Indigenous firms in Asia's emerging legal markets keep making headway on head count. Chinese firms continue to hold the lead in total lawyers in Asia, but top firms in Korea and India have also expanded by leaps and bounds, raising their numbers by more than 65% since 2011, when the Asia 50 survey debuted. That far outpaces firms in Singapore and Australia, where growth has been much more modest.

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As a group, the 2019 Asia 50—the largest law firms based in the Asia-Pacific region—are home to 59,925 lawyers, up 5.6% from a year ago. That represents a relatively small step forward after last year's Asia 50 showed a 20% leap in head count. The top of the ranking remains largely unchanged: Dentons and Yingke lead the Asia 50 with 9,795 and 7,572 global lawyers, respectively. In addition to those firms, 10 others from China, as well as Australia's Ashurst (1,415), reported head counts of more than 1,000 lawyers last year.

To compile the Asia 50 rankings, we ask firms based in the Asia-Pacific to provide full-time equivalents for 2018. We rely on information from the NLJ 500 for U.S. firms' Asia-Pacific head counts and from Legal Week's U.K. Top 50 for those of British firms. Firms' nationalities are based on the market where they have the most lawyers. Ashurst, for example, is an Australian firm and ranked on the indigenous firm chart, while Herbert Smith Freehills is a U.K. firm and listed on the global firm chart, despite both firms sharing English and Australian roots.

In the eight years since we started to collect data for the Asia 50, even as Chinese firms have expanded their dominance on the list, elite firms in Korea, India and Japan have been able to secure meaningful growth.

Korean firms have made the largest jump since 2011. In 2018, six of the 50 largest Asian law firms were from South Korea. Kim & Chang led the pack with 988 lawyers. As a group, the six firms—including Lee & Ko (662); Bae, Kim & Lee (635); Shin & Kim (447); Yulchon (387); and Yoon & Yang (376)—comprised 3,495 lawyers in 2018, rising a whopping 68.4% from 2011's 2,075 lawyers. Bae, Kim & Lee saw the largest growth among the group, nearly doubling the 320 lawyers it boasted in 2011. (For more on Bae, Kim & Lee, read our profile of the firm and the Korean market.)

Over the past eight years, Korea has started to allow foreign law firms to set up offices in Seoul. But domestic firms were able to expand despite the partial market liberalization—foreign firms are still barred from practicing local law—and all six Korean firms branched out of Korea. Last year, Kim & Chang joined the rest of the group in entering Vietnam. All but Yoon & Yang have offices in mainland China or Hong Kong, and Yoon & Yang has a branch in Uzbekistan.

India's top firms also have seen a major boost in head count over the past eight years. The five Indian firms on this year's Asia 50, led by 750-lawyer Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, collectively reported 2,661 lawyers in 2018; that's a 65.7% increase from the 1,606 lawyers reported by five Indian firms back in 2011. In that span, the firms themselves have changed. Legacy Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co., which ranked as the top Indian firm in 2011 with 550 lawyers, split into two firms: Mumbai-based Cyril Amarchand and Delhi-based Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., which has 532 lawyers. Luthra & Luthra dropped out of the Asia 50, while Khaitan & Co. (566 lawyers) and AZB & Partners (424) each achieved nearly 90% growth since 2011.

Domestic firms have an absolute monopoly in India, which hasn't opened up its legal market. After 20 years of back-and-forth on liberalization, foreign law firms still aren't allowed to have representative offices in the country. The quick expansion of Cyril Amarchand and Shardul Amarchand has resulted in further polarization of the market. The biggest firms are getting even bigger, with those two comprising a combined 1,282 lawyers, compared with fewer than 700 when the legacy firm split in 2015. More market consolidation is expected, lawyers say.

Japan's largest five firms also are on the list, including the country's Big Four: Nishimura & Asahi (615 lawyers), Anderson Mori & Tomotsune (491), Mori Hamada & Matsumoto (487) and Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu (442). Including TMI Associates, which made the biggest leap since the Asia 50 was launched, doubling to 418 lawyers last year, the five firms had 2,453 lawyers, up 46.3% since 2011. The Japanese firms have also been active in entering new markets, especially in Southeast Asia. In addition to China and ­Singapore, all of the Big Four are in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Nishimura and TMI have also opened U.S. offices in recent years, in New York City and Silicon Valley, respectively.

Regional expansion also helped Singapore's Rajah & Tann, which with 642 lawyers in 2018 is now the only firm from the city-state remaining on the Asia 50. In 2011, four of the country's largest firms, including Allen & Gledhill, WongPartnership and Drew & Napier, made the top 50. As a group, the four firms grew 32% since the list's inception, from 1,180 to 1,557 last year. Rajah & Tann's 81% growth in that time largely happened outside of Singapore. The firm has opened regional offices in nine Southeast Asian countries since 2014 and moved them all under the Rajah & Tann Asia umbrella. The other three Singaporean firms had modest growth rates between 6% and 14%.

The number of Australian firm lawyers on the Asia 50 is, not surprisingly, in decline. Last year, six Australian firms, including Ashurst, had a total of 5,019 lawyers, down from 7,084 spread across a dozen firms in 2011. The dip has occurred in part because of regional mergers that moved some Asia 50 firms to the Global 100 list or reassigned them a different nationality. Independent Australian firms have seen little growth. In fact, Clayton Utz and Allens have both lost head count since 2011.

The only firm bucking the trend is Melbourne-based HWL Ebsworth, which had 771 lawyers in 2018, twice its head count in 2011. HWL's growth was the result of a decade of aggressive hires and acquisitions of smaller firms. The strategy panned out, as larger firms began to hit a growth plateau and shift their focus to keeping profits high.

Meanwhile, Chinese firms are still leading the pack. Together, the 27 firms from China represented over three-quarters of the Asia 50's total global head count; in 2011, that rate was slightly under 45%. On a year-over-year basis, Shanghai-based Fangda Partners saw significant growth, ­raising its contingent 29% to 625. It also debuted on this year's Global 200 revenue list at No. 197, with $219.4 million in gross revenue.

Last year, Fangda recruited away several partners from global firms, including former Linklaters China head Fang Jian and former Shearman & Sterling Asia capital markets head ­Colin Law. The firm also advised on big-ticket transactions, including several deals for longtime client Ant Financial. The firm acted on the company's $14 billion Series C funding and Alibaba's acquisition of one-third of the online payment company.

Global Firms in Asia

The Asia 50 ranking of global firms with the biggest presence in Asia has also changed significantly since 2011. A few firms have greatly expanded their Asia footprint. Some, like Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, which went from 10 lawyers to 153 lawyers in the region, did it by mergers and office openings. Others, like Kirkland & Ellis, which grew from 25 lawyers to 110, expanded by recruiting teams and simply adding more Asia head count.

But many global firms saw a decline in their Asia presence. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe dropped out of the Top 50 for the first time; in 2018, the firm had 40 lawyers based in Asia, down from 118 in 2011, after a sizable team in Hong Kong and China left the firm for Morgan Lewis in 2017. O'Melveny & Myers, while still on the list, dropped to 43 lawyers last year from 114 in 2011. Both firms were among the Top 10 U.S. firms in Asia in 2011. The Magic Circle firms saw less dramatic declines, but most still downsized in Asia. Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters all had fewer lawyers in Asia than they did in 2011. Only Clifford Chance grew in the region. (Slaughter and May's 2011 Asia head count was not available.)

Behind the retreat of global firms is the rise of indigenous firms, in China and elsewhere. And their growth isn't only a matter of size and a few trophy hires. Increasingly, Chinese and other Asian firms are building up quality and reputation. In 2019, Fangda continued its hiring spree from global firms, taking partners from Morrison & Foerster and Kirkland. Beijing-based Tian Yuan Law Firm lured a 12-lawyer team from Paul Hastings and recruited senior lawyers from Clifford Chance and Sidley Austin. Elsewhere, in Bangkok, Seoul and Tokyo, local firms are also picking up partners as global firms scale back. The tide is turning.

John Kang contributed to this report.

Infographic design by Roberto Jiménez/ALM.