RHTLaw Taylor Wessing in conjunction with RHT Holdings hosted a Singapore - Israel Technology event on 7 June 2016 at RHTLaw Taylor Wessing offices. Deputy Managing Partner of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing, Azman Jaafar, presented on the startup landscape in Singapore, and CEO of RHT Holdings, Jayaprakash Jagateesan, presented on funding, professional services and business solutions in the region. A report suggested that Israel boasts the world’s highest concentration of high-tech start-ups per head and almost 1,000 new companies are launched there every year. Venture investments in Israel-based companies have not only increased in the number of deals – with a near 40% rise quarter on quarter, but they have more than tripled the total amount invested in Q1 of 2015. The event had overwhelming response with over 100 attendees comprising Israeli startups, VCs and technology related service providers.

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing and RHT Group of Companies hosted a high-tea in their offices in commemoration of Mr Rajan Menon’s significant career milestone. Mr Menon is one of the founding fathers of RHTLaw Taylor Wessing LLP. The firm traces its beginnings to May 2011 when a group of lawyers took the bold decision to form RHT Law LLP, who later joined the Taylor Wessing Group in March 2012 and became RHTLaw Taylor Wessing. The vision of our founding fathers was to build a local international law firm that created opportunities for both our clients and staff. The early years saw our founding partners fervently working to build a sustainable and successful law practice in Singapore. Operating out of a meeting room with two phone lines at 6 Battery Road, the pioneer batch of staff and lawyers banded together to weather the difficult early days of the firm. Like Singapore, the firm has grown from strength to strength. Mr Menon will move on from his Senior Partner role into a new role, that of Founder-Senior Consultant of the Firm. He will continue to be in full-time practice and remain as the Firm’s pillar of strength and knowledge. Our heartiest congratulations to Mr Menon on his achievements!

RHTLaw Taylor Wessing is pleased to announce the addition of Mr Erwan Barre and Mr Mark Jacobsen as Partners (Foreign Lawyers) in our Corporate Practice with effect from 2 June 2016. Erwan Barre joined RHTLaw Taylor Wessing after practicing for sixteen years with Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul Hastings, two leading US law firms, in Paris and New York. Focused on corporate transactions, Erwan has extensive experience representing clients across many industries, with an emphasis in the Technology and Life Science industries. He also has management experience, being a co-founder of Vaximax, a biotech company. Erwan has been involved in many M&A, joint venture, capital markets and financing projects in Asia, Europe and the US, including several game changing transactions. Most of these deals were cross-border. His transactional expertise is based on leading over 60 deals, representing in the aggregate more than US$20 billion.  Erwan is admitted in France (1996) and New York (1998).  Mark Jacobsen advises financial institutions, technology companies, funds (both VC and PE), and other corporate clients on private and cross-border investments and other corporate/commercial matters. He has counselled on issues as diverse as structuring, investment channels, securities, marketing and distribution, operations, and best practices. Prior to coming to Singapore, Mark was in association with three global top 25 law firms in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, San Francisco and New York, worked at the U.S. SEC in the Office of the Chief Counsel for the Division of Corporation Finance, clerked for the presiding judge (Sir Richard May) in the Slobodan Milosevic trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and also worked for the U.S. Department of Justice. Mark is admitted in California (2006).