UK & International
Taylor Wessing
Taylor Wessing no longer has a Hong Kong office. The practice split off as H.M. Chan & Co in November 2025, and the UK firm merged into Winston Taylor in June 2026 — here is what that means if the firm was on your list.
- Category
- UK & International
- Origin
- London/Europe; UK-led business merged into Winston Taylor on 1 June 2026
- HK presence
- None since 17 November 2025 — the practice relaunched as H.M. Chan & Co
- Former HK focus
- Corporate boutique work: cross-border deals, capital markets, private equity
The Hong Kong position
Does Taylor Wessing still have a Hong Kong office?
No. Taylor Wessing and its Hong Kong arm separated on 17 November 2025, with the Hong Kong practice relaunching as the independent firm H.M. Chan & Co. Both sides called the decoupling mutual and amicable, and committed to keep collaborating on client matters — but as an applicant, the fact that matters is simple: there is no Taylor Wessing office in Hong Kong to apply to.
The history explains why the name still floats around Hong Kong careers advice. Mark Chan founded H.M. Chan & Co in 2015; it operated in association with Taylor Wessing from 2016, then formally became Taylor Wessing in 2021. For four years there really was a Taylor Wessing Hong Kong — a corporate boutique doing cross-border deals, capital markets and private equity work. Older guides, forum threads and even some tracker spreadsheets still carry a Hong Kong application email for the firm. That intel is now stale.
The story did not stop there. On 1 June 2026, Taylor Wessing's UK-led business completed its transatlantic merger with US firm Winston & Strawn to form Winston Taylor, while the continental European firms carry on under the Taylor Wessing name. Neither Winston Taylor nor the remaining Taylor Wessing verein has a Hong Kong office. This page exists so you do not waste an application cycle finding that out the hard way.
Routes in
Can you still get a Hong Kong training contract through Taylor Wessing?
No. There is no Taylor Wessing Hong Kong vacation scheme, internship or training contract. The firm's regional careers page now covers careers in China only — Shanghai, plus IP work in Beijing — and its vacancy portal listed no Hong Kong roles when we last checked, showing the message "No suitable vacancies right now".
- HK vacation schemeNone. The old route — an email application to the Hong Kong office — ended with the 17 November 2025 separation.
- HK training contractNone. No Hong Kong programme is published by Taylor Wessing, Winston Taylor or H.M. Chan & Co.
- The successor firmH.M. Chan & Co is a small corporate boutique. It publishes no structured vacation scheme or trainee programme; any approach is speculative, direct to the firm.
- Where the DNA wentIf the tech, IP and venture flavour attracted you, the closest Hong Kong analogues with real schemes are Bird & Bird, Simmons & Simmons, DLA Piper and Stephenson Harwood.
Watch out
Firm lists rot. Mayer Brown's Hong Kong arm became Johnson Stokes & Master, Taylor Wessing's became H.M. Chan & Co — and application advice written eighteen months ago can send you to a door that no longer exists. Rebuild your list against the live Elite Pathfinder deadline tracker, which we re-verify against firms' own pages.
The paper trail
What actually happened, and when?
Four documents tell the whole story. If a firm on your list restructures mid-cycle, this is the reading order: the firm's own announcement first, then independent coverage, then the successor's website.
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Taylor Wessing and H.M. Chan & Co announce their separationOctober 2025
The firm's own press release set the decoupling for 17 November 2025, described a relationship "stretching back over ten years", and framed the future as two independent firms that continue to collaborate on client matters in Asia. Source ↗
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Independent coverage of the Hong Kong splitNovember 2025
Asia Law Portal reported the separation as part of Taylor Wessing's realignment of its Asia presence — concentrating mainland capabilities in Shanghai with a Shenzhen office planned — while H.M. Chan & Co relaunched as an independent Hong Kong corporate practice. Source ↗
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Partners approve the Winston & Strawn mergerJanuary 2026
Both partnerships voted for the transatlantic tie-up: over 1,400 lawyers, revenues above US$1.6bn, and Taylor Wessing's UK, Netherlands and Belgium offices exiting the old verein — with a cooperation agreement covering the firms that stay behind. Source ↗
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Winston Taylor goes liveJune 2026
The combined firm launched on 1 June 2026 under the Winston Taylor name — a US-UK-Europe footprint with no Hong Kong office on the map. For Hong Kong applicants, the Taylor Wessing chapter is closed on both sides of the split. Source ↗
Insider tip
Law-firm restructurings like this are themselves interview material — they show consolidation pressure on mid-market international firms in Asia. Learn to read stories this way with our commercial awareness guide, and the Weekly News Digest breaks down one Hong Kong story a week and tells you what to actually say about it.
The successor firm
Where did the old Taylor Wessing Hong Kong route go?
Into H.M. Chan & Co. The successor firm describes itself as a Hong Kong corporate law firm specialising in cross-border transactions, capital markets and private equity, acting for clients from seed funding and venture rounds through M&A, IPOs and post-listing compliance. It says it has advised on more than 50 IPOs and listings, and carries recognition from Asian Legal Business — which named it Transactional Boutique Law Firm of the Year — alongside IFLR1000, asialaw and China Business Law Journal rankings.
What it does not carry is a graduate programme. The firm publishes no vacation scheme, no trainee intake and no early-careers page. Boutiques of this size hire trainees rarely and opportunistically, so the only honest description of the route in is a speculative application: a sharply targeted email, sent because you genuinely want boutique corporate work — not because the firm used to carry an international brand.
If you go that way, do it properly: research the firm's actual deal record on its own site before writing a word, and make the letter show it. Our guide to decoding your dream firm covers how to research a firm that publishes little, and the top mistakes on HK applications shows why generic speculative letters get deleted on sight.
How to adapt
How do you build a firm list that survives shake-ups?
Taylor Wessing will not be the last name to vanish from the Hong Kong market mid-cycle. The applicants who cope are the ones whose lists are built on verified, current information and spread across firm types. Here is how to be one of them.
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1Verify before you write. Thirty seconds on a firm's live careers page — does the office exist, does the programme exist, is the deadline this cycle's — saves a wasted application. Build the habit with our ultimate guide to applying for a HK vacation scheme, and let the Law Firm Application Academy turn the research into an application that lands.
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2Spread your list across categories — UK internationals, US firms, local and PRC firms — so one exit does not gut your cycle. The skills transfer: the same case-study and commercial-thinking preparation serves every firm on the list. Practise it in the Online Case Study Centre and pressure-test it in the Mock Assessment Centre.
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3If your list just lost a firm, rebuild it with someone who watches this market weekly. One-to-one coaching can re-plan your cycle around firms that actually recruit in Hong Kong right now — before the deadlines decide for you.
Quick answers
Taylor Wessing Hong Kong, in five questions
Does Taylor Wessing still have a Hong Kong office?
No. Taylor Wessing and its Hong Kong practice separated on 17 November 2025, with the Hong Kong team relaunching as the independent firm H.M. Chan & Co. The two firms said they would keep collaborating on client matters, but there is no Taylor Wessing office in Hong Kong any more.
Can you still get a Hong Kong training contract through Taylor Wessing?
No. There is no Taylor Wessing Hong Kong vacation scheme or training contract. The firm's careers page for the region now covers mainland China only, and its vacancy portal listed no Hong Kong roles when we last checked. If an older guide tells you to email a Hong Kong application to Taylor Wessing, that route no longer exists.
What is H.M. Chan & Co?
The firm the Hong Kong practice became. Founded by Mark Chan in 2015, it operated in association with Taylor Wessing from 2016, formally became Taylor Wessing in 2021, and relaunched as independent H.M. Chan & Co from 17 November 2025. It is a corporate boutique focused on cross-border transactions, capital markets and private equity, and says it has advised on more than 50 IPOs and listings.
What is Winston Taylor?
The firm created when US firm Winston & Strawn and Taylor Wessing's UK-led business completed their transatlantic merger on 1 June 2026 — more than 1,400 lawyers across 20 offices in the US, UK and Europe. The remaining Taylor Wessing firms in continental Europe continue under the Taylor Wessing name within the old verein structure. Neither side has a Hong Kong office.
Which Hong Kong firms should Taylor Wessing applicants target instead?
If Taylor Wessing's tech and IP flavour drew you in, the closest Hong Kong analogues with real structured programmes are Bird & Bird, Simmons & Simmons, DLA Piper and Stephenson Harwood — all UK-origin internationals with published Hong Kong vacation schemes.