Clifford Chance has followed up its purchase of Carillion’s legal services arm by launching its first innovation and delivery support centre outside of Europe or the US, and the first of its kind in Singapore.
The magic circle firm purchased Carillion Advice Services (CAS) to provide a low-cost, legal support base in the UK earlier this year and the new Singaporean hub will blend in with the operations there.
An Indian low-cost arm was established in 2007 and expanded in 2010 to take its total size up to 40 staff, 29 of which were lawyers.
Clifford Chance partner and global head of innovation and business change Bas Boris Visser said: “As a global firm we have placed innovation and a commitment to best delivery at the heart of our strategy, it’s fundamental to how we create value for our clients. We constantly challenge ourselves to bring the right resources, to deploy the best processes and to leverage advanced technology, informed by the firm’s enviable global knowledge and local insights.
“The establishment of this hub with [the Singapore Economic Development Board] reflects the required investment that will bring something genuinely new to the industry in the region.”
The firm has been in Singapore since launching in 1981 and held an alliance with local firm WongPartnership which ended in 2008. Four years later, it completed a tie-up with litigation boutique Cavenagh Law. That was arranged as a Formal Law Alliance, allowing the pair to offer Singapore and international advice from the same platform.
A concerted effort has been made in recent years to provide a greater number of cost and efficiency oriented products from the firm. Among these have included its own document drafting product CCDr@ft, a much-publicised adoption of AI software Kira and a partnership with Neota Logic for an online MiFID2 platform.
Clifford Chance Singapore managing partner Kai Schneider said: “The establishment of this hub demonstrates our commitment to Singapore, and the region, and builds on previous initiatives including receiving our QFLP licence and the establishment of a Formal Law Alliance with Cavenagh Law.”
The firm has made some significant changes to its AsiaPac offering in recent months, particularly to its Tokyo office. The firm announced that capital markets partner Reiko Sakimura and structured finance partner Leng-Fong Lai would be the next co-managing partners for Tokyo earlier this week, while litigation partner Peter Coney would be the new Japanese disputes practice head.
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