International law firms in Hong Kong are ramping up their recruitment of Mandarin speakers in a bid to boost relationships with mainland China clients, creating fierce job competition for foreign lawyers in the region. 

A Legal Week survey of international firms operating in Hong Kong found every firm responding to the survey bar one had increased the number of Mandarin-speaking lawyers in their Hong Kong offices since 2011. The increase took the average percentage of Mandarin speakers employed by the 16 responding law firms to 60% of their total Hong Kong lawyer count. 

Those significantly increasing the number of Mandarin-speaking recruits in the last 24 months include Ashurst, DLA Piper and Davis Polk & Wardwell. 

Ashurst has trebled the number of partners and lawyers fluent in the language since 2011. 

Meanwhile, DLA had 15 Mandarin-speaking partners and 76 lawyers in the city at the close of 2012, compared with 10 partners and 49 lawyers two years earlier – a 54% increase. Six of the nine partners the firm hired across Asia as a whole in 2012 speak Mandarin. 

Davis Polk has seen an even bigger percentage increase, with Mandarin speakers in the Wall Street leader's Hong Kong arm increasing from two partners and 16 lawyers two years ago to five partners and 40 lawyers – a 150% rise. 

"Chinese language capability is now essential and a requirement in most of our practice areas, as our work is often mainland China related," said Kevin Chan, managing partner of DLA's Hong Kong office. "Most of the mainland clients prefer to communicate in Mandarin."

Many firms are planning further expansion, with Watson Farley & Williams targeting at least 50% Mandarin speakers in the next two years, while Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Davis Polk are aiming for a figure nearer 75%. 

Cleary Hong Kong corporate partner Mike Preston said: "Ten years ago the majority of the lawyers here were expats – now more than half of our practice in Asia has been hired locally. We don't have a hard target but it is clear that the proportion of Mandarin speakers will only increase. It is absolutely the case that you could expect that proportion to increase quite dramatically."

Recruitment firm Michael Page estimates that the ratio of expat to local lawyers, including in-house, is around one to 10 in Hong Kong today, compared with approximately one to seven in 2008. 

It estimates that only a couple of jobs a year are now advertised for non-Chinese speakers (including Cantonese), compared with five to 10 in previous years. Expat hiring is being restricted to more specialist senior roles, with both US and UK firms starting to trim back benefit and relocation packages.

Recent examples of the hiring trend include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's recruitment last month of capital markets partner William Woo from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, and Kirkland & Ellis's hire of M&A partner Frank Sun from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison. Both of these were seen as significant strategic hires because of their Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking abilities. 

Other firms hiring Mandarin-speaking partners for their Hong Kong offices in the last six months include Berwin Leighton Paisner, Simmons & Simmons and Dechert.

The survey does not include the magic circle, which declined to respond.