Shearman & Sterling's joint venture with Stamford, a newly formed Singapore law firm, will enable it to become the first top-tier US law firm to practice local Singapore law.

Non-Singapore lawyers are barred from practicing local law, something which the large international law firms - mainly US and UK in origin - have been lobbying to change for several years. Now, Shearman has persuaded Singapore's attorney general to allow it to set up a joint venture with a Singapore law firm.