Career biography

Riya Kaur is the General Counsel of Tata NYK Shipping Pte Ltd, a Singapore-headquartered bulk-shipping joint venture between the Tata Group and NYK. She leads the company’s legal, disputes and governance agenda across the dry-bulk value chain, covering vessel sale and purchase, chartering, cargo claims and cross-border projects. Working closely with operations, chartering and finance, she turns commercial ambition into clear, workable contracts and practical risk strategies.

Her work spans complex S&P and escrow arrangements, back-to-back and tripartite structures, mortgage discharges and flag or registry actions — often under tight timelines and across multiple jurisdictions. On the disputes side, she handles charterparty and performance claims, demurrage, general and particular average, and multimodal issues, coordinating with P&I Clubs and specialist firms while keeping time bars safeguarded and cash flow front of mind. Colleagues value her for concise, solution-driven guidance and for keeping legal advice firmly grounded in operational reality.

A strong believer in structure and accountability, Riya built board-level legal and compliance reporting and helped align internal controls with the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM). She also serves on Tata NYK’s Ethics Committee, ensuring integrity and ethical governance remain embedded across operations. She works across departments to prepare the organisation for new maritime regulations and sustainability requirements, and partners with finance on bank and escrow KYC, documentation standards and claims recoveries. Her focus is always on tangible outcomes — clarity in drafting, faster decision-making and fewer avoidable disputes.

Outside her core role, Riya contributes actively to the maritime community. She serves on the Legal and Insurance Committee of the Singapore Shipping Association, is part of the In-House Counsel Group under the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (SCMA), and sits on the Executive Committee of WISTA Singapore, where she helps design events and mentoring initiatives that bring more diverse talent into shipping. She frequently speaks and writes on charterparty risk, sanctions-related clauses and practical demurrage management, and is known for turning complex legal issues into plain-English guidance that commercial teams can use.

Riya began her career in private practice before moving in-house to specialise in shipping and trade. That mix shapes her approach today — combining litigation and arbitration instincts with an operator’s sense of timing. She focuses on closing viable deals quickly and acting early when the risk-reward balance shifts. Those who work with her describe her as calm, commercially grounded and solutions-first, with a knack for spotting issues before they become problems.

She enjoys mentoring young lawyers and creating practical tools — from clause banks to negotiation checklists — that help non-lawyers manage risk confidently. Passionate about Asia’s growing influence in global shipping, she also believes strongly in Singapore’s role as a hub for talent, finance and dispute resolution.

Riya holds an LLB and continues to pursue professional development through industry programmes and regulatory workshops. Outside work, she is an avid traveller and lifelong learner who enjoys bringing ideas from design thinking and data-driven decision-making into legal practice — ensuring that law remains a strategic advantage, not an afterthought.