Image: Josh Cole, partner at Baker Botts
Baker Botts has hired partner Joshua Cole in Singapore to bolster its global digital infrastructure practice.
“[Cole’s] location in Singapore supplements our offerings in London, the Middle East and the US,” Richard Guit, partner in charge of Singapore at Baker Botts told Asia Business Law Journal.
He said this was a targeted hire and was strategically significant.
Cole has joined the firm from Ashurst where he served as a partner for 10 years, corporate practice group head for Asia for three years and managing partner in Hong Kong for four years.
He brings with him more than 25 years of experience advising complex M&A and joint ventures in the data centre, subsea cable, telecommunications and digital infrastructure sectors.
He advises on high-profile fixed and mobile network matters, leading deals across the Asia-Pacific, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Sri Lanka and South Korea. He also leads trans-Pacific and trans-Indian Ocean digital infrastructure projects, including submarine cable and related infrastructure transactions.
Cole was one of the leading international advisers in the digital infrastructure ecosystem, advising on some of the world’s most significant subsea fibre-optic cable systems, said Guit.
He added that Cole brought a broader digital and telecoms practice, and his clients were major technology companies, financial investors and telecoms entities.
These clients include global tech company Meta, Australian telecoms giant Telstra, Chinese telecoms operator China Unicom and Malaysian telecoms group Axiata.
Guit also said convergence between technology and energy was one of the greatest shifts underway, and blending the digital infrastructure practice with the firm’s established energy practice would be a perfect combination to meet the needs of clients.
Subsea fibre-optic systems were also increasingly entering the geopolitical debates and we expect an acceleration of buildouts, he added.
