Looking out for Mr Right as Singapore law firm cruises

WITH a pedigree like TSMP's, one could be forgiven for wondering why the law firm is left on the shelf while several of its peers have been courted and had gotten hitched to notable international practices in recent years.

And it is certainly not for a lack of suitors, shared Stephanie Yuen-Thio, who is at the helm of the 18-year-old practice together with her husband and Senior Counsel, Thio Shen Yi.

As pressure on local firms to marry overseas practices mounts, the duo have "continually been approached" by interested parties who find the 55-lawyer outfit "a lovely size". It also helps that the firm specialises in areas that catches the big boys' eyes, including banking and finance, commercial and corporate litigation, as well as mergers and acquisitions (M&As).

"Whenever we've been approached, we have told the potential partner that it needs to be a compelling story because we'd be giving up a lot of good relationships with international firms if we were to get hitched to somebody, so it has to be a prince charming," said a candid Ms Yuen.

Prince charming or not, the firm, which began operations with just seven lawyers, cemented its status in the legal sphere when in 2012 it successfully defended billionaire Peter Lim in the Raffles Town Club class action suit. It also acted for Overseas Union Enterprise in a S$13 billion takeover bid for Fraser & Neave, making it the largest such case in Singapore's corporate history.

From 2012 to 2014, the firm's professional fee revenue has grown steadily year on year by between eight and 16 per cent.

The tough economic backdrop last year inevitably affected the legal sector, but TSMP managed to record revenue growth in the mid-single digit. Excluding real estate and oil and gas work, revenue grew 13 per cent year on year in 2015.

On average, TSMP lawyers typically clock more than 1,000 hours in billable work annually, over and above their pro bono work, said Ms Yuen.

The firm, started by Thio Su Mien, one of Singapore's banking law pioneers and mother of Mr Thio, is now eyeing high-end litigation and arbitration as Singapore positions itself as the dispute resolution hub.

"There is competition law and as we become sensitised to competitive and anti-competitive pressures, firms need to know what to do. We have regulators who are more zealous, rightly so, and there will be more work in those sorts of areas," said Mr Thio, adding that he hopes to expand the offerings to regional advisory or arbitration work on construction or the engineering front as the region prospers.

So, while 2016 went off to a rocky start and activity on the real estate front might have stalled in recent times, legal work related to bank financing continues, albeit with smaller profit margins, noted Ms Yuen, who added that all signs so far point to a relatively good year ahead for M&A legal work.

Disputes in the construction sector because of cash-flow problems, shareholder disagreements and company restructuring are other areas that spell good news for the legal sector as the economy worsens.

Given the headwinds facing the sector, TSMP's strategy to have partners who are "specialised generalists", able to switch from one discipline to another and organise work according to clients' needs, comes in handy.

It also helps that the firm is willing to ride out tough times with businesses that are tightening their belts as part of its philosophy to build long-term relationships with clients.

"In the global financial crisis in 2008, we proactively reached out to our clients to voluntarily reduce our rates by 10 to 20 per cent for the year. We wanted to support the clients, continue to work together with them, and show them that we would bear the pain of the downturn with them," Mr Thio said.

For now, as the firm continues on its upward trajectory, the Thios are sparing no effort in attracting and grooming future partners as they look to lay the foundation for the next generation.

"We used to hire young lawyers who were good associates, hard-working, organised, willing to play in a team and very good research assistants. But we found that when they got to the fifth year or the seventh year we weren't able to promote them because they didn't have the partnership thinking, they weren't strategic enough, they didn't think outside boxes enough," Ms Yuen said, adding that they then changed the firm's pay structure and the way they hired some three years ago.

The practice is now among the firms here that pay top dollar for their trainees.

Naturally, high pay comes with comparable expectations.

"We don't say "you've a lot of time, make mistakes, do some research if you like"; we say: "you have one week to get up to speed and after that, start running, madly"," she added.

The Thios said their team is projected to swell by 10 to 15 lawyers every year for the next three to four years - sizeable as various law firms here have either reduced or stagnated their intake.

"I think the message that we're sending to the market is 'We do very good work here, we have very good training. From Day One when you come in, we start training you to be a partner'. In other words, you're punching above your cohort's weight by the time you start your practice with us," Ms Yuen said.

In the meantime, it would take more than strength to sweep TSMP off its feet. After all, everyone knows breaking up is hard to do.