We are seeking a Partner-grade Forensic Investigations practitioner to join our client in Hong Kong. The ideal candidate will be a Certified Public Accountant (HKICPA) or equivalent with at least 15 years of relevant experience, the most recent 3+ years at Partner, Managing Director or equivalent practice-leadership level, and Mandarin and Cantonese working fluency at Partner-grade authority level. The successful candidate will have a portable book of senior client relationships, a sustained personally-originated investigations revenue track record, and the brand presence to lead a forensic-investigations practice in the Hong Kong market. They will be responsible for leading the most complex investigations engagements end to end, originating and growing board-level investigations mandates, and setting practice strategy on methodology, technology, hiring and pricing.

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 forensic investigations practice at Partner level. 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 investigations practitioners to make safe exits to launch rewarding new careers, we have the experience, network and ability to help you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Direct the most complex investigations matters end to end - high-stakes, often privileged, often audit-committee or board-instructed misconduct, fraud and asset-tracing engagements running USD 1m - 10m+ - with full P&L responsibility for the investigations engagement portfolio.
• Originate, win and grow board-level investigations mandates by carrying a portable book of senior relationships at General Counsel, CFO, Audit Committee Chair, Senior Independent Director and Group Chief Compliance Officer level, and at relevant law firm partner level.
• Convert reactive crisis-response investigations into multi-year retainer engagements covering investigative readiness, internal-investigation playbook design, escalation-pathway architecture, whistleblower-channel reviews and ongoing investigations advisory.
• Serve as the engagement Partner on the most complex multi-jurisdictional capital-movement and beneficial-ownership investigations, integrating with civil-recovery counsel on Mareva and proprietary-injunction applications under Hong Kong common-law procedure, and coordinating cross-border under the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements.
• Set the practice's strategy on methodology, technology adoption, hiring, pricing and market positioning; shape bilingual evidence-handling protocols and AI-assisted document-review governance at investigation depth.
• Build the practice's external IP and brand presence on investigations themes through published thought leadership and conference-level speaking engagements.
• Hire, develop, mentor and advocate for the practice staff - Senior Directors, Directors, Senior Managers and the wider bench - championing advancement at firm-wide promotion rounds, sponsoring sustained bilingual upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling, and shaping their external profile-building. Contribute to firm strategy beyond the investigations sub-practice.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Certified Public Accountant (HKICPA) or equivalent professional accounting qualification (CA ANZ, ACA / ICAEW, ACCA, CPA Australia, CPA US). Partner-level investigations practitioners are expected to be qualified accountants whose professional credibility is respected by audit committees, boards, regulators and the judiciary.
• At least 15 years of relevant experience in forensic investigations, fraud examinations or audit-committee-led work, with the most recent 3+ years at Partner, Managing Director or equivalent practice-leadership level.
• Mandarin and Cantonese working fluency at depth sufficient to lead bilingual practice direction, regulator engagement and senior-stakeholder communication. The Hong Kong Partner market is structurally bilingual at this level.
• Demonstrable track record leading the most complex regional investigations matters with full P&L accountability.
• Demonstrable, sustained, personally-originated investigations revenue track record. Hong Kong market guide: USD 1.5m - 3m+ annually originated on investigations work, calibrated to the engaging firm.
• Portable senior client relationships at General Counsel, CFO, Audit Committee Chair, Senior Independent Director, Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Risk Officer level, and at relevant law firm partner level (litigation, disputes, white-collar crime, regulatory enforcement and internal-investigations practices) who refer and instruct forensic investigations work - credibly portable subject to non-compete and non-solicit posture; named accounts with multi-year history are the strongest evidence.
• Experience running a forensic investigations sub-practice or country-team P&L: revenue, utilisation, gross margin, partner-time leverage, hire-and-promote responsibility.
• Authority on the Hong Kong investigations framework: POBO / ICAC, HK Police Commercial Crime Bureau, Companies Ordinance, PDPO at post-2024 enforcement-decision depth, civil-recovery framework leadership under common-law procedure, and the 2024 Mainland Judicial Mutual Assistance arrangements including PRC PIPL / CSL / DSL implications for HK evidence-gathering.
• Cross-border fluency on FCPA (DOJ / SEC), UK Bribery Act (SFO), Singapore CPIB / CAD, and Australian AFP / ACLEI interfaces on parallel investigations.
• Familiarity with industry-standard investigations tooling, including transactional analytics platforms (such as CaseWare IDEA or MindBridge), entity / relationship-mapping tools (such as IBM i2 Analyst's Notebook), document-review platforms with East Asian-language analytics support (such as Relativity or Nuix) at investigation depth, and visualisation tools (such as Power BI or Tableau).
• Realistic engagement on notice periods and non-compete / non-solicit obligations given the senior nature of the move and the relationship-led nature of the practice.

Preferred Experience:

• CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE) - the recognised primary investigations credential at Partner level.
• CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics, AICPA) for Partners whose investigations frequently cross into financial-accounting forensics.
• Postgraduate qualification: Master of Accounting, Master of Finance, MBA, or LLM with investigations / regulatory / criminal-justice relevance.
• Visible market profile in the Hong Kong / APAC investigations community: published author on investigations themes, conference speaker, recognised authority on misconduct investigations or asset-tracing, named in legal directories where applicable.
• Demonstrable conversion of one-off investigations into multi-year retainer and advisory work.
• Visible thought leadership on the AI developments reshaping forensic investigations and a documented growth-mindset operating posture: candidates who set the practice direction on tooling adoption (such as AI-assisted document review on bilingual document populations, ML-driven transactional-analytics enrichment, or LLM-aided fact-pattern synthesis across HK-Mainland fact patterns), advocate for and develop their practice staff on emerging methodologies, and have a track record of upskilling-programme delivery within the sub-practice.

Compensation:

Partner-level package commensurate with origination, portable book and seniority. Includes base, profit-share / partnership-distribution, equity participation and long-term incentive arrangements.

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 confidential contact from an experienced and specialist forensic investigations recruitment Partner.

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.