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Clifford Chance establishes Innovation and Best Delivery Hub for Asia Pacific in Singapore

3 May 2018

Clifford Chance establishes Innovation and Best Delivery Hub for Asia Pacific in Singapore

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance will establish its Innovation and Best Delivery Hub for Asia Pacific in Singapore. Supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the hub is Clifford Chance’s first outside Europe and the US, and the first of its kind in Singapore’s legal industry. The hub will act as Clifford Chance's regional centre to drive more innovative, efficient, effective and robust client service delivery. It will also identify, develop, test and roll out new legal technology solutions across Asia Pacific and beyond.

In anticipation of increasingly rapid changes in the legal sector, this initiative will integrate with Clifford Chance's existing global innovation and Best Delivery programmes, which ensure execution of the latest thinking, methodologies and technology in its client service. The hub will bring together specialists in knowledge, efficiency, legal technology, project and resource management, legal engineering, and innovation, who will draw on the firm's extensive experience of applying techniques such as Continuous Improvement and legal project management, and its investment in new technology platforms, including artificial intelligence (AI), expert systems and automation.

“We are delighted that Clifford Chance has chosen Singapore to locate its Innovation Hub and Best Delivery for Asia-Pacific. This is testament to Singapore’s efforts to develop the legal technology and innovation ecosystem, and enhance our position as an international legal services hub. It is also in line with the Professional Services Industry Transformation Map launched in January this year, which encourages firms to innovate in order to develop new business solutions and capabilities. By creating new ways to engage clients and deliver services across the region and beyond, Clifford Chance’s hub will be a strong addition to Singapore’s legal industry ecosystem," said Kelvin Wong, Assistant Managing Director, EDB.

Partner Bas Boris Visser, Global Head of Innovation and Business Change said, "As a global firm we have placed innovation and a commitment to Best Delivery at the heart of our strategy, it's fundamental to how we create value for our clients. We constantly challenge ourselves to bring the right resources, to deploy the best processes and to leverage advanced technology, informed by the firm's enviable global knowledge and local insights. The establishment of this Hub with EDB reflects the required investment that will bring something genuinely new to the industry in the region."

Geraint Hughes, Clifford Chance Regional Managing Partner for Asia Pacific said, "Our innovation hub in Singapore not only marks our ongoing commitment to Singapore as a global legal hub, but also reflects the rapidly evolving changes affecting our clients and our profession. We aim to combine market leading technology and project management expertise, with the highest quality legal input, to deliver the best service for our clients today and into the future."

Clifford Chance's investment in innovation and legal technology has already resulted in a number of advancements in client service delivery. This includes the successful launches of CCDr@ft, a contract automation tool for clients; an online MiFID2 client regulation toolkit, powered through Neota Logic; and a cloud based transaction management solution, delivered through Workshare. The firm is also adopting AI tools to improve the speed and efficiency of large scale due diligence exercises. The Innovation Hub and Best Delivery creates another centre for driving similar innovation through Asia-Pacific.

"Singapore's focus on developments in technology for use in legal services is testimony to the leadership of its authorities and organisations in driving innovation and in embracing opportunities presented by emerging technologies," said Singapore Managing Partner Kai Schneider. "The establishment of this hub demonstrates our commitment to Singapore, and the region, and builds on previous initiatives including receiving our QFLP licence and the establishment of a Formal Law Alliance with Cavenagh Law."

In February, the firm announced that it acquired an award-winning provider of paralegal and commodity managed legal services in the UK (CAS), which has a strong track record in legal process unbundling and the application of legal tech. In March, the firm launched new digitally-driven client support tools: the Global Dawn Raids App and the Online Global Employment Guide.