About

WeWork has expanded exponentially since its inception in 2010 and is currently the world’s biggest co-working company with 200 locations in 64 cities. The company has expanded its footprint in Asia Pacific in 2016 and within a short period established a significant presence in the key cities of China, South Korea and Australia. It is here where the legal team are faced with the exciting task of setting up a legal structure from scratch: ‘Being in a start-up is exciting and challenging – everything is new and needs to be developed’, says Derek Goh, regional general counsel and legal head of the Southeast Asia and South Korea areas, who additionally covers the real estate legal matters in Australia with the support of a legal assistant. WeWork’s first venture into Southeast Asia was in Singapore in August 2017, and again within a relatively short span of five months, the company signed leases for five locations in Singapore, with the possibility of more to come. Prior to Goh joining all legal matters were handled by the legal team in New York where the company headquarters is based. This has brought on the need to further expand the Southeast Asia legal team in 2018, a task which will see Goh building a team of lawyers and paralegals with different expertise in real estate, construction, compliance, litigation and corporate transactions. ‘The most important development or change in the legal structure is the move to decentralise and establish a fully functioning legal team in the Pacific region because of the anticipated growth. It is indeed exciting times for me as I appreciate the responsibility and task of building a strong competent legal team to support the region’, says Goh. As part of creating a department in such a diverse market, the team has been busy setting up new entities, negotiating and signing up leases, supporting the sales and marketing community teams in their membership drive, localising contract templates and ensuring that the templates are in compliance with local laws and regulations. ‘The speed at which the company moves and expands is breath-taking and there is never a dull period as everything is so fluid!’. An ambitious team with their work cut out for them, Goh’s leadership combined with the vision to integrate a multifaceted legal function into the business, is set to make the WeWork legal team a leading legal function in the region.