The commitment of top UK law firms to Asia has been thrown into doubt with the decisions of Denton Wilde Sapte and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer to axe offices in the region.

As revealed by legalweek.com, Dentons is to close its entire Asian network with an estimated 100 staff in Hong Kong, Bejing, Tokyo and Singapore threatened with redundancy. The firm, which attributed the decision to a lack of work in the region, hopes to be able to relocate a small number of staff to other offices.