About

‘Don’t be afraid to go beyond your comfort zone when you feel it is appropriate – whether it is standing up to your business when you think they are going too far or providing practical advice to address non-legal issues impacting your business’, says Jonathan Wise, managing director and head of legal for Singapore and Southeast Asia at Nomura. ‘Doing so will both better protect and add value to your firm while serving to distinguish yourself from other in-house lawyers’. An expert with 20 years of professional experience in developed and emerging markets, Wise has established a reputation for providing advice on a broad range of matters relating to transactions, regulatory issues, dispute resolution and corporate work. Managing a team of 15 employees, across Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bangkok and Mumbai, Wise is a lawyer well known in Southeast Asia for his skills in successfully overseeing legal processes across multiple jurisdictions and advising boards and senior management on complex legal, regulatory and reputational risk issues. Prior to assuming his current role in 2013, Wise served for Nomura as head of investment banking legal for Asia excluding-Japan (based in Hong Kong) and as an executive director and senior legal counsel in asset finance (based in Tokyo). He joined Nomura from Lehman Brothers in Tokyo, where he was senior vice president and senior legal counsel, following the purchase by Nomura of Lehman’s Asian and European operations in 2008. Prior to joining Lehman, he was in private practice with Morrison & Forester and Coudert Brothers beginning his career in New York.