03 June 2010
Key Points:
In an exciting development for the firm, Clayton Utz in association with Haley & Co. formally opened for business in Hong Kong on Tuesday 20 April 2010.
Our new office, located in the Hong Kong Club Building, will initially focus on providing clients with services in the areas of Construction and Major Projects, Dispute Resolution and International Arbitration ― areas in which Clayton Utz has traditionally dominated the Australian market.
Clayton Utz Major Projects partner Colin Dodd, who resides in Hong Kong, will oversee the office working alongside Glenn Haley, the former head of Deacons' Construction Practice Group in Hong Kong. In addition to several lawyers who have been recruited locally, the office will have the full support of Clayton Utz lawyers across the firm's six Australian offices.
The choice of Hong Kong as the location of our first overseas office was both the result of an opportunity to team up with one of the market's leading lawyers in one of our traditional areas of strength, and the logical next step in our international strategy.
This was underlined by Stuart Clark, the head of our national Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice, commenting in a recent article in Lawyers Weekly magazine: "[I]t was becoming clear that our level of activity in the region was increasing. It was getting to a stage where the amount of work we were doing and the opportunities that were presenting themselves just made it logical to start basing people permanently in the region."
The office is already busy - no doubt in part due to its having received the official blessing of a Feng Shui expert, who, having deemed Tuesday 20 April (definitely not Monday the 19th!) to be a particularly auspicious date to start a new business, performed a traditional ceremony that day in the reception area involving a pig and a chicken!
A more formal celebration of the office's opening by way of a cocktail function was held at the Hong Kong Club on 19 May.
Our CEP-elect Darryl McDonough and several Clayton Utz partners attended including Colin Dodd, Stuart Clark, Doug Jones and Nick Poole. Glenn Haley of Haley & Co. was also there.
Despite the inclement weather caused by a late afternoon thunderstorm over 60 people gathered in the Garden Lounge of the Hong Kong Club, which enjoys sweeping views across Hong Kong's CBD, for the official opening.
Colin Dodd welcomed guests before introducing Mr Huen Wong, President of the Law Society of Hong Kong, who was effusive in his praise of our decision to formally establish a Hong Kong presence and spoke at length about the significant opportunities in the area of infrastructure in particular that Hong Kong and wider Asian markets offered.
It was a highly successful and enjoyable launch event.
