Covers case studies, practical queries from recent calls and requests for advice, and conclusions gleaned from discussions with speaker’s colleagues from around the world.

Singapore arbitration venue Maxwell Chambers has teamed up with Arbitration Place of Toronto and Ottawa and London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre (IDRC) to launch the International Arbitration Centre Alliance (IACA), a global hybrid physical and virtual hearings platform.

For multinational businesses operating in Asia’s varied markets, local workforces are critical to their success. Businesses thus need to be aware of and comply with the relevant employment, regulatory and remuneration requirements that apply to the specific markets they are operating in, as failure to do so can have negative consequences.

Ajay Sahni & Associates (ASA) is a boutique corporate law practice focused on intellectual property, innovation and technology. The firm was founded in 1983 with the objective of rendering creative, robust and effective strategic legal advice and representational services.

Rajah & Tann Asia, Cooley and CMS have joined forces to launch Lupl, a global legal tech collaboration platform connecting lawyers in more than 100 jurisdictions.

Given the importance of the water resources in Indonesia, the governments of Republic of Indonesia just recently issued Law No. 17 of 2019 on Water Resources (“Water Resource Law”) to reform the former water resources law. Previously, according to Law No. 7 of 2004 on Water Resources (which has been nullified by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia), the individual or business entities were allowed to obtain the rights to exploit and/or utilize water, including for the purpose to provide the drinking water. The Water Resource Law, however, provides a stricter requirement as the rights of the private sector to exploit and/or utilize the water resource are tightly limited to certain conditions.

U.S. law firm Vinson & Elkins has announced that it will close its Beijing office by the end of 2020, making it the latest international firm to cut back on its offering in the Greater China region.

The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) is offering a pilot programme to accelerate grants of patent applications in all technology fields, which would make it the application-to-grant process in the world.

Submissions for ALB’s annual ranking of the best law firms for M&A in Asia are now open.

UK law firm Stephenson Harwood is closing its seven-year-old office in Beijing and refocus its offering in Hong Kong, following a review of its presence in Asia.