Event Report

On 10 September 2019, The Legal 500 hosted the inaugural Asia Pacific Disputes Summit in Singapore.

With over 150 of the region’s leading in-house lawyers participating, the event underscored Singapore’s importance as a global disputes hub for international businesses and their advisers.

With the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Singapore International Mediation Centre, the island city-state already boasts some of the world’s leading dispute resolution forums, institutions and services.

But a disputes hub is only as strong as the confidence placed in it by business. To ensure the content of the event reflected the needs of business, we drew on the wisdom and advice of Singapore’s GC community. Over 20 of the country’s senior in-house counsel with extensive experience of international disputes provided thoughts, suggestions and comments on the panels and sessions for discussion.

The event also benefited from the support and insight provided by some of the leading law firms, funders, barristers’ chambers and consultancies active in the region, namely: Clyde & Co, Eversheds Harry Elias LLP, King & Spalding, K&L Gates Straits Law, WongPartnership LLP, RPC Premier Law, Schellenberg Wittmer, IMF Bentham, FTI Consulting, Fountain Court Chambers and Eugene Thuraisingham LLP.

Over the course of eight sessions, the conference covered the most topical issues in dispute resolution, including third-party funding, the evolution of financial services disputes, how technology is driving and solving disputes, and the challenges of managing cross-border litigation.

Please scroll down to see the panel sessions in full and photos of the event:

Panel 1: The International Commercial Courts and arbitration in Singapore – the next 10 years

Moderator


Gerald Yee, partner, RPC Premier Law

Panellists


Kevin Nash, Deputy Registrar & Centre Director – SIAC

 


George Lim, Singapore International Mediation Centre

 


Laurence Wong, Senior Director, Business Development – Singapore International Commercial Court

 


Shaun Leong, Partner, international arbitration, Eversheds Harry Elias LLP

 

Panel 2: Managing cross-border tech disputes inside and outside the tech sector, from arbitrating disputes faced by tech clients to cybersecurity and data protection considerations

Moderator


Francis Goh, partner and head of international arbitration, Eversheds Harry Elias LLP

Panellists


KK Lim, Partner, Eversheds Harry Elias LLP

 


Stanley Park, Managing director and head of legal Asia Pacific, Scotiabank

 


Kwong Wen Wang, Group chief corporate officer and group general counsel, Mapletree Investments

 


Lanx Goh, Senior Legal Counsel, Privacy & Cybersecurity Lead, and Global Data Protection Officer, Klook

 


Howard Wallis, VP – Legal & Assistant General Counsel, FIS

 

Panel 3: What do in-house counsel expect from external firms during the arbitral process?

Moderator


Jun Bautista, Counsel, King & Spalding

Panellists


Maree Myerscough, General counsel, Conergy

 


Peter Hopp, General counsel – commercial, Rio Tinto

 


Sigrid Wettwer, Head of Group Legal Middle East & Asia Pacific, DNV GL

 

Panel 4: Third-party funding: a transparent look at litigation finance and how businesses can best use it to their advantage

Panellists


Sapna Jhangiani, partner, Clyde & Co

 


Tom Glasgow, Chief Investment Officer (Asia), IMF Bentham

 


Nishtha Kharb, Director, Association of Corporate Counsel, Singapore chapter

Panel 5: What The Fraud! Preserving evidence and assets and other strategies to combat commercial fraud

Moderator


Sreenivasan Narayanan S.C., Managing Partner, K&L Gates Straits Law, Singapore

Panellists


Jarrod Baker, Southeast Asia leader for forensic investigations, Deloitte

 


Muralli Rajaram, Partner, K&L Gates Straits Law, Singapore

 

Panel 6: Navigating a regulatory investigation minefield

Interviewer


James Wood, Global Head of Research, The Legal 500

Panellists


Gino Bello, managing director, technology, FTI Consulting, Singapore

 


Ritankar Sahu general counsel and head of compliance, Max Power Group

 

Panel 7: The evolution of financial services disputes in the Asia Pacific region

Moderator


Chou Sean Yu, partner, WongPartnership LLP

Panellists


Lim Wei Lee, Partner, WongPatnership LLP

 


Sitesh Mukherjee, Head of disputes, Trilegal

 


Nik Yeo, Barrister, Fountain Court Chambers

 


Moses Park, Barrister, Liberty Chambers

 

Panel Session 8: The end user’s perspective: How GCs can stay on top of disputes

Moderator


Julie Raneda, partner, Schellenberg Wittmer

Panellists


Juan Rincón-Cortés, Head of legal for Southeast Asia operations/general counsel for human resources, Citibank

 


Rhonda Hare, General counsel – Asia Pacific, Accor Hotels

 


Paul Fredrick, General counsel – East Asia & Japan, Schneider Electric

 


Emilia Law, APAC Head of Legal, Novartis Technical Operations

In association with...