WongPartnership is focused on advisory/transactional work in areas of finance, corporate and capital markets, as well as in high-profile litigation and arbitration matters. Headquartered in Singapore, it has over 300 lawyers across offices in Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai and Yangon, and has been at the forefront of Singapore's growth as a strategic legal hub in South-east Asia. ZGLaw is a full-service law firm headed by prominent tax lawyer Lily Gruba. The firm, with more than 20 lawyers, represents and advises blue chip local and foreign clients in the Philippines. The firm's name was changed to Zambrano Gruba Caganda & Advincula in 2016.

Previous working relationship

With the new alliance, WongPartnership's regional network now spans nine cities across China, the Middle East and Asia. Both firms have worked closely together, including a recent Singapore International Arbitration Centre arbitration involving a dispute with claims of over $600 million.

'Shared ethos'

Alvin Yeo, Senior Counsel, Chairman and Senior Partner of WongPartnership, said: ‘Working together, we discovered a shared ethos between our firms of providing exceptional legal service and putting our clients' interests first. Our alliance with ZGLaw is mutually beneficial. It will enable us to leverage their Philippine law capability to better serve our clients in the Asean region, while providing ZGLaw's clients access to our regional expertise in China, the Middle East and the rest of Asean.’

Heartening

Miss Gruba added: ‘It is very heartening that our interactions across countries have brought us to another law firm and other lawyers who share our own ideas of personalised service and excellence in a global setting, who are very professional and with whom we are comfortable to work with. We found WongPartnership to espouse and share the values which our firm believes in.’