WongPartnership LLP

India; International Arbitration; Restructuring & Insolvency; Special Situations Advisory

Smitha Menon is the Head of the firm's Restructuring & Insolvency Practice and a Partner in the International Arbitration, India and Special Situations Advisory Practices.

Her main areas of practice are corporate disputes and cross-border restructuring.

Smitha’s international and local appointments include serving as Vice President of the International Insolvency Institute and being on the board of the Stichting Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection. She is the treasurer of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, a member of the World Bank’s Insolvency and Climate Change Working Group and the Asia Group Leader of the World Law Group’s (WLG) Restructuring & Insolvency Practice Group. Smitha is also on the Income Tax Board of Review Panel, the Shanghai Arbitration Commission's Panel of Arbitrators and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Arbitration and ADR. She is an Honorary Member of the board of the Singapore network of the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC) and a Fellow of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore. She was also the first female Singapore court member on the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the inaugural Chair of the ICC Singapore Arbitration Group.

She is a former Council member of the Singapore Law Society and Chairperson of both the Law Society’s Young Lawyers Committee and the Singapore Academy of Law Young Members Chapter. She has served on the Professional Affairs Committee of the Singapore Academy of Law and continues to serve on the Law Society's Inquiry Panel regularly representing the Law Society in disciplinary proceedings. She has been appointed arbitrator on Indian and Nepal law governed arbitrations conducted under the SIAC Rules and ICC Rules.

Smitha is the first lawyer in Singapore to win the "Woman of the Year in Restructuring (Asia) Award" conferred by the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation in 2020. She is also the youngest Singapore Court member and the first female Singapore Court member to be appointed to the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

She graduated from King's College, London (LL.B., Hons.) and is admitted to the Singapore Bar.

Relevant Experience:

Restructuring and Insolvency matters of significance Smitha has been involved in include advising / acting for the following:

Terraform Labs in its Chapter 11 case and Singapore recognition proceedings, following the collapse of its TerraUSD and Luna crypto assets and involving billions of dollars in claims asserted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and multiple claimants worldwide. The judicial managers of Xihe Holdings, one of the world's largest tanker fleets consisting of over 80 vessels of varying types, on debts and claims in excess of S$1 billion and a potential restructuring of an optimised diversified fleet of vessels. Liquidators of the Greatearth Group of companies which were the contractors for multiple construction projects with key government agencies in Singapore such as the Housing Development Board, National Environmental Agency, Jurong Town Corporation, and Land Transport Authority. The total value of all of the constructions projects was in excess of S$800 million. Hyflux Ltd in its US$2.3 billion debt restructuring; EMAS Chiyoda Subsea Limited and its subsidiaries on their cross-border restructuring of debt in excess of S$1 billion, the MEO Group on its financial restructuring of liabilities in excess of S$500 million, the ad hoc committee of holders of notes issued by Noble Group Limited on the US$3.5 billion financial restructuring of the Noble Group and the ad hoc group of holders of convertible bonds issued by a subsidiary of IDX-listed PT Bumi Resource S Tbk. Wirecard Group in the light of Wirecard AG, the parent company of the group, filing for insolvency in Germany EFG Bank AG, Singapore Branch in the scheme of transfer of the private banking, treasury and wealth management business of BSI Bank Limited to EFG and the liquidation of BSI Bank in Singapore as a result of the revocation by the Monetary Authority of Singapore of its banking license.

International Arbitration matters of significance in which Smitha has been involved in include advising / acting for the following:

The Kingdom of Lesotho in an investment treaty arbitration for expropriation of diamond mining leases and in an application to set aside an investment treaty award finding the State liable for denial of justice in relation to its role in the shuttering of the Southern African Development Community Tribunal. The former majority shareholders of ISE-listed pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd in challenging an arbitration award for sums in excess of S$700 million which included the first successful ad hoc admission of Indian Senior Counsel for the purposes of the Singapore court proceedings: Re Harish Salve and another [2018] SGCA 06. JP Morgan Partners Asia Pte Ltd in a joint venture dispute arising from a US$260 million leveraged buy-out of a technology company, Metalform Asia Pte Ltd, which included arbitration and litigation proceedings before tribunals and courts in Singapore, Mauritius and the Privy Council. An African republic in an award challenge arising out of a bilateral investment treaty. A joint venture subsidiary of the Accor Group of hotels in an international arbitration against its joint venture partner over the development and management of hotels in India. A leading global professional services organisation in an arbitration commenced by a wholly owned subsidiary of a marine engineering company listed on the Singapore Exchange Ltd for claims arising from disputed foreign exchange hedges. An international bank in an arbitration over breaches of duties and negligence on the part of collateral managers arising from fraud carried out in certain PRC ports.

Publications:

Quantifying Damages in International Arbitration: A Comparative Analysis of Indian and Singapore Courts’ Approaches – Singapore Arbitration Journal (SIArbJ) Inadequate Handling of Damages in International Arbitration – IBA Dispute Resolution International Journal, May 2023 Singapore Court of Appeal Propounds Composite Approach to Determine Arbitrability of Disputes, A Tale of Matrimonial Discord Among Shareholders: Legal Update CaseWatch March 2023 Voices of Women in the Industry Series: Singapore Law Gazette December 2022 Managing Internal and External Insolvency: A Checklist for In-House Counsel: Singapore Law Watch, 12 August 2022 Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act – Key Changes from the Financiers’ Perspective: Singapore Law Watch, 2 March 2021 Roll Up Rescue Financing in Singapore: Giving old debt senior priority – Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, March 2021 Out-of-Court Insolvency Relief for Distressed Companies: SID Directors Bulletin published by the Singapore Institute of Directors: 2021 1st Quarter Report Joinder and Consolidation Provisions under 2021 ICC Arbitration Rules: Enhancing Efficiency and Flexibility for Resolving Complex Disputes: Kluwer Arbitration Blog January 2021 International Insolvency & Restructuring Report 2020/21 Ad-hoc committees in Singapore restructurings: Global Restructuring Review: The Art of the Ad-Hoc Edition 2 International Insolvency & Restructuring Report 2020/21 Confidentiality in International Arbitration: A Comparative Jurisdictional and Institutional Review (co-authored with Nicholas Lingard) – Singapore Arbitration Journal (SIArbJ), May 2020 lpso facto protection: As dead as the language and rightfully so? – Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, June 2019 Super Priority in Rescue Financing—Lifeline or Lasso? – Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law Navigating Singapore's restructured restructuring and insolvency framework – South Square Digest Singapore: A Restructuring Entrepôt – Emerging Markets Restructuring Journal Exploring the issues of bankruptcy (Re Opti-Medix Ltd (in liquidation) and another matter) – LexisNexis Indonesia: Arbitrating with Foreign Parties – A Closer Look at Indonesia's Approach to Investor-State Dispute Resolution – Asian Dispute Review Singapore High Court affirms that a party may obtain restraint orders ahead of any application for the calling of a creditors' meeting for the purposes of putting a company under a scheme of arrangement – Lexology India-Singapore CECA, Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, The Investor's Guide – LexisNexis LawNet Asian Insights: Preparing for Company Winding up the role that in-house counsel plays – LawNet Practical Guidance Singapore – Dispute Resolution – LexisNexis Practical Guidance Commercial Module: Financial Distress, Bankruptcy and Insolvency – LexisNexis Singapore Precedents of Pleading

English