McDermott Will & Emery has closed its Singapore office, in a move that means the US firm no longer has an on-the-ground presence in Asia. 

The firm had stated its commitment to its Singapore team last year after the departure of energy duo Clarinda Tjia-Dharmadi and Merrick White for Watson Farley & Williams left the office with Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan as its sole remaining partner. 

However, Sivaramakrishnan, a corporate finance lawyer who had been based across McDermott’s London and Singapore offices, has also recently left the firm. 

A McDermott spokesperson commented: “We no longer have a physical office in Singapore but continue to provide the highest level of service to our valued clients with legal needs in Singapore and across the Asia-Pacific region.”

McDermott set up shop in Singapore in 2021 a year after transferring its Shanghai joint venture office to Winston & Strawn, in the process regaining a physical presence in Asia. 

At the time the firm said the office was expected to be multi-practice and act as a centre for further growth across the region, adding there was “no cap” on its size. 

The firm hired Merrick from King & Spalding ahead of the launch alongside energy partner Ignatius Hwang, who joined having co-led Squire Patton Boggs’ Singapore office. Hwang left the firm in late 2022 to launch his own practice. 

Those hires were quickly followed by further additions from Squire Patton Boggs and Sivaramakrishnan’s arrival from Herbert Smith Freehills in 2021. The following year Tjia-Dharmadi joined from Latham & Watkins as Asia chair of its transactions practice and a four-lawyer investigations and compliance team moved over from Sidley Austin led by partner Yuet Ming Tham, who returned to Sidley after just a few months. 

The closure of McDermott’s Singapore office leaves it with 16 US offices alongside eight across Europe. 

Its decision to exit Singapore follows BCLP announcing last month it would shutter its offices there and in Hong Kong, also ending its physical presence in Asia.

A slew of US law firms have reduced their footprints in China or exited the country altogether in recent years amid simmering tensions between China and the West, tightening regulation and business drying up as the country’s economy cools.

So far this year Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Morgan Lewis and Fenwick & West have announced China office closures, with at least 14 Big Law firms making the same move last year, among them Paul Weiss, Skadden and Sidley Austin.