Director - Disputes Advisory & Expert Witness - Hong Kong
Job Description:
We are seeking an experienced disputes-advisory and expert-witness practitioner to join our client in Hong Kong at Director level. The successful candidate will lead delivery on quantum, damages and valuation workstreams under Partner-led engagement strategy and methodology direction, operate as a senior delivery practitioner alongside Partners during expert-evidence and tribunal-preparation windows, and build the named-account and law-firm-partner relationships that underpin future origination at Senior Director and Partner level. Specific qualifications, regulatory fluency and tooling are detailed in the sections that follow.
Confidential Client. Applying to this position means that you are interested to have an initial confidential discussion about how we can help you to identify and join a new disputes advisory and expert-witness practice. With your authorisation we will exclusively run the entire application and recruitment process for you, keeping you apprised at every step. With over 30 years' combined experience of helping the most talented disputes practitioners to make safe exits to launch rewarding new careers, we have the experience, network and ability to help you.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead delivery on quantum, damages and valuation analyses on commercial-litigation, international-arbitration, post-M&A, shareholder, construction, IP-infringement and insurance-subrogation disputes - frequently with HK-Mainland-Singapore-elsewhere-APAC overlay - in support of Partner-led engagement strategy and methodology direction, delivering methodology execution, model build, sensitivity testing and written deliverable.
- Contribute to and draft expert reports compliant with the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration, the Rules of the High Court (HK expert-evidence procedure), and the relevant tribunal procedural orders - under Partner-led testifying-expert direction.
- Support testifying experts on hot-tub, joint-expert-statement and HKIAC / CIETAC HK / ICC concurrent-evidence procedures; prepare for and contribute to oral testimony where instructed.
- Run discounted-cash-flow, market-multiples and precedent-transaction analyses to investigation-grade depth; build defensible but-for and counterfactual scenarios; apply Monte Carlo and regression techniques where the matter requires probabilistic quantum, including for PRC-domiciled subsidiaries and JV structures.
- Deliver lost-profits, business-interruption, lost-opportunity and wasted-expenditure analyses across financial-services, real-estate-and-construction, technology, energy-and-resources and consumer-products disputes.
- Engage with external counsel and instructing solicitors (HK and PRC) under Partner direction; deliver privilege-discipline and chain-of-evidence rigour suitable for cross-examination, and contribute to responses on opposing-expert challenge in bilingual and bicultural settings.
- Build emerging client relationships and contribute to named-account development at General Counsel, CFO and Head of Litigation level, and at relevant law firm partner level in Hong Kong and Greater China - under Partner direction.
- Mentor and advocate for managers and senior managers - supporting their delivery, championing their development needs at engagement-staffing rounds, and sponsoring their bilingual upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling - and contribute to firm-wide expert-report standards on bilingual document populations and market-insight knowledge sharing, particularly across the HK-Mainland border.
Required Qualifications and Skills:
- Certified Public Accountant (HKICPA) or equivalent professional accounting qualification (CA ANZ, ACA / ICAEW, ACCA, CPA Australia, CPA US, CICPA where the candidate has the legal right to use it in Hong Kong).
- At least 8 years of relevant experience in disputes advisory, forensic accounting, quantum analysis or expert-witness support, with substantive direct exposure to commercial-litigation and international-arbitration matters.
- Mandarin and Cantonese working fluency. Bilingual operational capability is essential at this level for HK-Mainland-cross-border disputes and most regulator-facing or PRC-counterparty engagements.
- Demonstrable track record of acting as technical lead on quantum, damages and valuation analyses - in support of Partner-led engagement strategy and methodology direction - delivering methodology execution and written deliverables, while building the named-account and law-firm-partner networks that underpin future personal origination at Senior Director and Partner level.
- Direct experience working with senior client stakeholders (General Counsel, CFO, Head of Litigation), instructing solicitors at partner level (HK and PRC), and arbitration tribunals or court process.
- Working knowledge of the Hong Kong disputes framework: the Rules of the High Court (expert-evidence procedure), HKIAC arbitration rules and procedural conventions, CIETAC HK Centre rules and procedural orders, the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration, and the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements where the dispute crosses the HK-PRC border.
- Working knowledge of damages-quantification methodology: discounted cash flow, market multiples, precedent-transaction analysis, but-for and counterfactual modelling, and lost-profits / business-interruption / wasted-expenditure techniques.
- Familiarity with industry-standard disputes-advisory tooling, including financial-data platforms (such as Bloomberg, Capital IQ or Refinitiv), valuation databases (such as Mergermarket or Pitchbook), modelling environments (such as Microsoft Excel with Power Query or Argus), simulation tools (such as @Risk or Crystal Ball), and visualisation tools (such as Power BI or Tableau) for bilingual presentation.
- Calm, credible communication style suited to expert-report drafting and (where instructed) cross-examination and concurrent-evidence procedures, with bilingual operational capability where matter language demands it.
- High-agency operating style with strong judgement under tribunal time pressure and the methodological discipline to ensure findings are evidence-based, structured and defensible.
Preferred Experience:
- CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics, AICPA) or CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE) where the disputes work crosses into financial-accounting forensics or fraud quantum.
- ASA (American Society of Appraisers) or ABV (Accredited in Business Valuation, AICPA) where the disputes work centres on business-valuation issues.
- CIArb membership (MCIArb / FCIArb) and arbitrator-track standing for practitioners moving toward testifying-expert or arbitrator dual roles.
- Experience of cross-border PRC-HK disputes under the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements, including PRC PIPL / CSL / DSL implications for HK evidence-gathering and expert-report data sourcing.
- Postgraduate study in finance, economics, valuation or law with disputes / arbitration relevance.
- Track record of expert-report admissibility, hot-tub or concurrent-evidence appearances, or joint-expert-statement work in arbitration or court.
- Established or emerging relationships with law firm partners in international arbitration, commercial litigation, construction, M&A litigation, shareholder disputes and IP litigation practices who instruct disputes advisory and expert-witness work.
- Continuous-learning posture and active engagement with the AI developments reshaping disputes advisory: candidates who track tooling shifts (such as AI-assisted comparable-transaction analysis on PRC and HK populations, ML-aided market-evidence enrichment, or LLM-supported expert-report drafting in bilingual settings under tribunal-defensibility review), share that knowledge with managers and senior managers, and have a track record of supporting team upskilling on emerging methodologies.
Compensation:
Competitive package commensurate with seniority and experience, including base, performance-based bonus, long-term incentives and (where applicable) partner-track participation.
Next Steps:
This opportunity is open to Hong Kong permanent residents and qualified candidates with relevant Hong Kong work-rights status who match the above criteria. Please apply to receive prompt contact from an experienced and specialist disputes advisory and expert-witness recruitment consultant.
Search & Counsel is a trading style of Feltan Associates Pte Ltd; an international Executive Search, Recruitment and Consulting business based in Singapore, licensed and regulated by the Singapore Ministry of Manpower to conduct recruitment services for clients. UEN: 202225620G. EA Licence 23S1672. All rights reserved.
Required Skills:
Data Bloomberg Bar Support Capital Cantonese Valuation Membership Search Steps Structures Mandarin Recruitment Analysis Trading Cash Flow Participation Consulting Sourcing Compensation LTD Cash Economics Tableau Construction Databases Excel Power BI Pressure Accounting Testing Finance Microsoft Excel Business Communication