Ms Ira Biswas > Chooi & Company > Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia > Lawyer Profile

Chooi & Company
LEVEL 5, MENARA BRDB
285 JALAN MAAROF, BUKIT BANDARAYA
59000 KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia

Work Department

Dispute Resolution

Position

Ira Biswas was called to the Bar of England & Wales in July 1986 and was admitted as an advocate & solicitor of the High Court in Malaya in July 1987. Ira joined the firm as a legal assistant in 1987 and was made a partner in 1992. Ira has extensive experience in a wide spectrum of commercial and civil litigation cases. Her key areas of practice are in insolvency law, commercial frauds and banking litigation. She has dealt with clientele in many different industries and is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer.

Career

In the field of dispute resolution, Ira has been ranked as a Leading Individual by Chambers Asia Pacific in the 2018, 2017 and 2016 editions, and by Asia Pacific Legal 500 in the 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2002/2003 editions. In the 2007/2008 edition of Asia Pacific Legal 500, she was ranked as an experienced lawyer in shareholder disputes, commercial fraud and company law litigation, in the 2013 edition as a Recommended Lawyer and in the 2014 edition as a Leading Individual and Recommended Lawyer.

She was awarded the Disputes Star of the year award for Malaysia for the inaugural Asialaw Asia-Pacific Dispute Resolution Awards 2015, and is additionally listed as a Benchmark Disputes Star in the 2018 and 2014 editions of Benchmark: Asia Pacific and as a Local Dispute Star in its 2013 edition.

Ira is the co-chairperson of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (Malaysia Network). She is also actively involved in Bar Council Committees. She was the Chairperson of the Bar Council’s Advocacy Training Committee (2016-2018) and is an advocacy trainer for the Malaysian Bar. She is also a member of its Corporate and Commercial Law Committee.

For her recent presentations, Ira was a speaker at “Seminar on Cross-Examination” organised by the Bar Council on 1 March 2018. On 29 March 2017, she was a presenter on “Appellate Advocacy” seminar at the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee. She also presented on “Corporate Insolvency” at a seminar on “Critical Components of Company Law: The Road Ahead” at the Bar Council Malaysia Outreach Programme on 28 July 2016.

Amongst other publications, Ira was a contributing editor of the Malaysian Civil Procedure 2013 published by Sweet & Maxwell Asia and is currently a contributing editor of its Malaysian Civil Procedure. She is also an author of the Malaysian chapter on Enforcement of Foreign Judgments published by Wolters Kluwer Law & Business in the May (2010) supplement.

Languages

English, Bahasa Malaysia and Hindi.

Memberships

Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya

Education

A graduate of Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, India with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Economics, Ira then obtained a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree from the University of London, England (External Degree). She was called to the Bar of England & Wales in July 1986 and was admitted as an advocate & solicitor of the High Court in Malaya in July 1987.

Lawyer Rankings

Malaysia > Dispute resolution

The disputes team at Chooi & Company specialises in commercial and corporate litigation and is regularly instructed by multinational companies, accounting firms, and local corporations. Much of the work centres on shareholder disputes and boardroom takeovers in public and private listed companies, and the firm frequently acts as lead counsel in matters at the appellate stage or before the apex court. Christopher Leong is recognised for his expertise in banking and securities litigation, while Ira Biswas is well-versed in insolvency law and fraud cases. Nicole Fiona Wee Sue-Ren and Janet Chai are key members of the group, focusing on cross-border financial and energy disputes, respectively.