Berwin Leighton Paisner is closing its office in Yangon, Myanmar, due the lack of an adequate flow of local work. Chris Hughes, the office managing partner, and his team of four Myanmar-based lawyers, will be leaving the firm.

“With the majority of the Myanmar related work currently being serviced out of the BLP Singapore office, the flow of locally generated business does not justify currently maintaining a physical presence on the ground,” the firm said in a statement. The firm will continue to work on Myanmar transactions from desks in Singapore and Hong Kong. 

BLP opened its Yangon office in November 2015 after hiring Hughes, formerly the managing partner of the Baker McKenzie office there. The firm first established a presence in the Southeast Asian country in 2014, when local firm Legal Network Consultants (LNC) became a member of BLP’s Asia network. BLP has been doing Myanmar work since 2012.

 

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