Herbert Smiths moves into Indonesia

The setting up of the association with new five partner Indonesian firm Hiswara Bunjamin & Tandjung (HBT) co-incides with the relocation of highly rated corporate partner Chris Parsons who will be moving out to the Singapore office to head up the corporate and corporate finance practices in January.

It is expected that Parsons, who is responsible for the Italian and Spanish regions, will takeover the running of the Singapore region from Mark Newbery who will return to the London office in 2002.

According to Parsons, the link-up with HBT was formed through David Dawborn, a partner with Australian based Allens Arthur Robinson Group who was on secondment at Wiriadinata & Widyawan.

Dawborn has subsequently joined Herbert Smith as a partner and is being seconded to HBT.

Parsons says: "Our Singapore office got to know Dawborn quite well and they concluded that for our established practice they needed a strong Indonesian centre."

Head of corporate Caroline Goodall and corporate partner Stephen Hancock will assume Parsons' responsibility for Spain and Italy respectively when he moves out to Indonesia.

Herbert Smith is the third UK firm to establish a presence in Jakarta. Clifford Chance entered the region at the beginning of the year (The Lawyer 31 January) while Norton Rose has been in Indonesia for over five years.