DLA Piper wins in FT Innovative Lawyers Asia Pacific 2022 Awards

Global law firm DLA Piper has won two awards, for Innovation in Digital Finance, as well as Innovation in Social Justice, Inclusion and Diversity, at the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia Pacific 2022 awards ceremony, held in Singapore on Thursday, 12 May.

The awards celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of law firms and clients, in-house legal teams and legal service providers that promote innovation within the sector. Winners were recognised for their work on pioneering projects and initiatives across a range of markets and disciplines.

DLA Piper received the accolade for Innovation in Digital Finance for its work with TOKO, a digital asset creation engine developed under the firm’s Law& brand, which champions and fosters innovation within the firm. TOKO seeks to solve inefficiencies in capital markets with distributed ledger technology, providing clients with a platform to create unique product offerings and improve asset liquidity, coupled with the required legal knowledge to navigate the regulatory complexities of tokenisation. This is the second time TOKO has been recognised in the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia Pacific Awards, having won in the ‘Moving the market forward’ category last year.

Scott Thiel, Founder and CEO of TOKO, commented:

“I am incredibly proud of this achievement. Within one year of launching TOKO, we successfully completed one of the first debt tokenisations in Asia, which is a significant milestone and proof of concept for TOKO. To have our work recognised by the Financial Times two years running is truly a tremendous endorsement, and testament to the commitment and talent of the TOKO team.”

The category of Innovation in Social Justice, Inclusion and Diversity, was awarded to Wallumatta Legal, which was established in Australia by DLA Piper and Macquarie University to help close the justice gap for the ‘missing middle’: people who do not qualify for free legal assistance, but cannot afford commercial fees.

Cameron Thomson, CEO of Wallumatta Legal, said “ We are honoured to have received this award for Wallumatta Legal, which is all about improving access to justice. With a focus on family law, our hybrid model law firm uses both tech-enabled and traditional tools to provide affordable, fixed-fee, unbundled legal advice and representation. We wanted to demonstrate that a non-profit firm can be self-sufficient.”

This is the second non-profit law firm established and funded by DLA Piper, and the firm has said it is committed to expanding the model to other jurisdictions.

In addition, DLA Piper was shortlisted in the following categories:

• Change Maker: Jim Holding, Managing Director of Aldersgate Holding (DLA Piper’s innovation vehicle)
• Innovation in the Business of Law: DLA Piper Business Advisory – Integrated M&A
• Most Innovative Law Firm Headquartered Outside Asia Pacific

The wins follow the firm’s success at the FT Innovative Lawyers Europe 2021 Awards, where the firm came away with three awards, including Most Innovative Law Firm. DLA Piper’s Global Co-CEO, Simon Levine, was also named Most Innovative Leader and the firm won the award for Most Innovative Law Firm Transformation for its Law& brand.