Wai Yue specialises in shipping, trade, commodities and insurance law. He regularly advises clients on sale of goods disputes, issues arising from charterparties/ contracts of affreightment, bills of lading, contracts for port services, unsafe port and cargo claims, and ship building/ship sale & purchase disputes. He also acts for parties involved in marine casualties.
Qualified to practise law in Singapore, England & Wales and Hong Kong, Wai Yue also has extensive experience in institutional and ad hoc international arbitrations in Singapore, London and Hong Kong. Aside from his local practice, he has worked in the Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong offices of top tier international law firms.
Wai Yue is counsel of choice for many international commodities traders, shipowners and their insurers whom he also assists with issues relating to coverage and subrogated recoveries.
Wai Yue is ranked in various legal directories and is noted for being ‘brilliant in the way he deals with complexities’, the lawyer who ‘understands the business practices and operations’, and a ‘strategist who can come up with detailed solutions’.
In 2021, Wai Yue made it onto the China Business Law Journal’s The A-List 2021, a list which honours the top 100 elite lawyers (foreign firms) in China, and now maintains his strong Chinese practice from Singapore.
Wai Yue is concurrently the Senior International Consultant of Dowway & Partners, a Chinese law firm headquartered in Beijing which has multiple offices across China.
Acted for the hull insurers in Argoglobal Underwriting Asia Pacific Pte Ltd v Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited [2026] SGCA 14, a complex marine casualty claim exceeding US$70 million arising from the capsize of the vessel TERAS LYZA during a tow voyage in 2018. Successfully overturned the High Court’s decision in its entirety and secured a complete victory for the clients. The Court of Appeal held that the insured had failed to prove both loss by a peril of the seas and constructive total loss, delivering a seminal judgment on marine insurance law in Singapore.
Acting for the Singapore subsidiary of a Chinese State-Owned trading company in one of the biggest litigations that has come before the Singapore High Courts arising from the collapse of a prominent Singapore oil trading house which has spawned various suits in connection with this collapse. The case reference number of the above matters before the Singapore High Court are as follows: (a) HC /OS 489/2020; (b) HC/ OS 549/ 2020; (c) HC / OS 593 /2020; (d) HC/ OS 616 /2020; (e) HC / OS 631/ 2020
Successfully represented and acted as lead counsel for the owners of the “SEA JUSTICE” before the Singapore High Court and the Court of Appeal following a collision between the “SEA JUSTICE” and “A SYMPHONY” involving a stay of admiralty proceedings in Singapore on forum non conveniens grounds in favour of the PRC: The “Sea Justice” [2024] SGHC 37 & The “Sea Justice” [2024] SGCA 32
Incisive Law acts for Unipec Singapore Pte Ltd, the Singapore subsidiary of Chinese oil major China International United Petroleum & Chemicals Co Ltd, in five ongoing interpleader proceedings before the Singapore High Court arising from the collapse of Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd in April 2020. Competing claims have been staked by Unipec and several Singapore banks over five parcels of cargo worth approximately SGD 300 million, for which Unipec had paid but never received delivery. The dispute raises complex questions of title to cargo at the intersection of carriage of goods by sea, credit and security, and insolvency law. Trial commenced in July 2024 with a second tranche heard in April 2025. The matter is one of the largest and most legally complex disputes to arise from the Hin Leong insolvency, which remains one of the most significant corporate collapses in Singapore in recent years.
- Incisive Law acted for a group of five marine insurers in defending a claim for total and constructive total loss under a hull and machinery marine insurance policy following the capsizing of the newly built liftboat Teras Lyza on its maiden voyage from Vietnam to Taiwan in June 2018. The insured parties, including the vessel owners and OCBC as mortgagee bank, claimed over USD 70 million under the policy. After a full trial before the Singapore High Court, judgment was rendered on 30 April 2025. Incisive Law subsequently appealed and secured a full reversal at the Court of Appeal in March 2026, with the court finding that the insured had failed to prove loss by perils of the seas and had not established constructive total loss. The matter is significant as the first time a Singapore court has considered the breach of warranty provisions and the terms not relevant to the actual loss defence under the English Insurance Act 2015, as well as the law on gaming and wagering policies, nearly 120 years after the Marine Insurance Act 1906 came into force. The Court of Appeal decision is reported at [2026] SGCA 14.
- Commercial and transactions
- Commercial disputes
- Dispute resolution
- Insurance
- International arbitration
- Shipping
- Trade and customs
- Energy
- Financial services
- Insurance
- Natural resources
- Oil and gas
- Shipping
- Transport
- LLB (Hons), National University of Singapore
- The Law Society Singapore
- Singapore Academy of Law
- Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (Member of the Procedure Committee)
- The Law Society of England and Wales
- The Law Society of Hong Kong
- Panel of the International Arbitrators of the Shanghai
- International Arbitration Center