A global report on in-house legal salaries released recently revealed that salaries in Asia remained largely unchanged over the past 12 months. However, salaries are expected to improve in the second half of 2010 as lawyers look for salary increases following the lift on pay freezes and bonuses seen over the past 18 months.

International legal recruiter Laurence Simons’ report on In-house: Global Salary and Benefits Survey revealed that salaries in India, Singapore, Hong Kong and China have remained stagnant. This is despite steady growth in the Chinese and Indian economies and its knock-on effect for legal work in the region.

In Singapore, demand for domestic lawyers has exceeded demand for international lawyers; however salaries for local lawyers remain S$30,000 to S$50,000 lower than their international counter-parts.

Employers in this market have also shown a willingness to pay salaries above the market rate for lawyers with a specific type of skills-set or experience, such as fluent Asian language skills.

In India, lawyers with local and international experience heading transactional teams in MNCs and financial institutions command larger packages. However, given the diversity in the level of experience in the developing Indian legal market, many lawyers remain on very low salaries compared with their Asian counter-parts.

Salaries have also remained lower in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, although demand for lawyers in these countries has increased over the last 12 months, the survey reveals. ALB