BRG Adds Technology and Analytics Practice in Singapore to Growing Southeast Asia Hub

BRG has announced the strategic addition of a disputes and investigations-focused technology and analytics practice to its core list of capabilities in Asia–Pacific (APAC).

Erick Gunawan joins as a director, and Chris Lim as an associate director, in BRG’s expanding Singapore office. The two senior hires, together with two experienced consultants, join from a specialist consulting firm which they co-led regionally.

Gunawan and Lim bring a combined 25-plus years of experience in forensic consulting, compliance investigations, information governance, eDiscovery, data identification and collection and managed document review for both contentious and non-contentious matters. They have a strong track record of delivering complex eDiscovery, information governance and review services in sectors including financial services, life sciences and energy.

Working with BRG’s APAC leadership and global technology leads, the pair will develop the new practice’s offering in collaboration with BRG’s law firm clients to bring these services to bear in disputes and investigations, investing in progressive technology which the firm believes to be key to the rapid transformation of the role that data plays in complex disputes.

Commenting on the appointments, Mustafa Hadi, head of BRG’s Disputes and International Arbitration practice in APAC and co-leader of BRG’s APAC region, said: “I am delighted to welcome Erick and Chris to the firm. They are highly respected in the market and share our vision of building a leading technology practice that pushes the boundaries to offer our key law firm clients valuable, data-driven insights on their most complex matters”.

The firm also plans to harness the team’s capabilities to support the new ways in which experts, lawyers, clients, judges and arbitrators are working together, including in virtual hearings which have been necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic but are anticipated to become more common practice in the longer term.

BRG’s newly expanded team will also work, again in collaboration with key law firms in the region and internationally, to provide corporate in-house legal functions with expert-led advice and interventions to not only improve processes but innovate and transform operations through deploying skills in artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity.

The hires come as part of the firm’s continued overall expansion in APAC and its strategic focus on growth in Singapore. The office, which is already a key hub for the firm’s disputes business, offers on-the-ground expertise in valuation and damages, forensic accounting, strategic investigations, forensic technology and energy industry advisory, with further expansion planned in other areas.

Commenting on his appointment, Gunawan said: “My team and I are thrilled to join BRG’s Disputes and Investigations team and contribute to the firm’s overall growth strategy in Asia–Pacific. We are also honoured to be part of BRG’s well-established and sophisticated global forensic technology team which will enable us to leverage skillsets and expertise in dealing with various regulatory, data-privacy and cross-border issues in multiple jurisdictions”.

The appointment of the Singapore-based team follows BRG’s addition of 12 experts and professionals from Vista Analytics LLC in the US in late 2019. The Washington, DC-based data science team is centred around expertise in AI and machine learning in dispute technology and analytics.