Ms Bock Eng Sim > WongPartnership LLP > Singapore, Singapore > Lawyer Profile

Ms Bock Eng Sim

+65 6416 8108 bockeng.sim@wongpartnership.com View profile

Work Department

Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group; Specialist & Private Client Disputes Practice; Private Wealth Practice

Position

Head – Specialist & Private Client Disputes Practice;
Partner – Private Wealth Practice.

Career

Extensive experience in private wealth and civil litigation, which include family, matrimonial law, succession trusts and probate law, banking and finance, property and employment. She has over 20 years of experience in trust, estate and family laws – both front-end as well as litigation. She regularly advises ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families on succession and estate planning and business continuity. Bock Eng has represented local and international banks, financial institutions and private investors in a wide variety of on-shore and off-shore matters.

Work Highlights

Matters of significance in which Bock Eng has been involved in include acting/advising for the following:

• An ultra-high-net-worth foreign patriarch on succession and estate planning, setting up of family office as well as residency issues for his family.
• An ultra-high-net-worth individual who was the founder of a multinational listed pharmaceutical company on asset protection, involving multiple asset classes in various jurisdictions. The client faced enforcement proceedings with a quantum of several hundred million US dollars. The challenge was thus in navigating the laws as to asset protection against creditors, for succession and in the event of insolvency.
• The intended interim administrators of the estate of a high-profile high-net-worth foreign businessman who died under mysterious circumstances in the investigation of the deceased’s estate and preservation thereof. This application was unprecedented as there was complex multi-jurisdictional litigation relating to the deceased’s estate which holds significant assets in multiple jurisdictions.
• A high-net-worth family to review the businesses and asset-holding of the family in the PRC, and working towards their protection as family assets.
• HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited (the “Trustee”) in its capacity as trustee for the holders of the structured notes (the “Minibond Notes”) issued by Minibond Limited (“Minibond”) pursuant to the Minibond S$10 billion Secured Note Programme, to provide advice to the Trustee on issues arising from the event of default occurring on the Minibond Notes following the commencement of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the United States by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Lehman Brothers Special Financing.
• Societe Generale in successfully defending against an action commenced in the High Court of Singapore by Jurong Shipyard Pte. Ltd. for a sum of approximately US$200 million.

Awards & Accolades

Bock Eng is the winner of 2020 Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” award for Trusts and Estates in Singapore. She is recognised as a leading individual for Private Wealth and recommended in the area of Dispute Resolution in The Legal 500: Asia Pacific – The Client’s Guide to the Asia Pacific Legal Profession. More recently, she was ranked by Who’s Who Legal 2021 as a National Leader for Private Client in South East Asia and a Global Leader for Labour & Employment. She is also recognised as one of the Litigation Stars in the Benchmark Litigation Rankings 2021 and was featured in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers for Trusts and Estates.

Bock Eng has also been commended for being “highly rated for understanding the sensitivities of the subject matter as well as for being very approachable and personable” by The Legal 500: Asia Pacific – The Client’s Guide to the Asia Pacific Legal Profession. Bock Eng’s clients have also praised her on Client Choice: Recognised for Litigation as “her advice takes into consideration the legal angle as well as the commercial aspect of the issues involved”, “she articulates her points of view lucidly and is persuasive in convincing the Judges to follow her arguments through the case” and “the best part of her is her assistance in facilitating out-of-court settlements with litigants successfully, rather than the cases going to trial which are usually protracted and costly.”

Publications

• The International Family Offices Journal September 2021 – The family office in Singapore
• Chambers Global Practice Guides – Private Wealth 2020 – Singapore Chapter
• Chambers Global Practice Guides – Private Wealth 2019 – Singapore Chapter
• International Comparative Legal Guide to: Private Client 2019 – Singapore Chapter
• STEP Journal, March 2019, Family Office Boom
• Singapore Law Gazette, January 2016, Wills and Beyond
• The Private Wealth & Private Client Review 1st to 3rd Editions (2012 to 2014) – Singapore Chapter
• Getting The Deal Through – Real Estate 2012 and 2013 – Singapore Chapter

Languages

English, Mandarin.

Memberships

Chairman of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (Singapore) from 2019 to 2022; Course co-ordinator for Wills and Probate Administration for the admission to the Singapore bar; Founding committee member of the Wealth Management Institute’s Global-Asia Family Office (GFO) Circle. The GFO Circle is supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS); President of the Rotary Club of Jurong Town, an organization whose motto is “Service above Self”.  In my term, the Club’s focus in on sustainability and happy ageing – we are looking to create awareness in food and environmental sustainability as well as activities and habits beneficial to ageing which are sustainable.

Education

Admitted, 1991, Singapore Bar; 2004, Roll of Solicitors of England & Wales; National University of Singapore (LL.M., MBA, LL.B., Hons.)