UK-based Seladore Legal has officially launched a Singapore office, the disputes-only law firm’s first overseas outfit in Asia and outside Europe, with its work in the Lion City consisting of three main prongs, partner and Singapore office head Liang-ying Tan has told Asia Business Law Journal.
“We will focus on the types of international disputes that come before the SIAC (Singapore International Arbitration Centre) and the SICC (Singapore International Commercial Court), where parties, particularly those outside Singapore, have chosen to resolve their disputes here under Singapore law,” said Tan.
The Singapore office head pointed to a range of industries, most notably financial services, infrastructure and energy, that these prongs would apply across.
“(It) may include contentious commercial work, insolvency and restructuring, and regulatory and investigations mandates,” said Tan.
Operating as a foreign law practice, Seladore is permitted to provide in or from Singapore foreign law-related legal services in all areas of legal practice, and Singapore law-related legal services in international commercial arbitration or in relation to the SICC through certain types of registered lawyers.
Headquartered in London with an office in Milan, the UK firm would act on complex commercial or fraud-related disputes involving multiple jurisdictions with a nexus in Singapore and potentially London, where it had deep litigation experience, said Tan.
Tan added that her firm would also take on high-stakes disputes involving numerous parties where larger, full-service firms were already instructed or conflicted, serving as managing counsel instructing independent practitioners and local counsel across different jurisdictions in those matters.
Senior partner Simon Bushell, who attended Singapore Convention Week ahead of the office launch, said that as a dispute resolution specialist firm, they were largely unencumbered by the conflicts of interest large, full-service law firms often encountered.
“This makes us an obvious referral partner for large, elite firms who are unable to act on a matter themselves,” said Bushell.
Seladore on 5 November its imminent plan to apply for a foreign law practice licence for its branch launch in the Lion City and the hiring of Tan as a partner, who had joined after a decade at Herbert Smith Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer) in New York.
Qualified in both New York and Singapore, Tan started her legal career as a justices’ law clerk at the Supreme Court of Singapore and later practised as an associate at Rajah & Tann.
She told ABLJ that Seladore was currently recruiting lawyers for the Singapore office, and would be looking locally to do so, adding that the UK firm also had several lawyers in London with links to Singapore.
“There is flexibility in how we resource matters,” said Tan.
