When Singaporean lawyers Joseph Tan and Jude Benny showed up at a lunch arranged by a mutual friend 30 years ago, they had no idea that the meal would lead to the founding of one of the most well-known maritime law firms in Asia.

The two, who were running their own struggling one-man-band outfits at the time, claim to have hit it off instantly and by the end of the lunch had begun to get the ball rolling on what started out as a small shipping and conveyancy legal practice.