The Legal 500

Within Foreign firms Leading individuals

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a second tier firm,

Shook Lin & Bok LLP provides ‘down to earth, pragmatic advice’. The team was strengthened by the arrival of Pok Eu Jin from Clifford Chance in London. Liew Kai Zee and Stanley Lim advised on the S$837m unsecured floating rate term loan facility to Mapletree Industrial Trust, and Tan Woon Hum and Markus Blenntoft advised HSBC Institutional Trust Service on Islamic finance aspects of the S$491m Sabana sharia-compliant REIT initial public offering (IPO).

Within Foreign firms Leading individuals

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a second tier firm,

Shook Lin & Bok LLP advises on capital fund raising products, derivatives and structured products. Tan Woon Hum and Markus Blenntoft advised Mapletree Industrial Trust on its S$1.19bn IPO, and Sabana’s sharia-compliant Industrial REIT on its S$491m IPO. On the debt side, Marilyn See advised OCBC on its HK$10bn Certificate of Deposit Programme. Gwendolyn Gn is singled out for praise.

Within Foreign firms Leading individuals

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a second tier firm,

Shook Lin & Bok LLP’s expanding team ‘punches above its weight’ acting in some of Singapore’s headline transactions. David Chong and Michelle Phang advised Morgan Stanley, as advisor to Parkway Holdings, on the contested takeover by Khazana, assisted mobile internet company Spice i2i with its S$223m acquisition of Affinity Group, and represented Morgan Stanley on SGX’s aborted takeover of ASX.

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a third tier firm,

Shook Lin & Bok LLP’s ‘detailed, responsive’ team, led by Sarjit Singh Gill, is defending Minibond in a test case involving a $10bn structured note programme arranged by Lehman Brothers. ‘Powerful advocate’ Vinodh Coomaraswamy is representing Pheim Asset Management and its principal, in the Court of Appeal against a civil penalty of S$250,000 for share price manipulation. David Chan is a leading name.

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a second tier firm,

Shook Lin & Bok LLP’s litigators Sarjit Singh Gill SC and Pradeep Pillai represented six senior ex-employees who were sued by BP (Singapore) when they joined a competitor. Vinodh Coomaraswamy SC represented a Swiss subsidiary of the overseas arm of the Russian Yukos Oil Company in a fraud case against three ex-employees.

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a second tier firm,

Shook Lin & Bok LLP’s Connie Loo advises multinationals and local clients in the pharmaceutical, media and telecoms sectors on corporate and transactional IP issues, advising Temasek Life Sciences Ventures Private in a joint venture with Emergent Biosolutions to form Epic Bio Pte.

Within International arbitration, tier 4

Shook Lin & Bok LLP’s Sarjit Singh Gill SC contributes a ‘wealth of experience’, acting for an Indian company in a $150m arbitration against an Italian entity. Vinodh Coomaraswamy SC was sole arbitrator in a $8m SIAC dispute.

Within Legal market overview,

The local market is dominated by four preeminent law firms: Allen & Gledhill LLP, WongPartnership LLP, Drew & Napier LLC and Rajah & Tann LLP. While the latter two are particularly strong in litigation, strong transactional firms, notably Shook Lin & Bok LLP, Stamford Law Corporation and Rodyk & Davidson LLP lead the chasing pack. Specialist boutiques are increasingly involved in some of the biggest deals. Loo & Partners LLP is one such example. Asia Practice LLP and RHT Law LLP, the latter recently established an alliance with Taylor Wessing LLP, are breakway boutiques launched by high-profile partners from large local firms.

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a third tier firm,

Shook Lin & Bok LLP handles high-value real estate financing transactions, notably representing HSBC Institutional Trust Services, as trustee of Sabana sharia-compliant Industrial REIT, in its S$491m IPO. Joseph Chun and Tan Woon Hum are leading names.

Within Foreign firms Leading individuals

Within Local firms, Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a first tier firm,

According to clients, Shook Lin & Bok LLP ‘consistently performs to an extremely high standard’, advising on liquidations, receiverships, judicial management and schemes of arrangement David Chan, described as ‘proactive and commercially sensible in often difficult circumstances’, is acting for the Cayman Islands and Singapore liquidators of Petroprod. Sarjit Singh Gill SC and Vinodh Coomaraswamy SC are advising on Armada (Singapore) Pte’s insolvency.

Within Local firms, tier 4

At Shook Lin & Bok LLP, media and entertainment lawyer Connie Loo, David Chong and Michelle Phang provide corporate and contentious advice to pharmaceutical, telecoms and publishing sector clients, recently acting for SGX-listed mobile internet company Spice i2i in its $175m acquisition of Affinity Group.