Reed Smith Richards Butler

The Hong Kong practice

What does Reed Smith Richards Butler's Hong Kong office actually do?

Reed Smith has run a Hong Kong office since 1980, one of the longer-established international offices in the territory. Locally the firm still trades as Reed Smith Richards Butler, a name left over from a separate deal in which the Hong Kong partners of London firm Richards Butler joined Reed Smith's partnership on 1 January 2008, extending the two firms' wider transatlantic merger that had taken effect a year earlier. Source ↗ Around 100 fee earners now work out of the firm's office at One Island East in Taikoo Place, having moved there from Central in early 2020. Source ↗

The practice is full-service, but two things carry it. Chambers Greater China gives the disputes team a Band 1 ranking for shipping litigation, built on cargo claims, charterparty disputes, collisions and wreck removal for owners, charterers and insurers, and in the 2026 guide it placed the corporate and M&A practice in Chambers' "Highly Regarded" band among international firms in the region. Source ↗ Around that sit banking and finance, international trade, employment, property, and a regulatory and investigations practice the firm has been building out through recent partner hires. Bilingual English-Chinese capability is effectively a hiring requirement here, and the client list runs from Chinese state-owned shipping and port groups to international banks and insurers.

For a trainee, that mix sets what you actually touch. A seat in shipping or disputes can mean casualty response at short notice, cargo and charterparty disputes running through the Hong Kong courts or arbitration, or the multi-jurisdictional Djibouti port dispute the team has run for years (see below). A corporate seat sits closer to take-privates, share placements and cross-border M&A for Chinese and Hong Kong-listed clients. Trainees are supervised directly by a partner rather than routed through a large associate bench, so responsibility tends to arrive earlier than the firm's size alone would suggest. On one recent privatisation, the deal team named below included a trainee alongside the two associates and the partner running it.

Trainee & vacation scheme programme

How do you get into Reed Smith Richards Butler Hong Kong?

There are two published routes in: the vacation scheme, and a direct training contract application for candidates who cannot attend a scheme. The scheme runs twice a year, a three-week summer placement that the firm puts at around 16 students, and a smaller three-week winter scheme at around 8, both aimed at law students roughly two to three years out from qualifying. On the scheme you sit inside a practice group, take on legal research, translation work and document drafting, and may sit in on client meetings or go to court. Every vacation student is automatically carried into the training contract assessment process, so the scheme is the main door in rather than a side option. Source ↗

The training contract itself runs two years across four six-month seats, each supervised directly by a partner, and the firm says it aims to retain 100% of trainees on qualification. Reed Smith Richards Butler recruits roughly six Hong Kong trainees a year: a small, partner-led cohort rather than a large graduate class. On selection the firm is consistent about what it wants: an outstanding academic and personal record, and fluency in English plus Cantonese and/or Mandarin, which matches a client base running from Chinese state enterprises to international shipping and banking names.

Recent matters worth knowing

Which recent matters has Reed Smith Richards Butler's Hong Kong office run?

These are the deals and disputes 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: shipping and trade-finance disputes, and cross-border corporate work.

1. Defending China Merchants Ports in the Djibouti concession fight2025

   Partners Lianjun Li, Steve Tam and Cheryl Yu continue to defend China Merchants Port Holdings against a run of claims brought by DP World over the Doraleh Container Terminal concession in Djibouti, a long-running dispute fought across Hong Kong court proceedings and linked arbitrations, and named a China Business Law Journal Deal of the Year. (Reed Smith.) Source ↗

2. ING Bank's trade finance fight with ICBCAugust 2024

   Partners Lianjun Li and Donald Sham acted for ING Bank in a Hong Kong trade finance dispute against ICBC arising from the collapse of Chinese copper trader Maike Metals, in which the Hong Kong courts rejected ICBC's bid to move the case to the mainland. (Reed Smith; Global Trade Review; China Business Law Journal.) Source ↗

3. BYD's HK$43.5bn share placementMarch 2025

   Corporate partner Ivy Lai led Reed Smith's role on BYD Company's HK$43.5bn (roughly US$5.6bn) placement of new H shares, priced and completed within days and, at the time, the largest follow-on equity placement in the global automotive sector in more than a decade. (Reed Smith.) Source ↗

4. Pentamaster International's HK$2.4bn privatisationMarch 2025

   Partner Denise Jong led the Hong Kong corporate team, with associates Tracy Wong and Tommy Chan and a trainee, Matthew Wong, on the deal, taking Pentamaster International private for its Bursa Malaysia-listed parent by scheme of arrangement, completed within three months of announcement despite needing sign-off from the Hong Kong and Malaysian exchanges and the Cayman Islands court. (Reed Smith.) Source ↗

Interview & selection intel

What does the Reed Smith Richards Butler Hong Kong selection process look like?

Reed Smith Richards Butler publishes far less about its Hong Kong hiring than a Magic Circle firm does, and there is little independent candidate commentary to go on either. What is public is the shape of the funnel: an online application form, then, for those who make the vacation scheme, three weeks of real practice-group work (research, drafting, translation, client and court exposure) that doubles as the assessment. There is no confirmed published assessment-centre format, psychometric test or set-piece case study to reverse-engineer.

Treat that gap as normal for a firm at this tier rather than a red flag, and prepare for what a Hong Kong interview generally tests when the public detail runs thin: whether you can produce clean, accurate legal English (and, given the bilingual client base here, whether your Cantonese or Mandarin holds up) under real deadline pressure, whether your academic record survives direct partner questioning, and whether a partner would trust you in front of a client after a few months in the seat. 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 Reed Smith Richards Butler Hong Kong?

Because the firm runs on a written application rather than a heavy psychometric funnel, and lives on disputes and shipping, your edge comes from a written case that passes the "So What" test, a live matter you can explain cold, and rehearsed motivation. Here is where to put your preparation.

• 1Make the written application carry the weight. Reed Smith runs on a written form rather than a heavy psychometric funnel, so a CV and cover letter that pass the "So What" test, real achievements, not a list of modules, are what get you onto the scheme. Build that with the Law Firm Application Academy.

• 2Be able to discuss a live Reed Smith matter, not just the firm's history. This is a disputes and shipping firm before it is anything else, so walk in able to explain the Djibouti fight or a recent Hong Kong shipping or trade finance dispute cold: who is involved, what is at stake, what a court or tribunal actually decided. It helps to know how firms mark case studies first. Build that structured reasoning in the Online Case Study Centre and rehearse it at the Mock Assessment Centre.

• 3Rehearse your motivation, and your Chinese, out loud. Cantonese or Mandarin alongside English is close to a stated requirement here, and a partner interview will test whether you can actually use it, plus whether you have a genuine reason for choosing a firm this size over a Magic Circle name. Pressure-test both through in-person coaching before you are in the room.

Quick answers

Reed Smith Richards Butler Hong Kong, in five questions