Straits Lawyer
Business LAWASIA
www.thcpress.com
Volume 2:11
Joseph Tan Jude Benny in the lead in Singapore
Shipping law firm Joseph Tan Jude Benny has emerged as Singapore’s largest, totaling 25 lawyers after poaching seven from rival Khattar Wong & Partners. Khattar’s head of shipping Danny Chua led the migration, joined by his deputy at Khattar Timothy Tan and former merchant navy officer Mohamed Goush Marikan.
Jude P Benny, founding partner of Joseph Tan Jude Benny, explained the firm’s expansion as a response to the emergence of Singapore as an international maritime centre. “Singapore has a real chance to be a major centre for shipping litigation and dispute resolution in matters of collision and environmental damage control in international waters,” he said in comments to the press. “We want to be party to this development.”
Joseph Tan Jude Benny is not the only shipping practice reorganising its resources as Singapore gears up to international shipping status. Local practice Drew & Napier recently lost its top shipping lawyer Steven Chong to Rajah & Tan. (sic)
Further, with the liberalisation of legal practice in Singapore, more foreign legal firms are establishing themselves in Singapore with off-shore licences. Although they cannot practise in Singapore courts as advocates and solicitors, they are allowed to be involved in arbitration cases.