White & Case has called time on its exclusive association with Indonesian firm Witara Cakra Advocates (WCA), in a move that means it will no longer have an on-the-ground presence in the country. 

The US firm said today (11 February) that it aims to conclude the association with Jakarta-based WCA on 1 May 2025. 

The move sees White & Case and WCA, which includes partners Kristo Molina and Cindy Riswantyo, eight other lawyers and five business services employees, go their separate ways after nearly a decade. 

White & Case said it remained committed to the Indonesian market and would continue to service clients active in the market through its Indonesia practice, which covers cross-border corporate, finance, projects, restructurings, disputes and international trade matters. 

“White & Case is committed to the important Indonesian market, where we have been active for more than 40 years,” a spokesperson for the firm said. “We will continue to advise clients who are active in Indonesia via our established and successful Indonesia practice, in which lawyers based in our Singapore office in particular have played a key role for many years.”

White & Case’s involvement with Indonesia goes back to 1975, when it began to develop its sovereign practice by representing the country in resolving its debt crisis arising from the financial difficulty of Pertamina, the state-owned oil company.

The firm formed an association with WCA in 2015 after partners exited its former Indonesia alliance firm – MD & Partners – for Baker McKenzie, best friend firm Hadiputranto Hadinoto & Partners and Norton Rose Fulbright. 

There have been departures from WCA recently, including banking and debt capital markets partner Fajar Ramadhan, who joined the firm back in 2016 alongside Molina and left earlier this month to found his own practice, according to his LinkedIn profile. M&A counsel Rika Rusman also moved over to Indonesian corporate and banking boutique Sarvasūkṣma earlier this month, according to her LinkedIn bio. 

Ramadhan and Rusman worked with Molina, who is recognised as a leading capital markets lawyer in Indonesia, and White & Case lawyers on a number of major deals in the Indonesian market, including advising Bangkok Bank Public Company on its $2.3bn acquisition of a majority stake in Indonesia’s Bank Permata in 2020. That deal was led by former Singapore-based White & Case partner Jon Bowden, who has since joined Freshfields. 

The following year Molina and Rusman also worked with White & Case to advise telecoms company Ooredoo Group on the $6bn merger of its Indonesian subsidiary with the local subsidiary of CK Hutchison Holdings. White & Case’s team was led by Singapore-based partner Jonathan Olier, a top dealmaker in the region who heads the firm’s corporate M&A and private equity practice for Southeast Asia. 

WCA’s other remaining partner – Riswantyo – only joined the firm in 2023 from legacy Allen & Overy’s local alliance firm Ginting & Reksodiputro, where she had been a counsel. She specialises in debt financing, restructuring and debt capital markets. White & Case said at the time that her hire underlined its “enduring commitment” to Indonesia and its determination to continue growing its role advising clients on their most important deals in the market.

Winding down the association with WCA will leave White & Case with eight bases across Asia in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Tokyo, Melbourne and Sydney. 

The firm thanked Molina, Riswantyo and the team in the Jakarta office for their contribution and wished them well in the future.