary documents and sitting on working-group calls. Optional seats reach into finance, employment, energy, competition, crime and investigations, and international arbitration.
Trainee & vacation scheme programme
How do you get into Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong?
Most Hong Kong training contracts come through the vacation scheme, so the scheme is the route to plan for. The firm runs two four-week summer schemes, in June and July, open to law students from Hong Kong and the UK, plus a four-week winter scheme in January aimed at applicants from Australia and New Zealand, all set out on the firm's Hong Kong early-careers pages. They target penultimate- and final-year law students and graduates, and the firm asks for consistent 2:1s across your degree. The schemes are paid. You share an office with a supervisor, do real work for clients, sit through workshops and presentations, and are interviewed for a training contract before you leave.
There is also a direct training-contract route for those who do not do a scheme. It runs through an online assessment, then an interview with two partners and a one-hour translation test, then a two-week mini vacation scheme before any offer. Either way the language bar is real: the Hong Kong training contract asks for fluent Mandarin, and a Chinese-English translation test sits inside the process, because so much of the client base is mainland Chinese.
The training contract itself is two years across four six-month seats, with corporate and dispute resolution both compulsory and the rest chosen from the practice groups above. A seat can be spent on secondment, either to an overseas office or with a client. On selection the firm keeps it plain: an outstanding academic record, fluent Mandarin, commercial instinct, and the temperament to hold up on complex disputes and deals.
Watch out
Deadlines move every cycle, so check the Elite Pathfinder deadline tracker rather than trusting last year's date. If you land a scheme, the Vacation Scheme Academy covers how to convert it into a training-contract offer.
Recent matters worth knowing
Which recent deals has Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer's Hong Kong office run?
These are the matters the Hong Kong office has publicly led or advised on, and they cluster where it is strongest: market-shaping arbitration, HKEX listings and cross-border M&A. They are the raw material for a good interview answer.
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Guangzhou Innogen Pharmaceutical HKEX IPOAug 2025
The firm advised the underwriters, including CITIC Securities (Hong Kong), CLSA and CICC Hong Kong Securities, on the pharmaceutical group's H-share listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Source: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer press release. Source ↗
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Sun Art Retail's HK$3.2bn mandatory general offerMar 2025
Acted for Sun Art Retail, operator of the RT-Mart hypermarket chain, on the HK$3.2bn mandatory general offer triggered when DCP Capital bought Alibaba's controlling stake in a deal worth about HK$10bn, one of the largest consumer-sector M&A deals in China in years. Source: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer press release. Source ↗
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S.F. Holding's HK$5.83bn Hong Kong IPONov 2024
Acted for the issuer on S.F. Holding's global offering and Main Board listing, the second-largest Hong Kong IPO of 2024. S.F. Holding is the parent of SF Express, mainland China's largest delivery and logistics group. Source: Herbert Smith Freehills press release. Source ↗
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C v D, Court of Final Appeal arbitration landmarkJun 2023
In C v D [2023] HKCFA 16 the firm acted for the successful party before Hong Kong's top court, which confirmed that arbitrators, not the courts, decide whether a party has met a pre-arbitration "escalation" clause. Simon Chapman KC led the win. It is the kind of market-shaping arbitration result the Hong Kong office is known for. Source: Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer / Conventus Law. Source ↗
Insider tip
Deals and disputes like these are the raw material of a Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer interview, but only if you can say what they mean: learn the framework in our commercial awareness guide. Weekly deal and dispute breakdowns like these, what happened, why it matters, and how to talk about it in an interview, sit at the core of the paid Weekly News Digest.
Interview & selection intel
What does the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong selection process look like?
The firm is reasonably open about the mechanics. The vacation-scheme path ends in a partner interview, and shortlisted candidates sit a one-hour translation test. The direct training-contract route is more staged: an online assessment first, then an interview with two partners alongside that same translation test, then a two-week mini vacation scheme before an offer is made. Beyond the stages the firm publishes little about interview content, so treat candidate accounts as indicative rather than gospel.
Strip it back and the tests are predictable for a firm of this kind in Hong Kong. Expect to answer why this firm and why Hong Kong as a commercial question rather than a passion speech, to hold a real conversation about a recent deal or dispute, and to show the language range to work with mainland Chinese clients. Because disputes sit at the centre here, the partners will care whether you can reason through a problem and defend your analysis when someone pushes back, which is exactly how the office's litigators and arbitrators earn their fees. 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 Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong?
Most Hong Kong training contracts here run through the vacation scheme and are won at the written stage first, so your edge comes from a sharp written application, rehearsed commercial thinking, and treating the scheme as the working interview it is. Here is where to put your preparation.
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1Win the written application first. Most Hong Kong training contracts run through the vacation scheme, and most candidates are cut at the written stage before a partner ever reads their name. Tie every answer to Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer's real strengths, its disputes and arbitration lead and its corporate work, rather than generic praise. The Law Firm Application Academy shows how to evidence genuine commercial motivation.
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2Prepare for the online assessment and aptitude tests. The direct route opens with an online assessment, and the Watson Glaser critical-thinking test is a common gate at firms of this tier, so build that style of reasoning before you are invited to sit anything; our guide to mastering the Watson Glaser test shows the patterns to drill. The Watson Glaser Academy trains the exact patterns these tests reward.
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3Rehearse the partner interview out loud, under pressure. The two-partner interview and the commercial conversation reward people who think on their feet and stay composed when challenged, the same skill the office's disputes lawyers use daily. Build the reasoning in the Online Case Study Centre and the Mock Assessment Centre, then pressure-test it with in-person coaching.
Quick answers
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong, in five questions
How do you get a training contract at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong?
Through the vacation scheme, the main route. The firm runs two four-week summer schemes, in June and July, open to law students from Hong Kong and the UK, plus a four-week winter scheme in January aimed at applicants from Australia and New Zealand. There is also a direct training-contract route via an online assessment, an interview with two partners and a one-hour translation test, then a two-week mini vacation scheme before any offer.
What does the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong training contract look like?
Two years across four six-month seats, with corporate and dispute resolution both compulsory and the rest chosen from the practice groups. A seat can be spent on secondment, either to an overseas office or with a client.
Do you need Mandarin to train at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong?
Yes. The Hong Kong training contract asks for fluent Mandarin, and a Chinese-English translation test sits inside the process, because so much of the client base is mainland Chinese.
Are the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Hong Kong vacation schemes paid?
Yes. The schemes are paid. You share an office with a supervisor, do real work for clients, sit through workshops and presentations, and are interviewed for a training contract before you leave.
What does Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer look for in Hong Kong applicants?
An outstanding academic record with consistent 2:1s across your degree, fluent Mandarin, commercial instinct, and the temperament to hold up on complex disputes and deals.