London-headquartered Penningtons Manches Cooper now has four partners in Singapore after hiring banking and finance lawyer Nick How from local Big Four outfit Rajah & Tann.

Singapore’s Rajah & Tann has recruited asset finance specialist Paul Ng as the head of its aviation practice. He was most recently the Asia head of aviation at Milbank.

Rajah & Tann Singapore has advised Midtown Properties, a unit of Worldwide Hotels Group, on its S$525 million ($389 million) acquisition of a hotel and a shopping arcade in the Little India district from the real estate developer UOL Group, which was represented by WongPartnership.

After spending 15 years or more at Singapore’s domestic legal giant Rajah & Tann, disputes specialists Danny Ong and Wern-Jhien Yam decided to break away to blaze their own trail. The duo founded Setia Law, which prides itself as innovative and solutions-driven while boasting expertise in crypto disputes and restructuring.

Danny Ong and Wern-Jhien Yam, former partners of Singapore’s Rajah & Tann, have established a disputes-focused law firm called Setia Law.

Malaysian law firm Tay & Partners has hired intellectual property specialist Kim Poh Ng as a partner in Kuala Lumpur from Christopher & Lee Ong, Rajah & Tann’s local member firm.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have irreversibly upended workplace dynamics by relegating in-office work to an option for many employees, and law firms are not insulated from the evolving trend. Leaders share with ALB how they respond to this paradigm shift by nurturing an “ownership mentality” among the up-and-coming generation of talent and cultivating workplace allegiance in the post-pandemic era.

The Bangkok office of Singapore Big Four law firm Rajah & Tann has hired arbitration specialist Vanina Sucharitkul as a partner in Bangkok. She will relocate to the Singapore office in due course

Rajah & Tann Singapore has advised the Hong Kong-listed Link Real Estate Investment Trust on its S$2.16 billion ($1.6 billion) acquisition of two Singapore shopping malls from Mercatus Co-operative, which was represented by Allen & Gledhill.

​​​​​​​Latham & Watkins, YKVN, and Rajah & Tann Singapore have advised Vietnamese EV maker VinFast on its planned IPO on the Nasdaq, with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and VILAF representing the underwriters.