Team size: 15

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

The Deloitte SEA practice currently comprises eleven geographies with over 11,000 professionals; our lawyers advise five separate business lines across the region and collaborate with Deloitte’s global and regional stakeholders to plan strategically to implement legal initiatives and execute tactically across all legal matters affecting Deloitte SEA.

Our contracting capability supports all aspects of contracting in SEA, including negotiating master service agreements on a global scale with Deloitte’s strategic clients. A couple of our more significant recent projects are summarised below:

We supported an Asia-Pacific wide regional project to be delivered by Deloitte Singapore to a leading multinational technology company. The project involved designing and building a platform used across eleven countries in eight different languages. The contracting needs were complex as it involved advice, drafting and reconciliation of project requirements between teams in Singapore and elsewhere under tight timelines. Simultaneously, we had to negotiate with third party subcontractors and advise on novel risk or privacy issues related to the project.

We worked with Deloitte Singapore’s Forensic Advisory (Turnaround and Restructuring) team to launch a first in SEA: the offering of Chief Restructuring Officer (“CRO”) services in Singapore and advised the team on how to structure the first court-appointment of a CRO, considering novel issues involving contract and company law.

We regularly handle matters involving novel jurisprudence – we recently worked on a matter which included unusual issues touching on tensions between private and public dispute resolution fora. We advise on multiple high-profile contentious disputes and settlements involving private parties and regulatory authorities in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The team’s proactive and early involvement in potential disputes and regulatory interactions is necessary to ensure the protection of the brand. We regularly advise on pre-emptive, risk mitigating steps with a view to preventing the escalation of incidents into full-fledged proceedings.

Our team also handles sanctions-related legal issues across SEA. The team is closely involved in advising our businesses that are impacted by the recent roll-out of worldwide sanctions against Russia in response to its military operations in the Ukraine, and by sanctions against Myanmar arising from the military takeover of its government. To ensure that our advice is current and relevant, our sanctions capability stays updated on the latest developments in political sanctions and works closely with other internal and external counsel across the globe to assist our businesses in navigating these sanctions safely.

Looking forward, what technological advancements do you feel will impact the role of in-house legal teams in the future the most?

Our team already uses collaborative technology tools such as LawVu, Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft Teams to align positions with stakeholders and other lawyers in the region, and to assist in due diligence exercises for acquisitions, and in discovery when there are disputes.