Local law firm scores a first for Asia
SINGAPORE law firm Tan Peng Chin LLC has become the first Asian law firm to join the leading European network of companies providing legal services.
Tan Peng Chin LLC announced yesterday its membership – with effect from last month – as a “foreign correspondent” of Brussels-based Eurojuris. Mr Tan Peng Chin, who set up is law firm in 1994, said the move would open doors to the European market.
“For example, when a German or Swiss company needs to do something in Singapore or in South-east Asia, we can be the ones to advise them,” he said. Conversely, Singapore companies looking to do business in Europe could tap on Tan Peng Chin LLC’s connections to ease their entry into those markets, he added. As with its full-fledged members in the European Union (EU), Eurojuris’ foreign correspondents are held to a binding set of quality standards.
Eurojuris spokesman Christophe Marfoutine told TODAY the network had to be expanded to firms outside Europe since the “globalisation of the economy is a reality that Eurojuris cannot ignore”. He added: “With the developing of the international exchanges, legal cases
become more and more global. But the real added value of the reinforcement of our network abroad is the level of quality of the correspondents.” Mr Tan told TODAY that Eurojuris representatives approached his law firm to join the network when it was in town during the International Bar Association Conference last October.
Eurojuris has its origins in the late 1980s as a link-up between law firms in Belgium, France and Britain. Faced with competition from large, international law firms, the grouping of midsized law firms grew quickly across the continent. In 1993, it became a formal network following the creation of a single EU market. Today, it has 650 members across 610 cities in 30 European countries, as well as 34 correspondent law firms in South and North America, Eastern Europe and one in Asia. – LOH CHEE KONG
- Categories: About Eurojuris
