Adnaan Noor, formerly a partner at WongPartnership, has announced the launch of his own firm, Ashmere Law Asia, in Singapore.
Noor spent more than five years at WongPartnership, including two years as a partner, and specialises in commercial litigation, international arbitration and restructuring and insolvency.
He said opening his own law firm was a “long-term ambition” and felt that the timing was right. He credited his experience working under Thio Shen Yi SC, one of the founding partners of TSMP Law Corporation in Singapore. He also credited his time in the restructuring and insolvency team at WongPartnership, where he worked under practice head Smitha Menon and Manoj Sandrasegara, now a senior adviser at Ashurst.
Noor was also involved in WongPartnership’s Indonesia practice, which also influenced his decision to go solo.
“The timing felt right because experience, confidence and opportunity had aligned … Given my experience with Indonesia-related matters, I was heavily involved on the ground in Jakarta and Bandung, and my role later evolved into leading aspects of the liability management exercise with founder-investor shareholders,” he told Asia Business Law Journal.
“These matters reinforced for me that there was room in the market for a practice with a distinctive profile: one that combines high-stakes disputes, restructuring and insolvency, investigations, fraud and asset recovery, with a genuinely cross-border and regional perspective, particularly in relation to Indonesia. The increasing effectiveness of legal technology and AI has also made it possible to build a lean, highly responsive, and sophisticated practice from day one.”
Ashmere Law Asia will primarily focus on risk, crisis and liability-related matters, including litigation and arbitration, with a particular emphasis on fraud, insolvency, investigations and asset recovery.
“The firm is also seeing demand for restructuring, liability management and transaction-related advisory work, particularly where clients are seeking to assess and manage risk before entering significant situations or deals,” Noor said.
Noor confirms he is currently the firm’s sole lawyer and is supported by artificial intelligence tools, but he plans to hire two additional lawyers during the next 12 months.
“Ashmere Law Asia is launching as a founder-led practice, comprising me and supported by a legal tech and AI-enabled operating model. That structure is deliberate: it allows the firm to remain agile, hands-on, and highly responsive, while delivering sophisticated legal work with close personal attention,” he said.
Looking ahead, Noor aims to build the firm’s reputation in handling complex risk, crisis and liability matters, while also establishing a presence in Indonesia.
“I want the market to see the firm as more than another disputes or insolvency practice. The aim is to build a reputation for advising on complex, high consequence matters where clients need not only technical excellence, but also judgement, perspective and disciplined execution,” he said.
“A key priority will also be to deepen the firm’s presence in Indonesia, a market I know well and where I see strong scope for a practice that can bridge Singapore and Indonesia effectively.”
