Leading law firm Drew & Napier was rated the world's top Asian-based law practice for corporate restructuring work by Global Restructuring Review (GRR) in its 2019 rankings.
GRR is a daily information service that specialises in providing international marketplace cross-border insolvency and restructuring news across the globe.
It conducts extensive research every year to compile the GRR 100, an annual guide that highlights the world's leading cross-border restructuring and insolvency practices.
The guide is then further broken down to the creme de la creme - GRR 30 - a ranked list of elite firms at the top.
Led by Mr Sushil Nair and Mr Julian Kwek, both co-heads of the law firm's Corporate Restructuring & Workouts practice, and key directors Blossom Hing and Chan Wei Meng, this is the second consecutive year Drew & Napier has made the top 30 list, where it ranks 19th this year.
Drew & Napier is a full service law firm taking on a broad spectrum of practices and sectors ranging from arbitration to litigation to estates administration.
The latest boost for the firm comes against the backdrop of Singapore's moves to develop itself as the cross-border insolvency and restructuring hub for Asia and beyond.
Among other things, a number of important insolvency cases have been heard in Singapore courts, such as those involving the Ezra group.
Many of these cases involve complex cross-border corporate structures, requiring not just coordination between courts of different jurisdictions but also involving international law firms representing various parties.
Mr Nair led the team that represented Ezra Holdings Limited on its US$1.49 billion (S$2 billion) cross-border debt restructuring under the US Bankruptcy Code, followed by judicial management under the Singapore Companies Act.
Mr Nair, who is also deputy chief executive officer of the firm, expressed "heartfelt gratitude to our clients for trusting us to lead some of the biggest, most complex, international restructuring and insolvency matters".
The accolade for the firm comes as several senior lawyers and their teams join it.
In April, tax law expert Ong Sim Ho joined the firm with his entire team while construction law specialist Christopher Chong recently joined it as an equity director.
Senior Counsel Siraj Omar, who spent the first four years of his career at Drew, will rejoin the firm next month from joint law venture RPC Premier Law and will bring over a team of eight lawyers including himself.
