A market leader in Singapore, our Litigation and Dispute Resolution Group comprises four Senior Counsel and handles disputes over a wide range of areas, including international arbitration; banking, finance, insolvency and restructuring; commercial and corporate; construction, engineering, energy, infrastructure; intellectual property; professional negligence; regulatory; crime; family; and private wealth.
Our extensive expertise in litigation, arbitration, mediation and other forms of dispute resolution extends beyond Singapore to all of the principal jurisdictions in Asia and beyond.
Banking &
Financial Disputes
Commercial &
Corporate Disputes
International
Arbitration
Specialist & Private
Client Disputes
Restructuring &
Insolvency
Infrastructure, Construction
& Engineering
Energy, Projects
& Construction
• Successfully acted for Credit Suisse AG in defending a claim by a former private wealth client for losses in his private bank account, opened in the name of his BVI-incorporated vehicle. The dispute involved questions of BVI law, limitation periods, and whether the client had any legal standing to claim losses sustained by the vehicle; the plaintiffs’ claim was wholly dismissed by the High Court;
• Successfully acted for Takashimaya Singapore Ltd. in its high-profile dispute with Ngee Ann Development Pte. Ltd. over the proper construction of the Lease provisions for rent review. Given the substantial size of the leased premises and the length of the Lease if all options to renew were exercised, the difference in the parties’ positions could mean an additional aggregate rental in excess of S$800 million;
• Acted as counsel in an SIAC arbitration involving a BVI fund against a Philippines conglomerate over toll road concessions in South East Asia concerning claims in excess of US$1 billion. The arbitration concerns a dispute over the rights to and ownership of shares in the Dutch holding company of an infrastructure venture for toll roads in South East Asia, and involved complex issues of Dutch law principles on property and contract;
• Acted for an international bank in breach of contract and negligence claims against a Singapore-listed collateral manager in respect of pledged goods that were stored in a bonded warehouse at Qingdao Port. This matter takes place against the backdrop of the commodities fraud scandal in Qingdao (and other ports) where several banks had their collateral held in a bonded warehouse (as part of metals financing) pledged to more than one party due to fraud;
• Acted for Ms Serina Wee, former finance manager of City Harvest Church, Singapore, in relation to charges involving conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust, involving the unauthorised use of S$24 million in church funds, and for conspiracy to falsify the church’s accounts in respect of a further S$26 million expended to cover up the unauthorised transactions. This matter has been described as one of the ‘most anticipated trials of the decade’ in The Straits Times;
• Acted for the Independent State of Papua New Guinea (the “State”) in parallel investor-state arbitration commenced under ICSID by PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited (“PNGSDP”), as well as in High Court proceedings. In the High Court proceedings, the State is pursuing an action against PNGSDP for breach of trust and breach of agreement in relation to PNGSDP’s management of assets in excess of US$1.5 billion;
• Successfully acted before the Court of Appeal for the shareholders of a major family-owned dairy and beverage group in Singapore and Malaysia with an annual sales revenue of nearly S$500 million, in a claim for relief against the other shareholders;
• Acted for Swissbourgh Diamond Mines (Pty) Ltd and related parties in defending an arbitral award relating to an ongoing investment treaty arbitration against the Kingdom of Lesotho, concerning claims for the expropriation of diamond mining licences in excess of US$1.8 billion and denial of justice based on the shuttering of an earlier arbitral tribunal constituted to hear the matter. We were appointed as counsel for the related PCA arbitration which has been stayed pending the court proceedings. We also acted for Stephen Jagusch, Queen’s Counsel, an expert in investment treaty arbitration, for his ad-hoc admission to appear as co-counsel in the court proceedings together with lead counsel from WongPartnership;
• A three member Tribunal seated in Singapore awarded a sum of S$750 million, among others, as damages for fraudulent misrepresentation and/or concealment of material facts in connection with the sale of a majority stake in a large pharmaceutical company. Proceedings seeking enforcement of the award commenced in Singapore and India. We act for the primary sellers of the shares, who have sought to set aside and/or resist enforcement of the award on grounds of excess of jurisdiction and breach of natural justice. We also acted for Indian Senior Advocate, Mr Harish Salve, in the first ever application to the Singapore courts, which succeeded on appeal, for his ad-hoc admission, making Mr Salve the first Indian Senior Advocate to appear before the Singapore courts as co-counsel in the setting-aside application together with lead counsel from WongPartnership;
• Acted successfully for a SGX-listed company in their appeal before the Singapore Court of Appeal as to the company’s ability to commence proceedings in Singapore. This is the first case where the Court of Appeal decided on the effect of a non-exclusive jurisdiction clause with alternate jurisdictions and where proceedings had been commenced in one of the contractually chosen forum. We had submitted that as proceedings were commenced in one of the contractually chosen forum, the Spilida test is not applicable and the defendant has to demonstrate “exceptional circumstances amounting to strong cause” before the Court would stay the proceedings;
• Acted for the executors of the estate of Quek Kiat Siong (deceased) against AIA Singapore Pte. Ltd. in the Singapore High Court and the Court of Appeal in a landmark decision which departed from almost a decade of precedents established in the English courts. The Court of Appeal agreed with us that phrases such as “accidental means” (as opposed to “accidental death”) do not exclude claims where the proximate cause of the insured’s injury or death was deliberate or voluntary on the part of the insured (such as suicide);
• Acted for a major German bank to defend claims by Stanley Pan Fang-Jen, a co-founder of Hong Kong based TPV Technology Ltd for alleged losses in excess of US$280 million in his private bank accounts in the names of his off-shore companies. This is one of the biggest private client claims in Singapore to date;
• Acted successfully for the Management Corporation of Grange Heights Strata Title Plan No. 301 in defending a S$63 million claim by Lee Tat Development Pte Ltd for malicious prosecution, abuse of process, malicious falsehood and trespass, in one of the longest-running saga in Singapore’s legal history;
• Acted successfully for PH Hydraulics and Engineering Pte Ltd in the Civil Appeal No. 234/2015. In that seminal decision, the Court of Appeal held conclusively, for the first time, that, as a general rule, punitive damages cannot be awarded purely for breach of contract absent concurrent liability in tort. On appeal, the Court of Appeal reversed the findings of fraud and declined to award punitive damages, holding that the present case was not a situation which merited an award of punitive damages;
• Successfully acted for the initial shareholders of a group of companies, including a prominent businessman and director of public-listed companies in Singapore and Malaysia, in defending a claim exceeding US$40 million brought against them by a private equity fund. The dispute centered mainly on the interpretation of an indemnity clause in a Convertible Bond Subscription Agreement;
• Acted for Hyflux Ltd, a nationally strategic water treatment firm listed on the Singapore Exchange, and its subsidiaries in the restructuring of over S$3 billion in debt. We successfully obtained a moratorium and a subsequent extension of the moratorium while negotiations surrounding the restructuring continue;
• Acted for one of Singapore’s leading ground engineering solutions providers, Ryobi Kiso (S) Pte Ltd in its restructuring via a scheme of arrangement in Singapore. We successfully obtained a moratorium under Section 211B of the Companies Act and are currently working with the company and its financial advisors to formulate a scheme proposal that will be acceptable to the creditors;
• Advised Miclyn Express Offshore Limited, a reputed provider of support vessels and project transportation solutions to the offshore oil and gas industry, on the restructuring of its existing indebtedness. The key existing debt of the Miclyn group are amounts outstanding under the Singapore law governed US$150 million 8.75 percent senior secured guaranteed notes issued by a subsidiary of Miclyn and a Singapore law governed facility agreement between DBS Bank and certain members of the Miclyn group;
• Acted as Singapore counsel to EMAS Chiyoda Subsea Limited (a subsea joint venture between Mainboard-listed Ezra and conglomerates Chiyoda Corporation and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha) and its subsidiaries in a US$1.6 billion cross-border debt restructuring exercise;
• Acted for the Ad Hoc Committee of noteholders of Noble in relation to the financial restructuring of the Noble Group, a Hong Kong based commodities trader listed on the Singapore Exchange;
• Acted for a renowned property developer of a luxurious condominium project against the main contractor in an arbitration, under the arbitration rules of the Singapore Institute of Architects, in a dispute of approximately S$33.6 million in relation to issues of extension of time, delay, variation works and defects;
• Acted for Penta-Ocean Construction Co Ltd in its joint venture with Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co Ltd and Boskalis International BV to carry out the design and construction for Tuas Terminal Reclamation, Wharf Construction and Dredging Phase 2 – Package 3 (“Works”) in Singapore. The JV was the Works by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (“MPA”) in April 2018, with a value of over S$1.4 billion. WongPartnership’s involvement included reviewing the JV agreement and negotiating performance bonds as security for the respective JV partners’ obligations under the contract with MPA;
• Acted for the developer in an arbitration that was commenced by the main contractor whose employment had been terminated and was seeking from the developer some S$37 million, in respect of the building and construction of a new condominium;
• Acted for a Singapore-listed multinational conglomerate in an international arbitration under the International Chamber of Commerce Rules against a state in the Middle East in relation to disputes and differences arising from the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a state-of-the-art integrated waste management facility which costs over US$1 billion;
• Acted for and defended the main contractor, a subsidiary of a listed company, and its corporate officer in respect of the collapse of a viaduct under construction at Upper Changi Road East in July 2017, and in criminal proceedings brought by the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Ministry of Manpower, and the Building and Construction Authority in relation to this incident. The matter is likely to have significant repercussions for the construction industry, especially in respect of contractors’, designers’, and corporate officers’ liability for workplace incidents;
• Advised on the project documentation for the Singapore-Johor Bahru Rapid Transit Link, a rail shuttle service that will run between Woodlands North station in Singapore and Bukit Chagar Station in Johor Bahru. This project is to be implemented under a Public Private Partnership model, and to be undertaken by a joint venture company to be formed by SMRT Corporation and a Malaysian entity;
• Acted for a main contractor in an SIAC arbitration against its subcontractor for claims of some S$3.5 million and defending counterclaims of some S$4 million in respect of civil, structural and architectural works carried out for a relocation of a pumphouse located at an airport facility project; and
• Successfully acted for a main contractor in resisting a $9 million liquidated damages set-off in adjudication proceedings on the legal ground that the Employer’s Representative had failed to make a valid determination on the extension of time due to the main contractor.
Band 1 in Restructuring & Insolvency – Singapore
Chambers Asia-Pacific – Asia-Pacific’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2019
Tier 1 in Restructuring & Insolvency – Singapore
IFLR1000 – The Guide to the World’s Leading Financial Law Firms 2019
Tier 1 in Construction and Projects & Energy – Singapore
The Legal 500: Asia-Pacific – The Client’s Guide to the Asia-Pacific Legal Profession 2019
Dispute Resolution Firm of the Year
The Asia Legal Awards 2017
Tier 1 in Dispute Resolution and Restructuring & Insolvency – Singapore
The Legal 500: Asia-Pacific – The Client’s Guide to the Asia-Pacific Legal Profession 2019
Band 1 in Construction and Projects & Energy – Singapore
Chambers Asia-Pacific – Asia-Pacific’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2019
Tier 1 in Project Development – Singapore
IFLR1000: Financial & Corporate – The Guide to the World’s Leading Financial Law Firms 2019
Singapore’s only law firm listed as the Top 30 firms for restructuring & insolvency globally
Global Restructuring Review 2017