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Reed Smith has continued its expansion into Asia with the opening of a Singapore office this month.
The launch has been in the works for about two years and makes for the firm's fourth office in Asia after Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Reed Smith now has more than 135 lawyers in the region.
Global managing partner Gregory B. Jordan said the firm will have a tailored focus in Singapore, concentrating on its trading and commodities practice, shipping and international arbitration.
The trading and commodities practice is housed within Reed Smith's energy and natural resources industry group, which will play a large role in the Singapore location. And the firm's financial industry group represents a number of large banks that are involved in the trading and commodities market, Jordan noted.
To start, the office will have five partners and, in short order, will be up to about 15 attorneys once associates are brought on board, Jordan said. With the amount of work the firm expects to get from its existing clients doing business in Singapore and the work brought over from some of the new lawyers, Jordan said he would anticipate the Singapore office adding between $10 million and $15 million in revenue by the end of the first full calendar year.
Reed Smith's Singapore office will be led by Gautam Bhattacharyya, who will relocate from London, and will also include new partners Barry Stimpson, Simon Sloane and Philip Antcliffe. An additional lawyer from the firm's London office has also relocated.
Reed Smith has leased temporary office space in Singapore and will move into permanent space in Ocean Financial Centre in early 2013.
Stimpson and Sloane will join the firm from London-based Holman Fenwick Willan. Antcliffe is rejoining Reed Smith after departing the firm in 2011 for Citigroup. Prior to his move, Antcliffe was an associate in Reed Smith's energy and natural resources group in London.
While a number of Am Law 200 firms, including K&L Gates, applied for Singapore's second offering of a Qualifying Foreign Law Practice license this summer, Reed Smith has foregone that route because it doesn't intend to practice local Singaporean law.
Singapore first opened its doors to foreign firms in 2000 by allowing joint ventures and then issued the first round of QFLPs in 2008. Six firms, mainly from London, were awarded the licenses and more than 20 firms applied for the second round in 2012. The licenses have not yet been awarded.
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