LEGAL INDUSTRY SURVEY

LEGAL LUMINARIES Young at Law: The most influential lawyers aged under 40 in 2021

Twenty-one new lawyers from 15 law firms have been chosen as some of the most promising lawyers in the industry for the seventh year of Singapore Business Review’s Legal Luminaries aged 40 and under in 2021. These lawyers have advised clients in matters such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), criminal litigation, international arbitration and dispute resolution, with expertise ranging from banking and finance, to investment markets, and white collar crime.

The lawyers from this list are arranged from youngest to oldest.

1 Victor Looi, 29, Atlas Asia Law Corporation

Victor is a senior associate, experienced in advising numerous clients on Singapore law matters in mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and reorganisation, data protection, and payment services. He graduated from Singapore Management University with high distinctions in Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Business Management (Finance). A firm believer in public service, he also volunteers at a pro bono legal clinic.

2 Nadia Ahmad Samdin, 30, TSMP Law Corporation

Nadia is part of TSMP’s corporate transactional team with a specialisation in M&A, along with other areas of practice such as equity capital markets, banking and finance, and employment law. She has worked with Mainboard-listed public firms, startups, and foreign entities. Outside of law, she is currently an elected Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC and has served for the National Youth Council and the Singapore Council of Women Organisations, and as a panel adviser to the Singapore Youth Court.

3 Niklas Wong, 31, TSMP Law Corporation

One of TSMP’s youngest male associate directors, Niklas has worked on complex litigation and arbitration matters. He has acted for the plaintiffs in one of the country’s largest trust disputes and regularly acts in probono matters. He has taught an elective course on shareholder deals and litigation at the Singapore Management University.

4 Sinyee Ong, 31, Sharpe & Jagger

Sinyee is a dispute resolution practitioner focusing on the construction, hospitality, insurance, and oil and gas sectors. She has advised clients on political risk from the Hong Kong riots, and is acting on behalf of hospitality and real estate firms seeking insurance recoveries from the financial losses triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. She is a CFA charter holder and is qualified in four jurisdictions, namely Singapore, England & Wales, New York, and Western Australia.

5 Farrah Isaac, 32, Harry Elias Partnership

Farrah is a senior associate in the firm where she specialises in civil and commercial litigation and dispute resolution. She assisted in a successful defense of a client in a multi-million dollar High Court trial and also obtained the largest ever party-and-party costs award in Singapore’s legal history. Farrah graduated from the University of Bristol with Upper Second Class Honours.

6 Geraint Kang, 32, Tan Kok Quan Partnership

A senior associate, Geraint has handled matters related to banking law, insolvency and restructuring, and building and commercial law. Some of his most recent cases include acting for the provisional liquidators of SuperPark Asia Group against the firm’s majority shareholder. He graduated from the University of Bristol in 2012.

7 Keith Hsu, 32, Emerald Law

A managing partner at Emerald Law, Keith acquired the practice when it was still known as B Rao & K S Rajah. He was lead counsel in various High Court cases and is also a former member of the Law Society’s Anti-Money Laundering Committee. His expertise lies in fintech, particularly in handling the sale and purchase of shares of private companies.

8 Hazel Ho, 33, CNPLaw

Hazel is a senior associate in the firm’s corporate advisory team. Her main areas of practice include M&A, joint ventures, private equity, capital markets, and general corporate advisory. In her first two years at CNPLaw, she helped the firm establish working collaborations with various professional organisations which continue to generate business for the firm. She holds a Master of Laws (Distinction) from BPP Law in London.

9 Gerard Quek, 33, Peter Doraisamy

Gerad is a partner at Peter Doraisamy and was included in the top 30% cohort of the University of Tasmania. His expertise lies in fraud and asset recovery, commercial disputes, financial services law and regulation, and shipping litigation. Gerard regularly takes on matters on a pro bono basis with the support of his firm, and was recently shortlisted as a finalist in the Asian Legal Business Southeast Asia Law Awards 2020 for the Young Lawyer of the Year category.

10 Kevin Tan, 34, Rajah & Tann Singapore

Kevin specialises in commercial litigation and international arbitration and was formerly a Justices’ Law Clerk and Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court. Some of his notable cases include acting for the Philippines in a UNCITRAL Arbitration relating to a water concession agreement, and for a Malaysian firm and a Marshall Islands-registered company in an O&G dispute before the Singapore International Commercial Court. The Ministry of Law has recently named him as

an assessor under the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act.

11 Loh Chun Kiat, 34, Rajah & Tann Singapore

Chun Kiat is a corporate/ mergers and acquisitions lawyer with experience in public and private M&As. He has represented clients on both buy-side and sell-side transactions, investors and startups related to venture capital and other emerging company transactions. He has been named as a Notable Practitioner in Corporate/Mergers and Acquisitions in Asialaw Leading Lawyers 2020 and 2021 edition.

12 Tania Chin, 35, Withers KhattarWong

Tania is a criminal litigation partner with expertise in blue and white collar crimes. She is a member of the Criminal Justice Chapter of the Professional Affairs Committee, Singapore Academy of Law, which advances training and standards of the Criminal Bar of Singapore. She was the only Singaporean lawyer to be recognised as a ‘Future Star’ in white collar crime by Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific 2020.

13 Kennedy Chen, 35, Harry Elias Partnership

Kennedy has several specialties under his belt from M&A, corporate structuring and restructuring, to finance, equity/ debt capital markets, bespoke deals, and commercial/business advisory. He has authored the Singapore chapter for the PRC Belt Road Initiative Guidebook published by Eversheds Sutherland US. He is also a committee member under the Panel of Assessors for COVID-19 Temporary Relief

14 Xiao Hui Ting, 35, Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow

Xiao Hui is a local principal who advises on all aspects of corporate advisory and cross-border transactional work, including M&A (private), joint ventures, commercial contracts, and corporate reorganisations. She is a second upper graduate from National University of Singapore with an LL. B. (Hons) in 2008. She also acts for privately held corporations and private equity firms across a broad spectrum of industries.

15 Edwin Chia, 35, CNPLaw

Edwin is a partner in the firm’s dispute resolution and private clients practice groups. His practice areas include civil and commercial litigation, disciplinary proceedings, contentious probate, shareholders’ dispute, and employment matters. He graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2010.

16 Richard Allen, 36, Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow

Richard is a local principal in dispute resolution and international arbitration groups. His practice covers commercial arbitration, international investment arbitration, commercial litigation, as well as public and private international laws. He represents clients across industries, with a particular focus on oil and gas, power, commodities and aviation. He was also involved in several high-profile cases before the UK Supreme Court.

17 Cheryl Tan, 36, Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP

Cheryl specialises in banking and finance with focus on acquisition financing and venture debt financing transactions. Dual-qualified in Singapore and New York, she has recently expanded her practice to cover the issuance of insurance-linked securities. She graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2007, was admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 2008 and as an Attorney at Law in the State of New York in 2012.

18 Gerald Goh, 36, GTLaw

Gerald is a partner in the firm’s corporate and commercial practice group and has practiced law for 10 years. He advises companies, private equity and venture capital funds and other financial organisations on cross-border acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and mergers. He has handled deals with several well-known companies and is also the youngest partner in the firm.

19 Suzanne Meiklejohn, 37, HFW

Suzanne is a senior associate and has trained in its London office prior to relocating to Singapore. Her expertise extends to high-value shipbuilding and offshore disputes, largely in Singapore International Arbitration Centre arbitrations. Suzanne has been commended for her excellence in legal skill, combined with her resilient, outcome-oriented approach and her understanding of clients’ businesses.

20 Shaun Lee, 37, Bird & Bird

Shaun acts in complex transnational commercial disputes across the TMT and financial sectors, as well as in the infrastructure, energy & utilities space. He has successfully represented clients in SIAC, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and International Criminal Court (ICC) international arbitration proceedings; mediation proceedings; and in proceedings before the Singapore courts and the Singapore International Commercial Court. He has also written extensively on international arbitration, Singapore employment and data privacy law.

21 Eunice Yao, 37, Dentons Rodyk & Davidson

Eunice is a partner in the firm’s corporate practice, with main areas of practice in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, , and fintech. She has advised in initial public offerings of companies providing advice to issue managers, and in many companies listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited in their corporate actions, including equity and debt fund raising.

Why digital supply chains have become vital considerations

“We are the first company to do drone deliveries to shops anchored outside Singapore,” Reddy said. “We are solving the maritime lastmile delivery problem. “Every year, 2.5 million trips are made using small boats and helicopters to deliver common items to ships that are anchored away from the shore, and offshore platforms. They are quite expensive to deliver these items, it’s quite time consuming, and (the trips) have an enormous carbon footprint.”

Customers leading the way

Meanwhile, Sreekumar Sivaramakrishnan, senior director for the Transportation and Logistics Industries with SAP Southeast Asia, took a customercentric perspective during his presentation at the From Turbulence to Triumph webinar. Supply chain digitalisation and modernisation were the key focus areas in the From Turbulence to Triumph webinar. I don’t think there is any boardroom in the world not discussing supply chain resilience Drones to the rescue One supply chain innovation now impacting the marine and shipping There is a rise in multiple systems and He noted that “doorstep deliveries” have become a key customer demand across both consumer and business-to-business supply chains. So-called touchless supply chains have also surged in (right now).” So opined Gerry additional industries in particular is the use demand with the current pandemic Mattios, expert partner with Bain & pressure of unmanned aerial vehicles, or environment. Company, in his opening address to on new drones, to complete last-mile “The concept of ‘touchless’ has the From Turbulence to Triumph: A technologies deliveries with greater efficiency, existed for a few years; but the Look at the Modern Supply Chain and safety, and speed. current pandemic has accelerated webinar, hosted by Singapore Business architectures Yeshwanth Reddy, founder of the the need for each one of you Review in partnership with SAP on 4 Singapore-based startup F-drones, (supply chain professionals) to August 2020. is playing a key role in this trend. think outside the box,” he said. “It

It is not just the COVID-19 His presentation focused on the has become the necessity, rather pandemic demanding this new expanding use of these devices in than the priority.” focus of business leaders, though Singapore’s marine industry. “The bottom line is the faster Mattios says that has certainly While currently, regulations limit you automate the interaction caught companies by surprise and the payload that drones can deliver points between you and your accelerated the trend. Technology over Singapore waters to 5kg only, end customer in a very safe changes, global trade wars, and Reddy is confident a significant environment, only then will you e-commerce have also each played a expansion is on the cards – his stay afloat in this highly customerrole and kept the supply chain “top aviation-grade drones can carry centric environment.” of mind”. loads of up to 100kg (for trips of up Technology and software

Mattios broke down the reactions to 100km). solutions can be the big difference of many businesses, from the But even despite these here, and Sivaramakrishnan immediate actions of the “Act Now” restrictions, Reddy is finding plenty says the right tools can help phase, to the “Plan Now” phase of demand for drone-delivery organisations to “predict”, to a retooling of supply chains for services to ships anchored off shore “automate”, and “analyse” their the “New Normal” of the post- in Singapore. supply chain performance. COVID-19 business. Some of the more curious items With the machine learnings

His most-pro-active clients to have taken the trip across the and artificial intelligence of today, are using tools such as predictive water include a Playstation console businesses can leverage technology analytics to ensure supply chains can (for a crew member’s birthday) as for more accurate predictions, analyse risks and can also react to well as undisclosed amounts of cash closer analysis, and more efficient market changes. and currency. supply chains, he said.

How to address challenges in database management

as addressing the overall governance issues for faster turnaround. “One of the key areas that we need to look at is data governance before you even start in data management. These are the ones that set the verification back to the base line and make sure that we are adhering to compliances,” Kumar said. “We need to have policies in place and how efficiently are we going to manage the multiple databases using the policies and procedures that we have and by incorporating tools as part of our work.” These tools can also be used to ensure that the data quality would adhere to established metrics based on the right metadata management processes in addition to proper data standardisation.

Managing multiple databases in a hybrid environment

An audience of senior IT professionals took part in the exclusive webinar, supported by Quest Software. Businesses are continuously changing to remain competitive. As more firms transition Accelerating the digital transformation process The pandemic is said to have sped up There is a rise in multiple systems and For companies to gain complete visibility on the health and performance of its database environment, they would need the right tools in managing their multi-platform databases. Valencia to digital platforms, database additional the digitisation process for multiple notes that Quest Software’s Foglight management is set to become a pressure companies in different industries. It has is one of these tools which can help key differentiator for organisations, on new affected day-to-day work both within companies identify inefficiencies according to speakers at Much ado technologies organizations up to end-customers, and guide them to deliver a stepabout data: Managing multiple and making services more accessible by-step action plan for maximizing databases with better efficiency architectures through the internet. database performance. webinar. This was hosted by Singapore “Because of this, there is a rise Foglight for multi-platform Business Review, in partnership with in multiple systems and additional databases is said to provide a Quest Software on 13 August 2020. pressure on new technologies and single pane of glass globalview

A number of companies are focusing architectures we are practising,” of all database platforms, along now more than ever on getting their according to Kumar. with performance indicators such technology better. Whilst vast amounts As businesses transform to use as workloads, alarms, system of data are now available to every multiple databases, Kumar highlights utilizations. The software diagnoses business, capturing, managing, and the need to understand the changes performance issues using multianalysing all of that information can be happening in digitalization and business dimensional analysis and provides a significant challenge. transformation, as well as the key issues alerts to identify the root cause of

To level up their database needed to be addressed. These would problems. “It allows you to drill management performances, senior include managing multiple systems and down on the underlying component leaders from the information how can organisations streamline their to see what objects and factors technology, and communications way in managing these. are contributing to the overall professions participated in the webinar, Kumar said that companies need workload,” said Valencia. and heard from both Quest Software’s to introduce efficiency in their Quest’s database management Principal Technologist, Hollis operations. “We can’t continuously solution provides companies with Valencia and NCS’ Director, Business increase manpower which will increase tools that simplify complexity and Application Services, Srirengan Kumar cost without the necessary resources. reduce costs and risks. “Foglight on the evolving challenges of database We need to move towards efficient for databases will help your management today. operations,” he added. team to proactively monitor and

Singapore Business Review’s Chief Companies need to be proactive in diagnose performance issues in Editor and Publisher Tim Charlton resolving database problems despite a heterogeneous multi-database moderated the event. their complicated architecture, as well platform,” says Valencia.

Developing digital innovations in the ‘new normal’

structures, and ecosystems to support, including allowing people to move with the technology shift. “We expect technology to change everything in the organisation, but people are actually the one that drive the technology,” Leonard added. “It requires people to start being edge on in the way that technologies are being defined.” Applying concepts from the previous talk, OutSystems senior solution architect Willie Tan has also created an application through a live demonstration of OutSystems platform. He highlighted creating specific functionalities that fit to different platforms and technologies.

Empowering traditional businesses through digitalisation

Crown Group founder and chief executive officer Keith Tan shared the innovation of Ella, Crown Workers should be free to move in tandem with the technology shift. The spread of COVID-19 is fast-tracking the digital transformation of businesses Singapore country manager Leonard Tan, we need to ensure that new solutions are built fast, built right, Businesses need to ensure that their built Coffee’s first robotic barista, in his attempt to reinvent the traditional model of businesses. Tan also identified four pain points he noticed in the industry for them to reach their consumers. solutions should and are scaled for the future. when his startup Crown Coffee Firms from different industries in integrate with Ensuring that platforms are built grew and opened about four new the region are now adapting and their systems fast is realizing that a lot of time can locations in a short amount of time. innovating amidst the crisis, as the and connect be shaved down from end to end. These includes rent, labor shortage, world transitions to a ‘new normal’. to wider Organisations should ask if they challenge and cost of training, as well Companies are also looking to develop ecosystems have the proper skillset, people, and as consistency. new strategies and alternatives in going into the technology to rule things out quickly. “You need to have a very order to thrive despite the challenging new normal Meanwhile, building solutions grounded approach as to how you’re business environment. right means laying a foundation using the technology to solve your

Further, the COVID-19 pandemic on organisations’ enterprise pain point. Sometimes, that requires has seen an influx of businesses landscape. These solutions need to a rethinking of the business strategy. undergoing digital transformations have the ability to cater to security, It needs to be backed up by your to cope with the” new normal,” as compliance, and even governance solid business model,” Keith said. they start to open new and exciting “Building it right doesn’t mean Leveraging on robotics, artificial opportunities to support their growth. that you need to incur more cost, intelligence and data analytics,

In Accelerating Digital Innovation but at certain times you are actually Keith then started Crown Digital to and Resilience during the New saving in fact because of the sheer act digitalise and empower traditional Normal and Beyond, a webinar of being able to change and revolve,” businesses. He mentioned that the moderated by Singapore Business Leonard said. creation of Ella solved the industry’s Review managing editor Paul Howell “Businesses need to ensure that pain point of manpower. He also and attended by over 80 participants, their built solutions should integrate noted that whilst robots have been key speakers discussed how digital with their systems and connect to in factories for a long time, such innovations fare out for businesses wider ecosystems going into the innovations have not been evident amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. new normal in retail. “We have seen disruptions, but When asked about how robotics New software solutions in a fast- it’s all about the change element that and artificial intelligence will changing world helps to spike the market to where it affect the labour force, Keith said Whilst the idea of digital innovation is is today,” Leonard said. technologies should be embraced not new, the search for new solutions He also noted that in developing for doing mundane tasks and that is accelerating so fast than one technologies, organisations workforce should be rescaled to hire can ever imagine. For OutSystems should ensure the right processes, more people.