By:
Nathan Hew
Despite being Singapore's first and oldest law firm, with over 160 years of history, Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP ("Dentons Rodyk") credits its culture of innovation and change — one that emphasises return on investment, collaboration, and openness — as a key driver of its success.
In 2017, Dentons Rodyk established a specialised unit to empower practice groups and business units to work on client-driven innovation while ensuring its efforts are scalable, measurable, and successful. Within the next two years, the firm was on track to complete over 51 client-driven innovation projects across nearly all of its practices and business groups.
Beyond this, Dentons Rodyk's combination with global law firm Dentons makes them part of the world's largest law firm, with 12,500 professionals in over 160 locations in more than 80 countries.
Terence Wah, a Partner in Dentons Rodyk's Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice Group, noted that the firm ranked as joint-top for the second year running in the Singapore's Best Law Firms 2024 survey by the country's national flagship daily, The Strait Times and global statistics portal Statista.
"This is a great achievement, and it is [a] testament to the trust that our clients have been facing with us and also [a] testament to the work we are doing," Terence shares.
Reflecting on that result, the Partner shares three possible drivers in achieving this outcome. Dentons Rodyk's combination with the global law firm makes it possible to offer client services from firms in and out of the community — so long as they possess the right resources and the most relevant experience and talent. The firm's focus on solutions and outcomes also allows it to go beyond the parameters of a traditional law firm.
What's more, it is the first global law firm to unveil a purpose statement and is committed to being purpose-driven.
Dentons Rodyk's purpose statement reads: "We redefine what is possible and shape the future." (Image by Dentons Rodyk)
Legal expertise: A forward-thinking approach
Dentons Rodyk's litigation and dispute resolution department leans on three aspects to ensure a solid foundation.
Each practice group specialises in different areas of law. Some practice groups, for example, focus on medical malpractice, international arbitration, shipping, aviation, and so on. They are headed by senior partners who have acquired years of experience and build a niche in each subject matter.
"We are specialists in specific areas," says Terence, whose area of practice lies in civil and commercial litigation with a specialised focus on real estate, trusts and tax law. "That is actually a key to how success is driven [at the Firm] — clients come to us knowing that the lawyers who are experienced and knowledgable in their area will be assigned to help clients with their legal problems."
The litigation and dispute resolution department also works closely with other departments, such as the corporate real estate, corporate finance, and tax departments, which are also highly ranked in leading legal publications. This synergy between departments enables the team to provide their clients with a seamless and synergistic experience.
Asked on what makes an effective law firm, Terence notes: "We have to make sure that we have the best quality of lawyers and that we have to make sure that our lawyers know what our clients want and how to present the best solutions to them."
Technology plays an important and pivotal part in the Firm's strategy to meet and surpass business objectives. (Image by Dentons Rodyk)
Embracing technology: Where are they now and what's next?
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many industries to make uncomfortable shifts as businesses had to quickly embrace technology and adjust their operations to sustain and thrive in this new era of business. Dentons Rodyk was able to pivot quickly to remote working thanks to the firm already having the relevant infrastructure and technology in place pre-pandemic.
"Technology actually plays an important and pivotal part in our strategy — going beyond meeting just our objectives but also surpassing them," Terence enthuses. "We are an early adopter of technologies and tried to leverage our advanced technological ecosystem to enhance our legal service delivery."
On the legal research front, the firm utilises both digital libraries as well as online legal search engines for both local and international case reports. The convenience of having a variety of legal technology solutions is key to cementing Dentons Rodyk's competitive advantage in the legal market. Another example is Dentons Direct, a proprietary platform which facilitates secure document sharing and workflow management.
"We have also looked at automation from a document and workflow perspective," Terence shares. "From a document perspective, we have software that uses web-based questionnaires that help to create agreements easily by filing in certain questionnaires."
He adds: "For workflow, we have platforms in place that allow us to streamline workflow processes e.g. removing the need for human triage."
These are just one of many examples of the components that form the technological ecosystem at Dentons Rodyk.
Terence Wah, Partner at Dentons Rodyk, has his own personal e-book copies via mobile applications, including LexRead, allowing him to access materials on the go, and answers to novel legal issues can always be located easily and quickly. (Image by Terence Wah)
A firm favourite
Most lawyers who left the firm spoke highly of the convenience afforded by LexisNexis's product, particularly the Lexis+ platform, Terence reveals.
"When they leave the firm, that transition becomes uncomfortable for them because they abruptly lose their access to the Lexis+ database, for example," he states. "It makes their work a bit more inconvenient, inefficient, and difficult."
As for Terence, he uses three online solutions as a dispute resolution lawyer: the Lexis+ database, Practical Guidance, and LexRead. As for Lexis+, three features stood out to the dispute resolution lawyers.
"Firstly, it has a very varied database containing case precedents from many Commonwealth countries," he shares. "Secondly, I think Lexis+ also contains important encyclopedias, which actually helps [us] to make sure we do the very basic and quick searches."
He adds: "The final thing about Lexis+ is that there are the recent improvements in the flow chart or diagram for keyword searches so we can clearly know how many hits there are for each part of the keyword searches that we are doing and thereafter, quickly narrow down into the relevant searches."
Practical Guidance (PG) provides useful practitioner samples and precedence that help corporate lawyers at the firm in their work. PG modules are written by trusted specialists who are practising in Malaysia and Singapore.
Terence also has personal e-book copies via mobile applications, including LexRead, which allows him to access materials on the go.
"We can easily research on the go or, if necessary, do important keyword searches. This helps us find relevant extracts of the books so that we can then give instructions maybe to our juniors or even provide quick and prompt legal advice to our clients," he says.
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