Nabarro is set to launch in Singapore later this year, marking the firm's second office outside of the UK.

The firm was granted a licence to practise in the region last week and will relocate construction partner Emerson Holmes to head up the office, which is due to open for business in November.

The new base, which will focus on construction, engineering and international arbitration, will become the firm's fourth office alongside London, Sheffield and Brussels.

The firm also has three best friends relationships throughout Europe – GSK Stockman + Kollegen in Germany, August & Debouzy in France and Nunziante Magrone in Italy.

GSK launched its own office in Singapore in November 2009.

International committee chair Michael Hales said: "With GSK opening their office in Singapore it was obvious that we should think about how we could collaborate with them and build something alongside them.

"Singapore is the hub for dispute resolution for Southeast Asia and the amount of arbitration work is increasing all the time. We felt that this was an opportunity that we could capitalise upon and opening an office became the logical conclusion. "

The launch comes after Nabarro rolled out a new entrepreneurs group within its corporate practice earlier this summer, with the aim of targeting more start-up companies.