Private-client specialist law firm Withers has entered into a Formal Law Alliance (FLA) with Singapore’s KhattarWong. The FLA, which comes into effect in April, will see the firms form “Withers KhattarWong,” and the entire KhattarWong partnership will also become partners at Withers.

Withers' Singapore office currently has nine lawyers, including six partners, focusing on tax and estate planning, corporate, cross-border dispute resolution and arbitration advice.  The 70-lawyer KhattarWong's practices include banking and finance, property, corporate and securities, criminal litigation; intellectual property and technology, litigation and dispute resolution, and tax and private client. 

“Singapore is without question the financial and legal centre of South East Asia and has the highest concentration of millionaire households in the world,” said Withers Singapore office head Jay Krause in a statement. “The creation of Withers KhattarWong follows closely on the launch of Withers SBL, our new alliance in Australia and, taken together, these developments give us a substantially more significant presence through which we can assist clients in this hemisphere.”