Shaping Urban Impact:
Our Expertise in Law
The high-level strategic advice we offer encompass many sectors of Indonesian business. Our specialty is in providing executives with our expertise to assist in their decision-making.
Arief Tarunakarya Surowidjojo
Arief T. Surowidjojo, the co-founder of Surowidjojo & Co., was a co-founder of Lubis Ganie Surowidjojo for 38 years with his focus of practices in governance, corporate restructuring, refinancing, corporate finance, capital market, investment, complex business contract negotiation and drafting, shareholders and minority protection, environmental, natural resources and advisory in corporate dispute resolutions.
To give a business perspective, he has since 2001 served as independent commissioner of 6 high-profile publicly-listed companies, 2 of them being Fortune 500 Global companies, and 1 of them being Fortune 100 Indonesia’s biggest companies. He is now still serving as Independent Commissioner at PT ABM Investama Tbk., and PT Bank Jago Tbk. His experience in those companies with well-known governance practices enables Surowidjojo & Co. to provide responsible business solutions within the clear legal framework.
Surowidjojo & Co. and Legal Education
Arief T Surowidjojo has dedicated significant time and effort to legal education and also education in general. The basic problem of Indonesia as an emerging country, regardless its advanced position in enjoying demographic bonus, is the gap of its fast economic development and ability of own workforces to compete with competitors in developed even other top emerging countries. The root cause is the education system that has to support basic, middle and higher education for 50 million students, 3 million teachers and 300,000 schools. Indonesia has one of the largest education systems globally. The gap of education quality provided in big cities and rural areas creates different level of economic development in those areas. While practising as a corporate lawyer in his own firms, in 1990 Arief started to teach business law and contracts at Faculty of Law University of Indonesia, one of the finest and biggest law faculties in Indonesia. He retired from University of Indonesia in June 2023 after educating thousands of young lawyers for more than 32 years. In 2011, Arief established Jentera School of Law with the other founders of Pusat Studi Hukum & Kebijakan Indonesia, a boutique law school intended to introduce a unique legal education system which combines a deep knowledge of basic legal theories, down-to-earth practice of law, building personal and professional integrity, and law reform character in each and all students. In 2020, Arief was appointed as the Chairperson of Jentera School of Law for 4 years of term of office.
In 2021, Arief was appointed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology as one of the 9-members of the Accreditation Council of the National Accreditation Board of Higher Education (MA BANPT), representing professional sector, for 5 years term of office. Under Law on Education of Higher Education, MA BANPT is responsible to develop accreditation systems, conduct accreditation to all universities (and certain course programs) in Indonesia, and oversee accreditation of course programs by the independent accreditation institutions.
Combining his command of legal theory, rich experience in practising corporate laws, and acting as board member of 500 Fortune Companies would enable Arief and his team at Surowidjojo & Co. to always guide clients in understanding, mitigating and managing their legal, business and operational risks in this time of uncertainties.
Adil Widoyoko Surowidjojo
Adil W. Surowidjojo, the co-founder of Surowidjojo & Co. adds valuable governance practices to the firm’s services. His combined experience serving at the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 2004-2008, senior legal consultant at Lubis Ganie Surowidjojo for 12 years focusing in governance issues, commissioner at hukumonline.com, the largest legal tech company in Indonesia and 5 years as director of PT Tridaya Advisory.
Our Collaborative Partners
We leverage our close partners in collaboration and their deep expertise
Surowidjojo & Co. has established a strategic partnership with Hukumonline.com, Indonesia's leading Regulatory Technology company. This collaboration leverages Hukumonline's exhaustive repository of hundreds of thousands of Indonesian laws and regulations. Furthermore, Surowidjojo & Co. benefits from daily, comprehensive regulatory analyses that span a wide range of industries.
Strategically positioned within Indonesia's legal ecosystem—among regulators, academics, and practitioners—Hukumonline offers Surowidjojo & Co. unparalleled insights into the country's dynamic legal landscape. Additionally, Hukumonline's use of state-of-the-art technology in the legal domain, particularly in the deployment of Artificial Intelligence for legal research, gives Surowidjojo & Co. a significant competitive edge.
Surowidjojo & Co., is working in collaboration with Tridaya in guiding clients to make corporate decisions on crucial issues that need to be in line with good governance best practices. This collaboration enhances Surowidjojo & Co.’s ability to provide services for clients to build a solid governance organization and practices. Tridaya’s co-founders are (i) Erry R. Hardjapamekas, the former commissioner of KPK (2004-2008) and former Chairman of Indonesia Stick Exchange and former CEO of PT Timah Tbk., one of the world’s biggest tin mining company, (ii) Mr Kemal A. Stamboel, a former parliament member, former CEO of PriceWaterhouse Cooper advisory company, and former IBM country director, and (iii) Mr. Arief T. Surowidjojo.
Tridaya Advisory applies the largest principles in implementing organization transformation process. Not only that, Tridaya Advisory deeply understands how these principles can be applied effectively in organization in Indonesia. It is because Tridaya Advisory places itself in the middle of the transformation process, is involved deeply with the process, and provides direct guidance and example to top management key personnel and anyone inside and outside of the organization who want achieve the transformation process' goals, as if Tridaya Advisory itself is undergoing this transformation process.
Pusat Studi Hukum & Kebijakan Indonesia or PSHK is one of the finest law research centres in Indonesia. PSHK was established when the New Order Regime of Soeharto was just toppled by the Reformation Movement in 1998 during the Asian Economic Crisis, by a group of lawyers, academics, and reform activists, including Arief T. Surowidjojo. Since then PSHK has been very instrumental in guarding legislation process for the amendment of Indonesian Constitutions, pro-reform laws and regulations, advocacy for socially responsible legislation process, taking initiatives in constructing new state organizations required to build national integrity systems such as Constitutional Court, Corruption Eradication Commission, Judicial Commission, and reforming the existing state organizations such as Supreme Court, Attorney General Office and many others.
In advising clients, the co-founders of Surowidjojo & Co. have collaborated with PSHK to conduct joint research and advocacy process. The collaboration will be enhanced to make sure that analyses and advises provided by Surowidjojo & Co.to its clients are supported by deep, responsible and comprehensive legal research.
