Two of Southeast Asia’s largest law firms, Singapore’s Allen & Gledhill and Malaysia’s Zaid Ibrahim & Co, have terminated the strategic alliance they forged only two years ago.
The alliance was thought to be ‘symptomatic of a new force in Southeast Asia’ and was both expected to dominate the legal services arena in the region and provide the catalyst for a host of similar moves. But none of these eventuated, and according to many in the region, the entente was dead long before it was silently killed off by both firms late last year.
An unsuccessful adventure
When the strategic alliance was announced in early 2008, both firms cited the forces of globalisation and the desire to create a regional heavyweight as the rationale behind the move.
“This alliance creates a premier legal powerhouse for the ASEAN region, able to deliver pan-ASEAN solutions and advice,” the firms both said in a press release in late 2007. “Globalisation is reinforcing the trend for competitive alliances in the legal marketplace to better serve increased cross border trade flow and mergers and acquisitions… this agreement marks the next phase in our regional expansion plans, offering our clients a level of service and regional capability the market has not seen before.”
But the rhetoric was far from the reality. “The biggest achievement of the alliance was probably getting a few dozen people to turn out for the opening press conference,” said one lawyer who has been following the alliance since late 2007. “If you look at what has happened since, it has been a bit of an anti-climax.”
Indeed, it is hard to pinpoint what the strategic alliance achieved in the short space of time it was around. “The merger claimed to offer both firms a ticket into ASEAN…it was expected that they would claim the lion’s share of work being transacted and be in the best position to expand as a result of it…this just did not happen,” said one lawyer close to both firms. “The only thing to come out of the alliance was a joint venture office in Vietnam and whether this can be termed successful is still very much up for debate.”
Since parting ways both firms have pushed ahead with their own expansion plans. Zaid has announced that it intends to open offices in Sydney and Melbourne to service the nascent commercial and consumer Islamic finance markets there while A&G is believed to have set up its own associated firm in Kuala Lumpur. The firm now enjoys an association with Ramhat Lim & Partners – which was formed on 1 January 2010 – and is incidentally the new home to a number of former Zaid partners.
For the full analysis see Thursday’s ALB e-newsletter.
