Big Four's EY Hires Lawyers on Demand APAC Co-Founder as Singapore Partner
John Knox leaves LOD after 11 years with the flexible lawyering service pioneer and its predecessor firms.
December 09, 2019 at 05:04 AM
4 minute read
Big Four accounting firm EY has hired John Knox, a co-founder of the Asia-Pacific arm of flexible lawyering service pioneer Lawyers On Demand (LOD), as a partner and leader of its Asia-Pacific legal managed services based in Singapore.
Knox leaves LOD after 11 years with the ALSP and its predecessor firms. In 2008, he founded Sydney-based Advent Lawyers, which merged with Perth-based rival Balance Legal in 2012, becoming AdventBalance. In 2016, LOD merged with AdventBalance and Knox stayed on as a director, spending time in Sydney, Singapore and New York. Earlier this year, LOD acquired Australian ALSP Lexvoco.
Previously, Knox was head of business development at Allen & Overy in Hong Kong and New York. Before that, He was a business development manager at legacy Mallesons Stephen Jaques and legacy Deacons Australia, both in Sydney.
At EY, Knox will help grow the auditor's legal ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region, focusing on alternative legal services. "EY [L]aw is combining people, process and technology in a way that few can to help clients deliver more with less," Knox said in a LinkedIn post. "The recent acquisitions of Riverview Law and Pangea3 just highlight the ambition," he noted.
EY acquired Pangea3, which outsources legal work to India, from Thomson Reuters in June, and DLA Piper-backed Riverview, which provides a virtual legal management platform, in August 2018. The ALSP acquisitions helped the accounting giant jump four places to the top spot in Acritas's global ranking of the brand strength of ALSPs this year, Acritas director Jo Summers told The American Lawyer in October, displacing Big Four rival PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Several ALSPs have expanded into Asia in recent years, including Pinsent Masons launching its flexible lawyering arm Vario in Hong Kong earlier this year with the hire of former Axiom Asia head Kirsty Dougan, and in Singapore last year. Also earlier this year, U.S.-based Elevate entered Hong Kong by acquiring locally based flexible lawyering service provider Cognatio Law, which was launched by Lesley Hobbs, a former Hong Kong head of client solutions at LOD.
In addition to alternative legal services, EY has been aggressively expanding its legal services in Asia since last year. Its Hong Kong law firm, LC Lawyers, recruited five partners from Am Law 100 firms, including managing partner Rossana Chu from Troutman Sanders. In Singapore, EY launched a new local law firm last year, Atlas Asia Law Corp., by recruiting a four-lawyer team from Dentons Rodyk & Davidson, led by senior corporate partner Evelyn Ang. And in September, EY Law Vietnam hired former Sullivan & Cromwell lawyer Michael Beckman as its managing partner.
In July, EY's Chinese member law firm, Chen & Co. Law Firm, expanded into the southern China technology hub of Shenzhen via a merger with local firm Guangdong Allied Law Firm.
Dmitry Tetiouchev, EY Law's Singapore-based Asia-Pacific leader, told The Asian Lawyer in April that the Asia expansion will continue. He plans to add a broad technology practice in Hong Kong as well as expanding its firms in Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
A Sydney-based spokesperson for LOD said Knox was in the U.S. to explore the potential for LOD to enter the market, but moved back to Singapore for personal reasons and, after extensive discussions around possible roles within the business, he decided to leave LOD.
The spokesperson added that "LOD remains interested in the potential of the U.S. market" and that the company will "continue to review acquisition opportunities and has just not found the right one as yet".
"None of this changes our plans in any of our markets. We continue to work with in-house teams and ambitious lawyers, helping them to work smarter and more innovatively with our secondments, consulting and legal manages services offerings," the spokesperson said.
EY has been contacted for comment.
Related stories:
Big Four's EY Law Has Big Plans in Asia
Alternative Legal Service Providers Continue Expansion in Asia
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