Dechert and PwC step into Singapore as global players sustain push into key Asian hub
This summer saw continued interest by advisers in the Asian legal market, as top-50 US firm Dechert finally received the green light to open an office in Singapore eight months after applying for a Foreign Legal Practice licence. Meanwhile, Big Four accountancy giant PwC made a move to enhance its legal offering in the Asia-Pacific region, having entered into a tie-up in Singapore with local firm Camford Law.
For Dechert, the launch constitutes its fourth Asian office and its 27th office in total. It will be spearheaded by partner Dean Collins, who moved across from US rival O’Melveny & Myers. Collins, a fund formation lawyer who sat in O’Melveny’s investment funds and securitisation practice group in Singapore, will be the office’s sole lawyer due to delays in obtaining licences for two associates, who will continue working out of Hong Kong until authorisation is granted. The Philadelphia-bred firm’s latest opening comes two years after an international push that saw the 845-lawyer firm open offices in Dubai, Frankfurt and Kazakhstan.
Other firms that recently sought to bolster their capability in Singapore by relocating senior lawyers include Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s head of arbitration Lucy Reed and Latham & Watkins’ corporate duo Rod Brown and Luke Grubb last year.
PwC’s tie-up with Camford Law brings a ten-lawyer local outfit specialising in corporate and commercial law into the fold. It currently has two partners: corporate lawyer Bijay Nawal and capital markets specialist Natarajan Sundararaman. Having been in talks for nearly two months, the firm has now joined PwC’s global network but will operate as a separate partnership and retain its name.
Speaking about the venture, Nawal told Legal Business: ‘It’s good for us – they have a large network and we have worked with them for over a decade. We are an independent firm but it was a natural choice to do a tie-up with them.’
On whether there are added benefits to working with an accountancy giant as opposed to an international law firm, Nawal added: ‘There’s advantages to tying up with an accountant.
We are by and large a corporate firm and it makes sense for us to work with another organisation with a similar focus. There will be a lot of synergy given our respective practices.’
Nawal commented that the local outfit had been approached by international law firms prior to its talks with PwC but declined to give any names.
Fellow accountancy giant EY is also looking at its options in the Asia region. In December, it hired Herbert Smith Freehills’ Singapore partner John Dick, who specialises in energy and resources, South-East Asia regional foreign investment and infrastructure.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk