WongPartnership is the clients’ choice for big-ticket domestic and cross-border disputes, with top-tier expertise from teams led by no less than 14 disputes-dedicated partners and three senior counsels. The group’s offering encompasses all areas including commercial disputes, construction, international arbitration and insolvency matters. Its work cuts across numerous sectors including energy, entertainment, hospitality, infrastructure, medical, natural resources, telecommunications, transport and trade. The firm is well positioned to act on multi-jurisdictional matters backed by its extensive integrated regional practices in Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, India, China, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The firm has the largest construction practice in the jurisdiction and has a deep bench of senior construction specialists. This year, the firm ascends into the top tiers in the private client and white-collar crime disputes rankings.
Commercial disputes and international arbitration experts Chee Meng Tan and Sean Yu Chou, construction specialists Peng Cheng Tay, Christopher Chuah and Ian De Vaz, corporate and commercial disputes co-heads Joy Tan and Hock Keng Chan, and insolvency expert Manoj Sandrasegara are among the key figures in the firm. Senior counsel Swee Yen Koh and Smitha Menon are other active lawyers in commercial and corporate disputes, and international arbitration. Koh was appointed SC last year, the youngest female active court practitioner to receive this appointment. Private client disputes specialist Simran Kaur Toor left the firm in May 2022 to become the CEO of SG Her Empowerment.
The firm acted for the interim judicial managers of Hodlnaut, a global service provider within the Hodlnaut Group that operates a platform allowing users to deposit cryptocurrency tokens to earn interest on that deposit like a cryptocurrency bank, and allows users to swap cryptocurrency tokens from its own inventory, like a cryptocurrency exchange. The case is interesting on multiple fronts, such as its cross-border nature, quantum of debt, number of creditors, contentious elements and the possibility of novel legal issues.
Chuah and his team represent a Chinese contractor in an ongoing SIAC arbitration before a panel of three arbitrators seated in Singapore, in a case commenced by a developer in respect of a project in Cambodia. The case concerns claims for damages for alleged delays and wrongful termination of contract, with an estimated disputed amount in excess of $100 million. In another matter, the team is assisting Danieli Centro Combustion, a European designer and manufacturer of steel plants, in its dispute with a major Asian steel producer, arising out of the construction of a steel plant in Southeast Asia.
Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels engaged the team for two proceedings before the Singapore High Court to set aside and resist enforcement of the partial award and final award rendered by an arbitral tribunal in a Singapore-seated arbitration. The case involved novel issues such as the standard for finding that an arbitral award had been “induced or affected” by fraud, whether an arbitral tribunal could attempt to enforce its own previous orders and awards, whether an award which affected third-party rights should be set aside, and the tricky issue of whether the three-month time limit for setting aside an arbitral award is absolute, even in cases where the setting aside is premised on fraud that was only discovered after the time limit had expired. The last issue has been the subject of various conflicting decisions in Singapore and Hong Kong.
The insolvency practitioners assisted Pacific International Airlines on the restructuring of approximately $3.3 billion in aggregate of debts and liabilities of the shipping group via a consensual debt reprofiling exercise with its creditors in Singapore. The scale was immense and it was the most successful restructuring to have been concluded in recent history in Asia. Significant legal innovation and creativity was displayed by the legal team at each stage of the matter. This included pioneering the use of a pre-negotiated restructuring strategy through the jurisdiction’s hybrid restructuring regime and the lawyers’ novel legal submissions during court proceedings for the implementation of the scheme.
The firm’s contentious private client team acted for a group of siblings in High Court proceedings against the descendants of their deceased brother to claim assets of their possibly irrational mother. The matter involves complicated issues as to the interaction between the mental capacity and succession regimes. L Capital Asia Advisors enlisted the employment litigators for a dispute relating to a former senior employee’s employment termination and his alleged entitlement to carried interest.
WongPartnership is at the forefront of legal technology in Singapore and has deployed artificial intelligence and document automation technology to enhance its legal services. For example, it adopted technology from London-based AI firm Luminance to support its M&A practice and also runs a subscription-based legal document automation service through WPGateway that generates certain standardised documents for clients.
Core clients include Bonhams Hong Kong, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase and Ramky Cleantech Services.
Client feedback
“WongPartnership was excellent. They were commercial, responsive and sharp. Led by the firm’s head of litigation Sean Yu Chou and partner Daniel Chan, the team was very user-friendly, sensible and effective.” – Commercial and transactions
“Offer clarity in ideas and arguments.” – Commercial and transactions
“In-depth understanding of the case and they keep us updated of the court proceedings.” – Construction
“Quick turnaround with concise and commercially sound legal advice.” – Insolvency
“Wonderful set to work with, especially when they are on debtor-side.”
– Insolvency
“WongPartnership was recommended to us as a preeminent insolvency law firm in Singapore. It did not disappoint. At all times, its lawyers were most professional and demonstrated the necessary skills, experience and expertise in their field. WongPartnership lawyers are crisp and responsive communicators, strong advocates and, most significantly, astute business people. We were pleased to have a team of lawyers who could easily appreciate not only the legal issues, but also the business and practical aspects of our situation in order to reach an appropriate and timely resolution. Not only would we be pleased to recommend them to others, but we would gladly hire the firm again should the need arise.” – Insolvency
“As co-counsel, they worked very effectively in coordinating with the Singapore client.” – International arbitration
Joel Chng
“Highly responsive and easy to discuss issues with. Very practical in approaching issues and providing legal advice.”
Josephine Choo
“We appreciated her in-depth knowledge of construction laws and approaches to protecting client's interests.”
“Josephine got an in-depth understanding of the case by having detailed discussions with the client and even visited the job site to gain better understanding of the case.”
Sean Yu Chou
“A first-class lawyer, Sean is very sharp, commercial and user-friendly. He understands the client's objectives and is 'hands-on', providing cogent, practical advice in dealing with complex commercial issues and disputes.”
Swee Yen Koh
“Very diligent and knowledgeable.”
Smitha Menon
“Charismatic and informative, she’s a true pleasure to work with.”
Manoj Pillay Sandrasegara
“Manoj in particular has strong business acumen, with which he skilfully negotiated with the opposing parties. He brought depth of experience to the team and was well respected by not only our team but also the opposing party and his team. Manoj was essential to bringing our matter to a successful result.”
