While many international lawyers like to assume the streets of Asia are paved with gold, everyone working in the continent's legal industry knows this is largely a fantasy.

Recent years have proved tough for international firms, owing to a mix of fee pressure, intense competition and high real estate costs, as well as a host of practice restrictions across jurisdictions. In some cases, firms' offices function less as profit centres in their own right and more as meeting rooms and sites for boosting cross-border dealflow.

That said, 2014 continued to see activity in Asia in the way of new entrants, hires, practice launches and mergers. In Hong Kong and China, there was a particular focus on investigations and white-collar crime, as well as regional and US capital markets work and outbound investment by mainland companies. Indeed, 2014 saw the biggest new listing in history come from China – that being the $25bn IPO of Alibaba in New York.

In Australia there was less merger activity than previous years, as the biggest firms looked to consolidate their practices and the mid-tier began to grow. In Singapore conditions remained as competitive as ever – with firms coming under pressure as the government set out strict targets for retaining local practice licences. South East Asia saw a number of firms ramp up – with several more firms piling into Indonesia.

There were also some major political events during the period, including the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and Indonesia's third presidential elections, both of which have had an impact on the legal community. The long term effects of these events are of course yet to be seen.

For a detailed look at the most prominent stories in each of the major Asian jurisdictions in 2014, click on the links below: