AIJA 60th International Young Lawyers’ Congress, Singapore

Academic PROGRAMME

LAWFIRMS 2.0, HOW LAWYERS CAN STAY AHEAD OF THEIR GAME

Organised by the Skills, Career, Innovation, Leadership and Learning (SCILL) Commission

Session #14

Date & Time

Location

Thursday, 25 August

10:00 – 11:15 SGT

Melati Main Ballroom 4001AB-2 + 4101AB-2 – Level 4/Sands Convention Centre

Description

The session will be focusing on business development in an innovative way. Business development of the legal market is changing.

With all the information that is offered freely around the globe and an increase in competition not only among law firms but also with other service providers, effective business development is the future, even more than it used to be before.

The COVID-19 also influences/d heavily the way lawyers do business development. As there are many different types of lawyers, there is not one right approach for business development but many different ones. Each and every lawyer needs to develop their own style that suits them best.

We are thinking of inviting different types of speakers with different approaches to business development (i.e. representatives of small firms vs large firms vs in-house).

Speakers & Moderators

Zoya Gyurova

Strik N.V. Tax|Legal, The Netherlands

Bio

Zoya Gyurova – Attorney-at-law and Partner at Strik Tax|Legal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Zoya has has obtained her master’s degree in Law at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia (Bulgaria), her LLM degree in Commercial and Company Law at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and her Executive MBA degree at the Amsterdam Business School (University of Amsterdam). Zoya has over 10 years of professional experience. Her main expertise covers commercial law, corporate law, contract law, corporate governance and M&A. She has a great eye for details and very good organizational skills.

Barbara Koenen-Geerdink

Al Tamimi & Company, UAE

Bio

Barbara Koenen the author of the business book and founder of e-learning platform Beyond Billable Hours (beyondbillablehours.com), has extensive business development and marketing experience in the professional services industry. She is the BD & Marketing Director at Al Tamimi & Co, the leading law firm across the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to joining Al Tamimi in 2020, Barbara was Global Head of BD & Marketing at AIM listed company The Ince Group plc. She is based in Dubai and has previously worked for magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Dubai and for Deterink Attorneys and Notaries (now Taylor Wessing) in the Netherlands. Prior to moving to Dubai she has worked in Doha, Qatar and before starting her career she interned in New York and obtained her Master’s Degree in business in Barcelona. Barbara frequently speaks at key industry events such as the IBA, The Lawyer and Legal Marketing Summit about her passion for coaching lawyers to be better at business.

Philipp Thurner

NEXL, Australia

Bio

Philipp Thurner is the founder and CEO of Nexl, a no-data-entry CRM and Revenue Operations platform for law firms. He is a leader in the legal innovation and legal technology space. Phil has a track record of delivering innovative legal technology solutions for law firms and in-house legal teams and has innovated with G+T, HSF, PwC, Dentons, Woolworths, Westpac and many more. He is known to be able to execute on ideas and has 4 patents in the area of legal technology and his innovations have been recognised by Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards. With his current ventures [NEXL], he built a global business which raised millions in VC funding, has customers across 5 continents and offices around the globe.

Swee Yen Koh

WongPartnership LLP, Singapore

Bio

Koh Swee Yen, Senior Counsel, is a Partner in the Commercial & Corporate Disputes, and International Arbitration Practices of WongPartnership LLP. Her practice involves complex and high-value cross-border disputes across a wide spectrum of matters from commercial, energy, international sales, trade, transport, technology to investment. She regularly appears before the Singapore Courts and in international arbitrations under the major institutional rules, including ICSID, ICC, ICDR, LCIA, SIAC, and UNCITRAL. Swee Yen is highly recommended in various legal publications, including The Legal 500, Chambers Asia-Pacific, Chambers Global, Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific and Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration and Litigation. She was also awarded Woman Lawyer of the Year (Law Firm) at the 2021 ALB SE Asia Law Awards. Described as being “in a league of her own”, with a “very deep understanding of the law” and “razor-sharp” in her advocacy, she is regarded as the “go-to disputes lawyer in Singapore”.

Roy Ang

Withersworldwide, Singapore

Bio

Roy Ang is the Executive Director and Head of Business Development at Withersworldwide in Asia Pacific.

As Executive Director, he co-develops and implements business strategies with partners and senior management focused on enhancing profitability. As the Asia Head of BD, he leads the BD team, supports senior Partners in their business plans, and identifies business opportunities.

Roy regularly writes and speaks about marketing and BD topics in the professional services sector. In 2017, Singapore Business Review recognised him as one of Singapore’s 10 “Most Notable Chief Marketing Officers Aged 40 and Under.” In 2020, Asia Law Portal listed him as “30 people to watch in the business of law in Asia”.

Academic PROGRAMME

LAWFIRMS 2.0, HOW LAWYERS CAN STAY AHEAD OF THEIR GAME

Date & Time

Location

Description

Speakers & Moderators

Zoya Gyurova

Strik N.V. Tax|Legal, The Netherlands

Barbara Koenen-Geerdink

Al Tamimi & Company, UAE

Philipp Thurner

NEXL, Australia

Swee Yen Koh

WongPartnership LLP, Singapore

Roy Ang

Withersworldwide, Singapore

Session Coordinators

Zoya Gyurova

Strik N.V. Tax|Legal, The Netherlands

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