US firm Duane Morris has secured approval from the Singapore Ministry of Law to launch a joint law venture (JLV) with local firm Arfat Selvam Alliance.

Duane Morris, which has had a small, 3-lawyer presence in the Lion City since 2007, cited increasing transactional volumes in South East Asia as well the growth potential in areas such as Islamic finance as the drivers behind the move.

John Soroko, chairman and CEO of Duane Morris, said that the JLV will allow the firm to offer clients “an awful lot of transactional bench strength. This enables us to do two things: to offer our clients Singapore lawyers [and] also increases [headcount] by five- or sixfold. That gives us a credible presence.” Duane Morris also has offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Arfat Selvam is a 17-lawyer corporate practice specializing in corporate transactional work as well as Islamic finance.

The move means Duane Morris will become only the second US-based law firm to currently use the JLV model to structure its Singapore practice; Baker & McKenzie has enjoyed a successful relationship with Wong & Leow since 2001. A number of other US-based law firms have also explored the JLV model though in all of these cases the relationship has failed to stand the test of time. Shearman & Sterling partnered with Stamford Partnership (now known as Stamford Law) between 2001 and 2002, White & Case and Colin Ng & Partners lasted a little more than a year, calling off their alliance in 2002, and Orrick’s JLV with Helen Yeo & Partners ended when the latter merged to become Rodyk & Davidson in 2003.ALB

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