International law firm Simmons & Simmons has announced that it is opening an office in Singapore. It will be the firm’s fifth office in Asia, after Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.
Commenting on the opening, Simmons & Simmons’ Managing Partner Jeremy Hoyland, said: “We are pleased about the granting of a licence to operate in Singapore by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), and the opening of our first office in South East Asia.”
“We are expanding our Asia practice in response to the demands of both our international clients and Asia domiciled clients across the region, and in particular, their requirements around the increasing levels of intra-regional investment and trade activity. Our focus will be on the cross-border transactional and disputes needs of clients in the Asset Management, Energy & Infrastructure, Financial Institutions, Life Sciences and TMT sectors,” he added.
Four partners and a team of associates will join the Singapore office. The initial four partners will be:
Dan Marjanovic – Dan, who has previously worked in Singapore for over ten years, joins from Norton Rose in Sydney. He has considerable experience in acting for banks, corporate borrowers and project parties on major financing transactions in the Asia Pacific region.
Alexander Shepherd – Alex will relocate from Simmons & Simmons’ Dubai office where he advises on commercial, regulatory and intellectual property work with a particular focus on telecoms, media, broadcasting, IT and financial institutions. He has significant experience advising on corporate finance transactions in the TMT sector and also advises on regulatory telecoms and media matters.
Jason Valoti – Jason is relocating from Simmons & Simmons’ Hong Kong office. Jason acts for international investment banks in relation to structured and OTC derivative transactions, synthetic and cash CDOs, CLOs and repackaged securities and other asset and fund backed structures. Jason also advises international investment banks in relation to equity and commodity linked note, warrant and certificate issues.
Peter Wright – Peter is relocating from the firm’s London office where he works in the Projects team, and is focused on energy and infrastructure projects in the UK and internationally. Peter advises on large scale electricity and oil & gas projects, including independent power projects and liquefied natural gas transactions, and on the acquisition of energy assets. He advises sponsors, lenders and host governments on projects in the UK, Continental Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the US.
The Singapore office will be located in the Marina Bay Financial Centre, which is Singapore’s largest integrated mix-use development and includes other international law firms and financial institutions.
The firm will share an office with TMI Associates, Simmons & Simmons’ alliance firm in Japan. The two firms will collaborate on marketing activity as well as servicing the needs of both firms’ Japanese clients in the region.
The announcement comes during a period of expansion for Simmons & Simmons, with recent office openings in Munich in March this year, and the opening of its innovative operations in Bristol in October 2012.
