BY DAWN TAY

WHEN a foreign bank had to close its branch operations in Singapore recently because of the financial crisis, it found it had a legal headache on its hands - with non-performing financial assets, land leases, and retrenched staff.

That was the cue for a specialised Swat team of lawyers, specially assembled to handle legal cases thrown up in the financial crisis, to move in.

That team had been assembled by local law firm Colin Ng and Partners LLP (CNP), which set up its Financial Crisis Integrated Response and Support Team in October.

In light of the downturn, several other Singapore law firms are looking to set up specialised legal task forces, offering services that include handling legal matters that accompany retrenchment and company restructuring, and advising investors who have lost money or companies that are going bust.

Such 'financial-crisis practice groups' are already common in America, where at least 30 law firms have set up financial- crisis task forces.

This move is partly an anticipatory measure, said CNP partner Pradeep Kumar Singh. Experts agree legal cases are set to increase as companies and people encounter financial woes.

Mr Singh told my paper: 'We've provided these services before, but we're putting them together in a structured way for clients affected by the economic crisis.'

The general market sentiment is that law firms are creating task forces for the expected surge in insolvencies and forced mergers, said another lawyer, who declined to be named.

Former Commercial Affairs Department director Glenn Knight has just been drafted into the CNP team.

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