HFW hires shipping heavyweight for Asia Pacific team, reports Australasian lawyer.
Former shipbroker as HFW consultant
The shipping practice of HFW is gaining almost 50 years of experience with the hire of former shipbroker Christopher Jones as a consultant.
Jones is based in Singapore, where the shipping practice now has 10 specialist lawyers including 3 partners and 2 master mariners. He recently retired from the shipping industry but joked that golf and holidays were no substitute.
“Based in Singapore since 1982, Chris has a wealth of experience in the shipping industry and Asia. He is one of the leading figures in the Singapore shipping community,” said Toby Stephens, Singapore Head of Shipping and APAC Head of Admiralty and Crisis Management, HFW.
The firm’s Singapore office handles, on average, 200-250 ship closings a year.
Ashurst in New York building
Ashurst in New York has opened its prestigious new office in New York.
The 55 Hudson Yards building is set to become one of the most prominent office towers in New York, located in Manhattan’s west side.
For Ashurst lawyers, staff, and clients it provides updated IT infrastructure, specially designed meeting and video conferencing rooms, and collaborative break out and staff recreation areas.
“Making the move to this landmark new building reflects our commitment to providing the best possible work environment for our people,” said New York office managing partner Andy Fraiser.
“At 55 Hudson Yards, we look forward to creating an office space which encourages agility and collaboration, while providing our clients with the best possible facilities in which to meet and work closely with our lawyers.”
Self-training system for contract clauses
Toronto-based machine learning firm Diligen has launched a self-training system for its contract review platform to speed up recognition of new clauses in contracts.
Diligen Prodigy gives law firms and legal departments the ability to rapidly train Diligen to recognise new clause types in contracts within 20 minutes.
With the system also suggesting other possible examples, it makes it fast and simple for firms to add their own unique clause models to the library of pre-built options.
Diligen says that many other systems either do not offer self-training or are cumbersome.
“Prodigy will allow law firms and legal departments to respond rapidly to tight client timelines and use AI contract analysis technology for projects where time or resources may not have allowed previously,” Laura van Wyngaarden, Diligen’s Co-Founder and COO.
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Source: Australasian Lawyer
