Singapore | Drew & Napier’s Deputy CEO Sushil Nair outlines the strategic focus of DNA in Asian Legal Business (ALB)’s October issue

Drew & Napier’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sushil Nair was invited by Asian Legal Business (ALB) to share more about the strategic focus of Drew Network Asia (DNA) and how expansive jurisdictional coverage can translate to enhanced client service.

Sushil shared in the interview that DNA was established with a view to putting together an alliance of Southeast Asian law firms who are existing leaders in their respective jurisdictions. Initially, the firms that comprised the alliance were Drew & Napier of Singapore, Makarim & Taira S. of Indonesia and Shearn Delamore & Co. of Malaysia in 2020. In 2021, we added a Philippines firm, Martinez Vergara & Gonzalez Sociedad and last month, we added a fifth firm, Tilleke & Gibbins, expanding our regional footprint to 9 jurisdictions within ASEAN giving us the capability to service clients throughout the region. DNA is unique in having a collection of blue-chip firms as its members, covering substantially all of ASEAN.

He continued, “Drew & Napier as a firm has significant experience in dealing with and managing cross border transactions and disputes. We were being constantly engaged to work on cross border transactions, often playing the role of the lead legal advisor, coordinating with other firms across the region and internationally. It made sense for us to develop an alliance, but we were acutely conscious of the need to ensure that the parties we worked with would constitute some of the best legal minds in the region. The DNA member firms all meet this requirement and we now have the ability to provide seamless access to top legal advisors from the region’s top firms for our cross-border clients.”

“A number of Singapore firms, Drew & Napier included, have seen that looking outward and being in a position to assist clients across borders is essential to the development of legal services within Southeast Asia. ASEAN is an economically linked region and Singapore is known as a global financial and commercial hub. We recognise the increasing need to service clients across borders and DNA ensures the parties we work with constitute some of the best legal minds in the region through our network of “blue-chip” premium law firms. Our locally qualified lawyers across the different jurisdictions have significant on the ground experience and insights to the ever evolving business and legal landscape,” he added.

On the recent addition of Tilleke & Gibbins to DNA, Sushil commented that it would allow DNA and its clients to “gain access to market-leading legal practitioners providing a full range of legal services across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, expanding DNA’s coverage to a total of nine jurisdictions within ASEAN.” This strategic collaboration will support global and regional enterprises as they look to take advantage of the many opportunities across the Southeast Asian region both in the short- and long-term.

He also added, “Our goal is to give our clients home advantage through local expertise”.

You may read the full article on ALB here.