The firm said it recently won approval from regulators in Singapore to form a joint venture with the 17-lawyer firm of Arfat Selvam Alliance. This would be the first such pairing of a Singapore firm with a U.S.-based law firm.
Duane Morris has a three-lawyer office in Singapore, headed by Eduardo Ramos Gomez, the former Mexican ambassador to Singapore. But its lawyers, though able to focus on transactional work in the region, are trained in U.S. law and cannot practice in Singapore courts.
According to today’s Philadelphia Inquirer article, John Soroko, chairman and chief executive officer of Duane Morris said the joint venture will connect clients from Duane Morris’ 24 offices in the United States, London, Vietnam, and Singapore with Arfat Selvam lawyers who have practices in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia.
Arfat Selvam has a substantial Islamic-law practice, helping clients ensure that transactions comply with requirements of the Quran, a key practice area for firms that seek to do business in Muslim regions of Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf. In addition to its Islamic-law practice, Arfat Selvam focuses on mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, and other transactional matters.
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