Eldan Law was founded in 2010 as a boutique dispute resolution firm. It has since grown quickly into a full-service firm with expertise across a range of practice areas including commercial litigation, international arbitration, corporate real estate, intellectual property and corporate transactions. Eldan Law is among the 25 largest local law firms in Singapore. It has 17 partners, including its three Founding Partners- Daniel Koh, Edwin Lee and Lawrence Tan.

Thomson Wilks is an innovative full-service law firm with offices in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. It specialises in practice areas including dispute resolution & litigation, and corporate & commercial. Led by CEO Stephen Thomson, it has a total of nine directors, seven associates and twenty-eight consultants. DWF in France (formally Heenan Paris) and Thomson Wilks have been informally working together since January 2016. This new association arrangement marks the next step in terms of collaboration between the firms with exclusivity across their respective locations.

Sir Nigel Knowles, Group CEO at DWF Group plc, said: “This is an important step forward for us in developing our ability to support our clients wherever they need us. Eldan Law and Thomson Wilks are highly regarded firms in Singapore and South Africa and we have a strong alignment in terms of expertise and sector focus. Like all of our association relationships, this agreement will provide all parties the opportunity to better serve existing and new clients, whilst ensuring consistency, familiarity and quality across the board.

“In Singapore, Eldan is a perfect fit for us in terms of the areas we would like to focus on and provides a platform for our core offerings such as insurance, litigation, corporate finance, as well as our Mindcrest and Connected Services businesses. With Thomson Wilks, we have a highly complementary offering in the natural resources and energy sectors with our Paris team already very active supporting clients across Africa.

“We will continue to build our presence globally through acquisitions, associations and lateral hires and we are delighted to be working with these two excellent businesses.”

Daniel Koh, Joint Managing Partner at Eldan Law, said, “Eldan Law is excited and honoured to embark on its second decade of growth with this new association with DWF. This association with an excellent progressive provider of integrated legal and business services, which has an extensive global reach, is in line with supporting our clients’ increasing needs for legal services beyond our shores.”

Stephen Thomson, Director at Thomson Wilks, said, “Thomson Wilks has enjoyed a long-standing working relationship first with Heenan Paris and thereafter DWF. The natural progression to a formal association with DWF is an exciting and welcome development. DWF is an incredibly innovative organisation and this association aligns perfectly with our own innovative approach. We are proud to be a part of introducing DWF to South Africa.”