“Rajah & Tann duo quit to launch Singapore boutique Emma Barraclough, Hong Kong – 04 April 2004

Two lawyers have split from Singapore firm Rajah & Tann to launch their own high tech and intellectual property practice. Bryan Tan and Tan Tian Luh opened Tan & Tan Partnership on April 5 after quitting Rajah & Tann, a full service law firm that has an alliance with US firm Weil Gotshal & Manges. Bryan Tan had worked in the firm’s Technology Practice Group, which he helped set up in 1999. Tan Tian Luh joins from Rajah & Tann’s Infrastructure practice. Other lawyers are due to join the practice, and the two partners want Tan & Tan to be a mid-sized firm with around 12 lawyers by the end of 2005. The firm will focus on information technology, telecommunications law and arbitration, targeting clients in the software, banking, telecoms and entertainment sectors for specialized technology-related work. “We are not trying to target bread-and-butter IP work but will do so as part of the higher-end work we do for clients,” said Bryan Tan. Tan added that the firm had already received instructions from new clients to restructure the IP portfolio for a group of companies developing neural technology, work on Chinese-related IP and IT work and give advice on domain names, bio-informatics transactions and e-learning contracts.”