Miura & Partners has made a foray into Malaysia in its continued regional expansion with plans for a strategic alliance with local law firm Donovan & Ho set to start in March this year, targeting global corporations expanding into the country and Malaysian companies investing in Japan and Southeast Asia, the Tokyo-based firm told Asia Business Law Journal.
Ryota Miura, founding partner of Miura & Partners, said his firm, which had also recently announced a Bangkok office launch, would focus on advising global companies on their M&A deals as well as legal, tax and financial matters in Malaysia in collaboration with M&P Asia, a consulting firm specialising in Asia and emerging countries co-founded in 2021 by Miura & Partners.
“Additionally, we will handle new business, dispute resolution and compliance-related matters (in Malaysia), while supporting Malaysian companies in their expansion into countries in which Miura & Partners operates including Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand,” said Miura.
In Malaysia, the Japanese firm will draw on the expertise in employment law, corporate and commercial advisory and dispute resolution of alliance partner Donovan & Ho, a Kuala Lumpur-based firm with offices in Malaysia and Singapore founded in 2014 by former Pittsburgh-based paint product manufacturer PPG Industries’ regional legal counsel for Southeast Asia Donovan Cheah and former TS Ho & Co partner Shawn Ho.
Cheah, who heads the employment law and dispute resolution practice, manages a team of 12 Malaysian lawyers together with Ho, who is the head of corporate and commercial, with
both co-founders having started their legal career at Baker McKenzie in Malaysia.
Ryoichi Inoue, a head partner of Miura & Partner’s Asia practice with experience handling M&A transactions in Malaysia and other Asian countries, will work closely with Cheah and Ho’s team, with M&P Asia’s executive officer Shigenobu Kanao set to be stationed in Kuala Lumpur on a full-time basis.
Miura told Asia Business Law Journal that Donovan & Ho was the only law firm in Malaysia that Miura & Partners was affiliated with at present, and that there was no plan to form a partnership with any other firms in the country.
The Japanese firm’s founding partner also confirmed that there was no plan to set up an office in Singapore at this point.
Miura & Partners has been on a global expansion push recently. In April last year, the firm opened a London office, which followed the launch of its San Francisco and Jakarta outfits in 2023. In Asia, the firm also currently runs a Ho Chi Minh City office as well as a Bangkok branch scheduled to open in March this year.
