Crowell & Moring has opened an office in Singapore courtesy of its international policy and regulatory affairs consultancy arm, C&M International.

The office - the consultancy’s second in Asia and first in the Asia Pacific region – will be headed by former White House adviser Clark Jennings, who was appointed C&M’s managing director Asia in January.

The move comes less than a year after C&M International opened in Shanghai, with the hire of a seven-strong team of advisers who were linked to a four-lawyer international trade and employment team the firm had secured from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner.

The office will have a particular focus on digital transformation and its impact on policy in Asia and will build on the firm’s experience advising on the creation of a new framework within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to enable cross-border data flows.

Jennings joined the firm in 2017 after eight years at The White House, first in the Executive Office of the President, where he was lead advance staffer for President Obama’s historic trip to Burma in 2012, and then as policy adviser for international trade at the National Economic Council.

He said C&M international was “keenly watching how digital transformation is reshaping every industry and reorienting the way that governments work with the private sector”. 

Robert Holleyman, C&M International’s president, added: “Singapore is increasingly a centre of gravity for all of Asia, not only for commercial and business operations, but as a regulatory and policy innovator.”

In a report published last month, firm warned that digitalisation was exposing companies to increased tort, privacy, and cybersecurity litigation.

Washington DC-based Crowell & Moring, an Am Law 100 firm, specialises in litigation and regulatory advice and has additional offices in New York, San Francisco, Orange County, London and Brussels.

It boasts around 550 lawyers and was founded in in 1979.