Newlaw in Asia Pacific
GC looks at the emergence of alternative legal service providers in Asia Pacific.
When the global financial crisis (GFC) loomed over the West, multinationals turned their attentions to emerging markets, including many in Asia Pacific. Fast forward to 2015, and jurisdictions like China, Hong Kong and Singapore are key locations for global business, with a huge amount of foreign investment and a driving seat in the world markets.
But despite its status as an economic powerhouse, Asia can be accused of lagging behind in the business innovation stakes, especially when it comes to legal services. While countries like the UK and Australia are opening up their legal professions to non-lawyer investment, and experiencing a proliferation of alternative legal services providers, Asian jurisdictions – often conservative and suspicious of foreign players and new models – have arguably been slower to jump on the bandwagon. Former GC for the Asia Pacific division of global recruitment company Hays, Chris Dancey (who was based in Singapore up until late 2015), thinks this is down to the good times enjoyed by many Asian corporates, even while the GFC was in full swing. ‘I know there were some pockets of downturn in the region, particularly for Singapore, but for other parts of Asia Pacific it was pretty much still boom-time, particularly in China and Australia,’ he says. So when it came to seeking out ways to get more out of less, Asia Pacific GCs were less motivated than their Western counterparts to think outside the box. ‘The commercial imperatives weren’t really there,’ he explains.
