New managing partner of Rajah & Tann, Lee Eng Beng, will soon take the helm of the Singapore firm and intends to power the firm into a regional push – with the aim of growing the proportion of turnover derived overseas to 50% in five years.
Senior Counsel Lee will take over as the sole managing partner from 1 October 2010, following the appointment of co-managing partner Sundaresh Menon as the next Attorney General of Singapore.
At present, the firm has offices in Shanghai, Laos and Kuala Lumpur ¬. Lee intends to add new offices in Vietnam and Cambodia as well as beef up its presence in Malaysia and China.
“The Vietnam office will be operational in the next few months and Cambodia will be operational next year. In Indonesia we want to beef up our presence but I won’t comment if we are going to set up a physical office there,” Lee told ALB.
Rajah & Tann is also looking to break into the Middle East market – a result of the flood of investment capital flowing from Asia to the region. Lee sees an abundance of opportunities in cross- border deals. “From our backgrounding studies, [Middle East arbitration and corporate] are interesting markets to look into after we have set up our offices in Indochina. It’s a question of priorities: Southeast Asia comes first, but the Middle East will follow quite closely behind.”
Lee said the firm has been approached by a number of Middle Eastern suitors to form an alliance, but is still working out the best way to enter the market.
“The arrangement of the structure has not been finalised. It could be an office or an arrangement with one of the leading Middle Eastern firms. Our understanding is also that within the ME market, they are seeing a lot more business and investments with Asian countries rather than the traditional European and American companies,” he said.
Currently, Rajah & Tann has 20-25 legal professionals seconded to its overseas operations. Lee declines to give a figure but said he expects strong growth in numbers from his fee earners outside of Singapore.
Lee acknowledges the firm is on the constant lookout for “good and talented people” and will not hesitate to laterally hire.
In Singapore, the 300-lawyer strong firm has dedicated practice groups with lawyers qualified to practice in China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Indochina.
Explaining the firm’s expansion plans, Lee notes that emerging cities were underserved by global firms and in addition to having offices in gateway cities such as Singapore and Shanghai, it was a logical next step to expand where its lawyers are able to litigate locally and where the firm already has a cultural advantage.
Lee also notes that a new breed of Asian entrepreneurs is coming of age. “These new businesses have a strong sense of confidence about what Asians can do and are very comfortable using Asian law firms even for very complex cross-border transactions,” he said.ALB
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