Managing Partner and Head of Litigation and Dispute Management Philip Fong comments in The Law Society Gazette article titled 'The lion's share'

Eversheds Harry Elias Managing Partner and Head of Litigation and Dispute Management Philip Fong was quoted in The Law Society Gazette article titled 'The lion's share'. The article was first published on 26 November 2018.

The lion's share

Below is an excerpt from the article which features comments from Philip Fong:

What also attracts business is the significant role played by government in planning and investment. ‘Singapore is a successful, and vibrant, mixed-market economy,’ says Philip Fong, managing partner of Eversheds Harry Elias (EHE), the result of the 2017 merger between Eversheds Sutherland and Singapore’s Harry Elias Partnership (currently employing 100 fee-earners, including 22 partners in Singapore). ‘There is no doubt that some of that success can be attributed to carefully managed intervention by the government, particularly by encouraging investment and other support from private enterprise.

‘The Singapore legal sector has a highly educated workforce, a respected judiciary, leading academics, and one of the key arbitration centres in Asia,’ Fong adds. The government is ‘building on these foundations to transform Singapore into a global legal centre’.

Fong points to the ‘Lawyers Go Global’ programme launched in January by MinLaw, the Law Society of Singapore and Enterprise Singapore. This consists of eight overseas missions over the next three years to bring Singapore lawyers to ‘fast-growing regional countries’, such as China, India and ASEAN members; training on foreign markets; and profile-raising and promotion of the ‘Singapore lawyer’ brand overseas.

‘Singapore is one of the fastest-growing arbitration centres in the world,’ says Fong, who heads the EHE litigation practice group. The numbers speak for themselves: 452 new cases were filed in 2017 from parties in 58 countries, including from Europe and the Middle East, valued at $4.07bn, according to SIAC’s annual report. This represents a 32% increase on the 343 cases filed in 2016, and more than five times the number a decade ago.

‘This growth reflects a number of factors including a stable, neutral and high-quality legal system,’ says Fong, whose firm boasts one of the largest arbitration teams in Singapore, with more than 15 specialists, including nine partners. ‘We are confident this trend will continue. In January, the Supreme Court of Judicature (Amendment) Act was passed, clarifying the jurisdiction of the SICC. This is now the same as the Singapore High Court’s, to hear proceedings relating to international commercial arbitration under the Singapore International Arbitration Act. ‘As a result, parties benefit from access to both local and international judges, and can transfer matters from the SICC to the High Court and vice versa,’ Fong says.

Full article can be found here. 

Author: Marialuisa Taddia, The Law Society Gazette