Singapore

PKWA Law Practice is a full-service domestic firm with deep roots in personal and civil dispute resolution. Established in 1988, the firm has grown to over 100 employees and is especially known for its family and matrimonial litigation, while also handling general civil disputes such as inheritance and commercial claims. Led by Lim Chong Boon, a veteran litigator with nearly four decades of experience and a reputation as one of Singapore’s leading family lawyers,  the practice provides representation in all levels of the Singapore courts, including the Appellate Division of the High Court, and in international forums. The team comprises several dedicated family law specialists, including Low Jin Liang, Charlene Nah, and Mark Cheng.  

High-net-worth divorce and family disputes form the cornerstone of PKWA’s caseload, and the firm is regularly involved in matters that push the boundaries of Singapore family law. Recently, its lawyers have handled a series of complex matrimonial cases that resulted in published High Court decisions clarifying important legal principles. For example, the firm represented a husband in a cross-border divorce spanning Singapore and Papua New Guinea that raised challenging issues of jurisdiction, asset tracing and valuation. In this case, the team achieved an unusual outcome: the Singapore High Court awarded the husband an approximately 72% share of the marital assets, and, in a rare move for a private company asset, accepted the firm’s proposal to let both parties retain their shares in the family business rather than forcing a sale. This solution preserved the company’s continuity while dividing economic value, and the court’s decision was noted as a forward-looking precedent for handling entrepreneurial assets in divorce cases.  

In another landmark matter, PKWA acted for a wife in a protracted divorce that involved a 20-year marriage with a decade-long separation before the divorce proceedings. The husband argued that assets acquired after the separation, around 90% of the total wealth, should be excluded from division, but the firm successfully convinced the courts otherwise. The Appellate Division of the High Court ultimately ruled that all marital assets up to the divorce should be considered for division despite the long separation, thereby securing a multi-million-dollar asset pool for the firm’s client. This Appellate Court decision has since been cited for its guidance on how to treat post-separation assets and what constitutes the effective length of a marriage when assessing a fair split. The outcome provided clarity on an unsettled area of family law, confirming that even wealth accumulated by one spouse well after a marital breakdown can be deemed part of the matrimonial estate.  

PKWA’s lawyers are also adept at tackling evidentiary challenges and asset recovery issues in matrimonial cases. A notable High Court family appeal handled by the firm last year dealt with an intense custody and asset division battle featuring voluminous modern evidence and allegations of hidden assets. Acting for the wife, the firm successfully defended the original custody arrangement, ensuring she retained care and control of the children, and persuaded the court to increase her share of the marital assets as a penalty for the husband’s concealment of wealth. The judgment in that case, which was covered in the local media, reinforced the child-centric approach in custody decisions, emphasising the substance of parental care over tactics like surveillance, and confirmed the courts’ willingness to draw adverse inferences when a spouse fails to fully disclose assets. By bolstering the law on evidence and fair division, the decision has contributed to a more equitable framework for future matrimonial disputes.  

While family law is a flagship specialty, PKWA’s dispute resolution work extends to other contentious areas as well. The firm’s general litigation team represents individuals and businesses in civil lawsuits. In one recent high-value probate dispute, PKWA advised an overseas family in a bid to secure a sizable inheritance from a Singapore estate, which required the Singapore High Court to interpret foreign probate documents and local statutes in a novel way. After careful legal maneuvering by the firm’s team, the court was ultimately persuaded to issue a fresh grant of letters of administration, an uncommon but effective remedy. This enabled the clients to access funds exceeding S$25 million from the estate.