London law firm McCarthy Denning has launched an association with Singapore-based legal boutique ArrowGates as it seeks to grow its footprint in South East and North Asia.

The tie-up includes fee sharing and offers access to ArrowGates’ network of relationship firms across the region for the London challenger firm, which was granted alternative business structure status three years ago and operates a flat structure of partner and senior associate level lawyers.

McCarthy Denning says this will be boost its ability to advise clients on cross-border matters in jurisdictions including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.

ArrowGates’ two-person team — WanHsi Yeong and Roy Ong — will be supported by McCarthy Denning’s appointment of private client partner Zac Lucas, who will divide his time between the UK and Asia.

Lucas’s arrival takes McCarthy Denning’s lawyer headcount up to 58.

Richard Beresford, chairman and partner at McCarthy Denning, said: “A significant percentage of McCarthy Denning’s work is already international in nature and, as well as having a number of partners with extensive overseas experience, we have a range of informal and formal relationships with law firms around the world. Our alliance with ArrowGates will play an important role in strengthening our presence in the South East and North Asian markets.”

ArrowGates is chiefly focused on venture capital, private equity, wealth management and family office markets, providing services around finance, M&A and regulatory matters.

Yeong said: “ArrowGates is a very internationally focused firm and much of our work involves English law elements, such as producing English-law governed bond offering documents. The ability that this relationship brings us to be able to offer clients in-house English law advice in a wide range of disciplines, including M&A, financial services and debt finance, promises to be a positive for the development of the firm.”

Before co-founding ArrowGates, Yeong worked in the Singapore offices of Shearman & Sterling and Duane Morris. Ong previously had spells at White & Case and Clifford Chance.

Lucas joins McCarthy Denning after a two-year break from private practice while co-founding UK reg-tech company Centenal. Before that he was a private client partner at firms including Gowling WLG in Singapore, and Ogier and Harneys in the British Virgin Islands.

Warren Wooldridge, chief executive officer at McCarthy Denning, said: “[Lucas] is a great addition to our private client team and in many ways is the epitome of a McCarthy Denning lawyer with huge amounts of experience at the highest levels. Zac is very outcome-orientated and, like many of his new colleagues, also brings an entrepreneurial gloss to a formidable technical prowess.”

In January, Taylor Wessing split with its long-term Singapore ally RHTLaw.