Son of founding partner, A.P. Rajah and head of Tan Rajah & Cheah’s dispute resolution team, Chelva Rajah is the first Singapore appointed member of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Arbitral Tribunal. He will serve on the panel for a term of four years.

Yulchon, together with Canadian firms Blakes and Stikeman Elliot have advised on one of Korea’s largest outbound deals to date: a US$1.1 billion investment by Korea Resources Corporation (KORES) and Canadian mining giant, Capstone, centered on their joint acquisition of 100% of Canadian miner, Far West. The deal closed on 17 June.

Duane Morris & Selvam, the first US-Singapore joint venture to be approved under the Enhanced Joint Law Venture model has poached two out of three senior partners from local maritime firm Navin & Co, to jumpstart its new shipping and maritime practice. A third senior shipping lateral was hired from a separate local firm. A fourth director was appointed to boost its corporate capabilities.

India’s largest private sector bank and second-largest bank in terms of assets ICICI Bank has undertaken a US$1bn bond offering. Davis Polk & Wardwell advised the issuer and the joint lead were advised by Latham & Watkins. Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co were the issuer’s Indian counsel and Al Tamimi & Company advised the issuer’s opinion as to DIFC (Dubai international financial center) law.

King & Spalding, SNR Denton and Ogier have played a role in advising a benchmark yield offering from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) – the US$750m Saudi-issued dual-listed sukuk that many hopes mark the return of GCC-originated, US-denominated sukuks.

A significant spike in investigations-related work in Asia has Herbert Smith beefing up its disputes and corporate investigations team. Its latest partner hire, Kyle Wombolt – an Asia-based US investigations specialist– will join the firm as its 76th Asia-based disputes lawyer.

Clifford Chance has further expanded Middle East presence with the opening of Doha-based office in the Qatar Financial Center. The office will be the firm’s third in the region.

As is so often the case with legal services markets considering liberalization, the opening of Malaysia’s legal market to foreign law firms is a debate that has gone on for longer than many lawyers in the country care to remember.

Our last ALB special report on Malaysia reflected a country with a thriving Islamic finance market, with sukuk issues far out-stripping those coming out of the Gulf. Malaysia was also well on-track to become the focal point of Islamic finance globally. A year on, those aspirations have remained, as the country retains its status as the largest issuer of sukuk, accounting for 64.6% of the total global issued outstanding as at end-June 2010.

The recently-established Singapore office of SE Asian law firm DFDL Mekong has lured Bangladesh specialist, Shahwar Nizam, from Singapore joint law venture firm Duane Morris & Selvam. Nizam will join the firm as a senior adviser.