When Addleshaw Goddard opened in Singapore in 2012, it marked the start of a belated international push by the firm. Citing a need to take its arbitration practice to the next level and move closer to its clients in Asia, the firm appointed litigation partner and ex-Winston & Strawn lawyer Jamie Harrison to lead the office. At the same time, senior partners were plotting Addleshaws' expansion into the Middle East to complement the practice.

Two years on the firm still has just one partner based permanently on the ground in the city-state. With the conclusion of a firmwide strategic review due to be unveiled at next week's partner conference when the firm's plans for the next five years will be outlined, questions could be raised over what will happen to Addleshaws' first non-UK office.

Though partners were careful never to give a precise headcount target at the time of opening, there was certainly talk of future expansion.

Harrison, who continues to oversee the office, maintains that it was always meant to be a small offering in Singapore, focused on international rather than local work. Nigel Francis, who now heads the Asia region, admits that the base may have taken a backseat as the firm shifted its focus to Hong Kong, where it launched in May 2013. 

But he remains confident of future investment. "It was really the need to establish Hong Kong, get it bedded in, which essentially took attention away from Singapore for a period," he tells Legal Week. "The approach is to build that practice out – and it's only really a question of timing."

Francis also stresses the need to look at Singapore as part of a wider Asia offering, rather than a standalone entity. In Hong Kong the office has grown from two to 24 lawyers since its launch, including three partners. The aim is to have up to 45 people in Hong Kong, and potentially a team of five or six partners. In Dubai there are three partners on the ground and one consultant.

One problem with seeing an Asian offering in a holistic way is that Singapore and Hong Kong now have rather different roles to play for Asian and global investors, with the city-state serving as a hub for ASEAN activity and Hong Kong functioning
as a springboard for Chinese deals. There are also questions over how Addleshaws can compete in Singapore given that even established international firms continue to grapple with practice restrictions on overseas firms, fee pressure and competition from a highly sophisticated band of local outfits. Firms on the ground have found it particularly difficult to build offices around a disputes practice, as opposed to a corporate-first strategy.

"It is a challenge," Francis acknowledges. "[The competition] is one reason why one wouldn't want to rush any investment plan; you've got to know why you're there and what you're trying to do. 

"In terms of being able to demonstrate that we have a credible presence on the ground we know that ideally that would be enlarged to include a full-time corporate partner, but we do genuinely intend to support it from here [Hong Kong]. Others I can't speak for – does anyone make substantial sums of money in Singapore?"

He adds that the firm remains focused on international work and has no intention of forming either a joint law venture or formal law alliance because of the amount of investment required.

For now at least, there seem to be no plans to close the office. According to fellow partner and head of the construction practice Jonathan Tattersall, it remains crucial for Addleshaws to have bases in all of the major arbitration centres, excluding Paris and New York.

As for Francis, an important justification for Singapore has been the flow of work back to the UK, as well as its ability to complement a potential construction practice in Hong Kong. "Outbound referral work is significant," he says. "You can't measure the success of the office simply on the basis of its domestic billings.

"At the moment the investment justifies itself and we're happy with where we are… We've had substantial instructions in the UK that we wouldn't have had but for the fact that we're in Singapore."

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So what about the rest of Asia?

Away from Hong Kong and Singapore, Addleshaws also has a formal alliance with Japanese best friend Hashidate Law Office. In February the firm mooted plans to apply for a licence in Beijing in order to support Hong Kong and to further tap the PRC market for outbound and disputes work.

Francis says there are now no plans for an office in the capital, and denies that having a base there is crucial for outbound work.

"We did look at whether Beijing is something we should consider and the answer to that is currently 'no'," he says, "It has to be a question of priorities and you haven't got infinite amounts to invest in every different direction. You've got to work out what comes first."

In South East Asia, there was talk of allying with a regional firm, but this is also now on the backburner.

"As Hong Kong was developing there was a suggestion for a tie up; I think we decided it was too early in the day to go forward with it," Francis says. "One doesn't rule out a tie up but there isn't anyone who has currently got a regional network which is bedded in, in any meaningful sense."

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