With the Hong Kong stock exchange losing almost 15 percent of its value in the last month, fears are growing among global law firms that the Asian capital markets boom may be running out of gas.

Following the previous market troughs in 2008 and 2009, Asia startled the world with the rate of its recovery. In early March 2009, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index were languishing at 11,344; six months later it had almost doubled in value.