Allen & Gledhill

Overview

With a long history of legal excellence stretching over 110 years, Allen & Gledhill is one of the largest law firms in South-east Asia with more than 650 lawyers practising in offices located in Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam. 

Our Competition & Antitrust Practice, co-headed by Daren Shiau, PBM, and Elsa Chen, is the largest and most experienced dedicated practice in Singapore and South-east Asia. Uniquely, our unparalleled practice is made up of lawyers and economists dedicated to antitrust law full-time, who have the expertise, experience, and bandwidth to handle the most complex of antitrust cases for clients. The in-house competition economics team is also the only one of its scale in the region, and amongst the few law firms globally with such capabilities.

We frequently assist clients in cross-border merger assessments, gun-jumping and technical filings, and have unsurpassed experience in complex cartel and monopoly investigations. We are also regularly commissioned by governments to draft competition legislation, codes and policies, including in the aviation, energy, media, postal, telecommunications sectors and are trainers for the ASEAN Experts Group on Competition.

Our Practice is the top Singapore merger control adviser on deal flows in 2020 with total combined values exceeding US$200 billion, including the acquisition of Refinitiv Holdings Limited by London Stock Exchange Group and the proposed merger between Analog Devices, Inc. and Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. We have acted on 100% of all mergers notified to the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (“CCCS”) in January to October 2021, and secured five unconditional Phase 1 clearance, and the only conditional Phase 2 clearance in this period.

We have advised on close to 75% of the merger control cases filed to, and/or reviewed by, the CCCS to-date, and is the first and only firm to have successfully overturned a provisional infringement decision by the CCCS, in both antitrust and merger control. Our team also secured the first merger notification cleared by the CCCS based on the “failing firm defence” as well as secured the first conditional clearance by the CCCS subject to local commitments.

In addition, our Firm defended clients in antitrust investigations on the CCCS’s three global cartel decisions and a record number of dawn raids and investigations within and outside Singapore. We have also been involved in landmark antitrust hearings, including the only CCCS unilateral conduct decision, all three CCCS proposed decision to block a merger, and the first CCCS Phase 2 review. Notably, we represented the largest appellant in a watershed Competition Appeal Board matter where the CCCS was adjudged to have failed to establish liability in an issued Infringement Decision.

The strength of the Practice is augmented by our Partner, Scott Clements, who is a Singapore-qualified competition law specialist with over 14 years of experience in Singapore, and Senior Adviser, Mr Lam Chuan Leong, who has held key positions across a broad range of government agencies. Most notably, he was the first Chairman of CCCS, a position he held for a decade, since its inception in 2005.

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Awards and Industry Recognition:

Firm-wide

• Asian Legal Business SE Asia Law Awards 2021:
  • South-east Asia Law Firm of the Year for four consecutive years since 2018
• Chambers Asia-Pacific Awards 2021: Singapore Corporate & Finance Domestic Law Advisers

• Chambers Asia-Pacific 2021:

• Highest number of Band 1 rankings (17 practice)
• Largest number of Leading Lawyers among Singapore law firms (52 recognised lawyers)

• FinanceAsia Country Awards 2021: Best Law Firm in Singapore
• IFLR Asia-Pacific Awards 2021: Most Innovative National Firm of the Year (Singapore) – won this award 20 times since 2000
• IFLR1000 2022: Highest number of Tier 1 rankings (7 practices)
• The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021:

• Highest number of Tier 1 rankings (18 practices)
• Largest number of leading individuals among Singapore law firms

Competition & Antitrust

• Chambers Asia-Pacific 2021: Band 1 for Competition/Antitrust
• The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021: Tier 1 for Antitrust and Competition

Website: www.allenandgledhill.com