The Singapore government is to allow foreign firms to practise Singaporean law following recommendations made by a review committee of its local legal market.
The move is one of three key recommendations aimed at liberalising the legal market made by the committee, which the government has accepted.
Under the proposal, the government will introduce a qualifying foreign law firm (QFLF) scheme which will grant licences to five foreign firms to practise Singapore law through employing Singapore-qualified lawyers.
Firms will be invited to apply for licences through a request for proposal period where they will be evaluated by their “commitment to Singapore”. Criteria that will be assessed include the size and constituency of the firm’s office, the areas of work the firms will engage in and the countries the firm will service from Singapore.
A second proposal is to extend the scope of foreign joint law ventures to create enhanced joint law ventures (EJLV) which will allow firms to hire Singapore-qualified lawyers to advise on Singapore law.
Thirdly, foreign law firms in existing JLVs will be permitted to hire one Singapore-qualified lawyer for every foreign lawyer it houses in its Singapore office.
Additionally, firms in existing JLVs are permitted to propose alternative structures that go beyond existing arrangements to the Singaporean Law Ministry and Attorney General, at their discretion.
The government has indicated that the QFLF scheme may take up to 12 months to roll out, while the EJLV scheme is expected to be implemented 18-24 months after the QFLF scheme has been put in place.
The government will also allow foreign law firms to participate in more areas of international arbitration through employing Singapore-qualified lawyers.
The local government is to “fine tune” these initiatives before further liberalising the sector.
Welcome decision
We will be studying the recommendations of Justice Rajah’s committee closely, but my initial reaction is that the proposed changes are very welcome and are very positive for the Singapore legal market (as a whole).
It is particularly pleasing that firms that are not currently in JLVs, such as ourselves, would also appear to have an opportunity to participate in the more liberalised market through the Qualifying Foreign Law Firm Scheme.
We will obviously need to look at the various options set out in the report, but we have been rapidly investing in and expanding our presence in Singapore over the past 12 to 18 months and we are very excited about the prospects and opportunities for us to continue to grow, including considering the development of a Singapore law capability. The proposed changes also look very positive for young local lawyers, giving them an opportunity to continue to practice Singaporean law while having the platform of an international firm to work on exciting transactions regionally and globally.
Welcome move
We welcome the proposals released by the Government of Singapore today.
Clifford Chance has been in Singapore since 1981 and has enjoyed a productive joint venture with Wong Partnership since 2003.
We believe that these proposals provide a welcome range of options for the growth of the legal industry in Singapore, and look forward to examining the finer details of the proposals when available.