Clyde & Co law firm news

Vinson & Elkin has joined the wave of international firms launching new offices in the Middle East as it opens an office in Riyadh, following similar announcements by Baker & McKenzie in May, Gates & Partners in April and McGrigors in March to set up offices in the region. These are in addition to Covington & Burlington’s Middle East dual office push in Riyadh and King Abdullah’s Economic City in January 2011.

Boutique Australian firm Rockwell Bates has announced a mutual referral and preferred partner relationship with Mumbai-based firm Rajani Associates.

Senior partner in Clyde & Co's global aviation group, Jim Edmunds, has left the firm – taking senior Clyde associate Anthony Frances with him – to help launch UK aviation specialist firm Gate and Partners in Dubai.

Chris Bertuch has been appointed as the new group general counsel & company secretary, at Insurance Australia Group (IAG) effective 2 May 2011.

Clyde & Co has poached Ashurst’s head of aviation for Asia, Middle East and Africa Paul Jebely, to launch the Asian arm of the firm’s global aviation finance practice.

Insurance Australia Group general counsel Michael Cripps has returned to private practice and China after a five year stint in-house in Sydney.

在澳洲最大的保险公司之一IAG工作5年后，Michael Cripps重新回到律所执业。Cripps将在今年2月底以全球保险业务合伙人的身份加入其礼上海办公室，集中发展律所在中国保险方面的法律业务。

Insurance Australia Group general counsel Michael Cripps has returned to private practice and China after a five year stint in-house in Sydney.

Clyde & Co’s construction practice seems to be growing as fast as some of the new skyscrapers appearing on city skylines around the region and the firm’s latest move – hiring ex-Minter Ellison partner Ian Cocking for its Hong Kong office – is in preparation for the launch of a China construction practice, due Jan 2011.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), the governing body for international cricket, has selected two Bangalore-based boutique firms to provide legal advice to the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup in India. Copyright Integrity International (CII) and the law offices of Nandan Kamath (NK) will both work closely with the ICC’s in-house legal team on rights protection and general commercial matters.

A pioneer of SIAC’s initiatives in India, Ganesh Chandru, has left Singapore Big Four firm Rajah & Tann to join Steven Lim – an arbitration specialist who recently left Baker Botts to join Clyde’s international arbitration team in Singapore.

Al Tamimi & Company has appointed Paul Turner as regional head of its arbitration group. Turner joins the firm from the London office of Clyde & Co, where he was a litigation partner specialiSing in cross-border disputes across the Middle East with a particular focus on Iraq, Iran and Libya.

The strong currency, an increasing amount of work coming in from countries around the region, and the growing international reputation of Singapore law firms is luring foreign lawyers away from top and mid-tier international firms and has created a steady stream of Singaporean lawyers practicing overseas going home to work for local firms.

The rise of intra-Asian trade and investment has ignited a swell of opportunities for international disputes, resulting in a growing amount of arbitration instruction hailing from emerging jurisdictions such as India and the Middle East, according to Singapore-based Clyde & Co partner Steven Lim.

Qatar is in the process of launching new and stricter licensing requirements for international law firms looking to establish an outpost in the lucrative GCC state.

Clyde & Co has poached Baker Botts arbitration specialist Steven Lim from Hong Kong to join the firm's Singapore office as a partner in its international arbitration team.

Simmons & Simmons has lost veteran partner George Booth to Clyde & Co, who in his six-year tenure at the firm’s Abu Dhabi office has headed both its corporate and projects practice groups at various times.

Less than four months after seeing its head of IP for the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, Joycia Young, defect to Clyde & Co, DLA Piper has lost yet another practice head in the Gulf. This time the lawyer treading the now well-worn path out of DLA’s Middle East practice is Rebecca Kelly, formerly head of the firm’s UAE law regulatory practice for the region.

Asia will undergo infrastructure and arbitration booms in the next ten years and the expanding market has room to accommodate more foreign law practices.

Jumeirah chief legal officer and general counsel Robert Swade has ruthlessly culled the group’s legal panel from 12 firms to five this year – with Al Tamimi, Mayer Brown, Clyde & Co and Pinsent Masons the only firms out of the original 12 to survive unscathed.