Shipping specialist law firm Ince & Co has today launched Ince Law Alliance, a formal law alliance (FLA) with a newly-formed local entity, Incisive Law – to target English and Singapore advisory work in the maritime sector. Ince & Co will only be the second foreign firm to enter into such an alliance in Singapore after Wikborg Rein’s formation of Pan Asia Law Corporation in 2008. It is also the first English maritime firm to take this step.
The Incisive Law team will be led by partners Bill Ricquier and Mohan Subbaraman, both prominent lawyers with a wide range of maritime, insurance and offshore oil & gas experience. They will be joined by recent hires Bernard Yee and Carolyn Chia. Yee, who hails from Singapore firm Gurbani & Co, has now been appointed as a director of Incisive Law. Chia, who was previously with DLA Piper in London, joins as a senior associate of the new entity.
Richard Lovell will head the team as managing partner.
Ricquier, who specializes in a range of non-contentious maritime and energy matters – in particular ship finance and rig and vessel construction contracts – will take up the role of joint managing director of Incisive Law with Subbaraman. Subbaraman is a senior litigator in Singapore and has advised and represented ship owners, charterers and P&I Clubs in the Singapore courts in relations to a wide range of maritime casualty disputes. Subbaraman has a longstanding relationship with the offshore firm, having worked with Ince & Co on numerous matters over a period of 20 years as local counsel, whilst employed with Gurbani & Co.
According to Lovell, the addition of a number of lawyers to the venture has resulted in full-service capabilities on the non-contentious side for the new firm. “This is particularly interesting in view of the number of ship owners and insurance companies and insurance brokers who are looking to set up operations in Singapore,” he said. “This also meets the government’s objectives of greater integration of all offshore law firms to the local legal community through alliances and joint ventures. The government is very aware that the offshore firms represent a gateway to the international business community through their interface with that community,” Richard Lovell said.
Lovell, Ricquier, Subbaraman, Chia and Yee are joined by Tricia Tong, a newly appointed Ince & Co partner in Singapore who was promoted to the partnership last month. Tong has transferred to Incisive Law from Ince & Co to her new role as an executive director.
Ince & Co will be targeting work involving the set up of operations and headquarters in Singapore with the new local law capabilities it has gained from the establishment of Ince Law Alliance.
According to the firm, its plans to grow its onshore capability were a response partially driven by client demand. “In terms of wider significance for the market, we see this alliance as very much in line with the government’s liberalization program, fulfilling their main objectives of growing the overall legal market and to attract more international business to Singapore,” Ince & Co deputy managing partner in the Singapore office Simon Spark said.
A foreign law alliance combines two firms to form a third entity – to operate as a single service provider to its clients.
Ince launched in Singapore with a two man-office in 1992, focusing on pure shipping work – with a particular focus in marine casualties. It now has an offshore office of close to 20 lawyers covering all aspects of shipping including ship finance, energy & offshore, international trade and insurance.ALB
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