Withers has further developed its litigation and arbitration strengths in Asia with the hire of new partner Chenthil Kumarasingam and his team in Singapore, on the back of increased demand for dispute resolution services. Chenthil and his team join from Oon and Bazul LLP.

Chenthil offers a broad range of dispute resolution skills, including commercial and civil litigation, arbitration, mediation and white-collar criminal advice. Chenthil is an accredited mediator with the Singapore Mediation Centre, serves on the Advocacy and Criminal Practice Committees of the Law Society of Singapore and is a senior Advocacy trainer with the Law Society. He also volunteers with the Law Society's Criminal Legal Aid Scheme and the Legal Assistance Scheme for Capital Offences.

Chenthil's clients include high net worth individuals, senior executives, founders and companies across industries including banking, financial services, mining and aviation. Many of his clients are based across South East Asia and Thailand and Indonesia in particular. Chenthil advises on matters relating to cross border investment and joint venture disputes, company and shareholder disputes, banking and securities claims, insolvency, commercial fraud, professional disciplinary matters and white-collar cases.

Shashi Nathan, regional head of litigation in Singapore comments: "Chenthil's broad experience and versatility is a great addition to our Singapore office, which has one of the largest dispute resolution practices for an international law firm. Having known Chenthil for many years, I am confident he will be a great fit with our firm's entrepreneurial culture and collegiate environment."

Peter Wood, global head of litigation, also comments: "Chenthil's skills are very complementary to our existing practice and to the areas we are looking to build on, such as white-collar, regulatory and cross border investment matters. Our rapid growth in Asia has been really exciting and we will continue to build a unique practice that sets us apart."

Chenthil adds: "I very much welcome the opportunity to be a part of Withers' international litigation practice. I see a lot of synergies with the firm's focus on representing private clients, families, funds and companies with their legal needs, in good times and bad, and a great opportunity to provide my clients with much stronger international support on cross border disputes."

Chenthil's arrival at the firm follows closely on the addition of international arbitrator Sherlin Tung in Hong Kong, as well as US litigators Georges Lederman, Martin Auerbach and Chris LaVigne.