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.

DFDL Singapore houses the firm’s international, South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan), Middle East and English law practice groups and Nizam is expected to play a key role in further developing the firm’s Bangladesh expertise.

Prior to his appointment to DFDL Mekong, Nizam spent three years at Singapore corporate boutique Arfat Selvam. During that time, Nizam specialised in M&A, restructuring, corporate finance, banking and general corporate work.  Nizam also worked in Dhaka from 2002 to 2007 at Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed & Associates, Citibank and Lis & Lex.

The firm is currently advising on three ongoing IPP power projects in Bangladesh and has plans to further develop its presence in the country as well as other international work in the Middle East and elsewhere in South and South East Asia.

Nizam’s hire is the latest in a string of lateral appointments. In Cambodia, the firm hired former PwC tax partner Jean Lo and senior PwC Tax Lawyer Clint O’Connell; in Laos the firm poached former Ernst & Young tax specialist Jack Sheehan while in Thailand the firm lured Herbert Smith’s head of corporate & commercial Rashane Leerabandhu.

The hiring spree highlights the firm’s intentions to continue its rampant regional expansion. The firm launched its Singapore office last year (initially as a representative office and then with full offshore law firm status from January 2011), as a platform to the rest of Asia and beyond. Singapore is the firm’s ninth office and the sixth country in which DFDL operates.

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