Corporate Solicitor (3-5 PQE)

About the role

Wong & O'Leary's corporate team is eleven lawyers acting for owner-managed Hong Kong groups, family offices and a handful of Main Board issuers. We are not a magic-circle satellite: the client calls the partner, the partner calls you, and there is no fourth layer in between.

The role exists because two of our listed clients have moved from annual compliance work into acquisitive mode. Three sizeable share purchases are already in the pipeline for Q4 2026, alongside a spin-off we expect to file in the first half of 2027. We need a solicitor who can take a share purchase agreement from term sheet to completion with a partner reviewing it, not rewriting it.

You will sit with Adrienne Lok's group on the 23rd floor in Central, work alongside two trainees and our company secretarial team over in Sheung Wan, and deal directly with the sponsor, the reporting accountants and the client's CFO.

What you'll do

• Draft and negotiate share purchase agreements, shareholders' agreements and disclosure letters, taking first-draft ownership on deals up to HK$800 million.
• Run legal due diligence exercises end to end, including scoping, delegating to trainees and writing the report the client's board actually reads.
• Advise listed clients on Listing Rules obligations covering notifiable and connected transactions, inside information and results announcements.
• Prepare circulars, announcements and constitutional documents for review by the sponsor and the Exchange.
• Manage completion mechanics: conditions precedent checklists, signing logistics and post-completion filings with the Companies Registry.
• Supervise trainee solicitors on research and bundles, and mark up their drafts with comments they can actually learn from.
• Keep matter budgets honest and flag scope creep to the partner before it reaches the client's invoice.

What we're looking for

• Admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong with 3-5 years' post-qualification experience in corporate or capital markets work.
• PCLL from a Hong Kong university and a training contract served in a firm with listed-company clients.
• Working knowledge of the Listing Rules, the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622) and the Takeovers Code.
• Drafting in English of publishable quality, plus Cantonese good enough to take instructions from a founder who prefers it.
• Evidence that you have run at least two transactions to completion with limited supervision.

Nice to have

• Exposure to GEM listings or a transfer of listing.
• Experience with PRC-incorporated targets and the approval timelines that come with them.
• England & Wales or NSW dual qualification.

What you get

• Discretionary bonus historically paid at 1.5-3 months across the corporate team
• 20 days' annual leave rising to 25, plus the day after a completion
• Full medical and dental cover for you and your dependants
• Practising certificate, CPD and one overseas conference a year paid
• Firm-funded taxi home after 9pm, and a partner who asks whether you needed it