Bock Eng Sim

Sim Bock Eng is the Head of the Specialist & Private Client Disputes Practice and a Partner in the Private Wealth Practice.

Her main practice areas are in private wealth and civil litigation, which include family, matrimonial law, succession trusts and probate law, banking and finance, property and employment.

Bock Eng 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 including acting for the trustees of the Lehman-linked minibond in the Global Financial Crisis, acting for Deutsche Bank in defending one of the biggest private client claims in the history of Singapore in the High Court of the Republic of Singapore and acting for an international bank implicated in the Olympus saga when Olympus Corporation used funds from various mergers and acquisitions to fund its losses for more than 20 years. She is recognised as one of the leading probate, trusts and private wealth management lawyers in Singapore and has been involved in several landmark decisions.

Bock Eng is the Vice Chairman of the Wealth Management Institute's Global-Asia Family Office (GFO) Circle Committee, a member of the Probate Practice Committee of the Law Society of Singapore, and past Chairman and current secretary of STEP Singapore. She is also the course co-ordinator for Wills Probate and Administration in the Preparatory Course Leading to Part B of the Singapore Bar Examinations.

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. Bock Eng has been ranked by Lexology Index as a Global Leader for Private Client and Labour & Employment and; a national leader for Private Client and Labour, Employment & Benefits in Southeast Asia. Recognised as a "Litigation Star" and "Top 100 Women in Litigation – Asia Pacific" by Benchmark Litigation, Bock Eng is also featured in the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers for Family Law and Litigation. Bock Eng has been recognised as a Private Client Global Excellence lawyer in the Private Client Global Elite Directory 2024.

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."

Bock Eng graduated from the National University of Singapore and is admitted to the Singapore Bar.

Relevant Experience:

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

• 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 U.S. 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 multijurisdictional litigation relating to the deceased's estate which holds significant assets in multiple jurisdictions.

• Successive generations of a ultra-high-net worth family in the establishment and re-structuring of their family’s business holding and family succession structures, including fund holding structures in view of multiple exit events. The complexity lay in navigating the different nationalities and tax residencies (both current and intended) of the various generations of the family, which required a consideration and synthesis of advice from multiple jurisdictions to come up with an appropriate structure that met the family’s evolving needs.
• A patriarch and matriarch who own assets, including real estate in various countries, on their succession planning and estate planning.  We assisted in the set-up of a family trust held by a Private Trust Company, working with legal and tax advisors in the various countries to advise on the most efficient manner to settle the assets into the family trust.  The particular challenge is the implementation of proper family governance in the various companies and structures of the family, and required the drafting of governance documents with the object of implementing a set of guidelines suited to the family, taking into account the size of the family, the working of the family and the current organisation of their companies and entities.
• A successful businesswoman in a senior leadership role in a listed company, in circumstances where her spouse had, through the establishment of trust structures in multiple jurisdictions globally, dissipated marital assets in breach of community property rules. We worked with solicitors in various jurisdictions to advise the client on her claim to the assets settled into trust and other properties retained and expanded by the husband in the course of the marriage
• A fiduciary services firm, which acts in various fiduciary capacities (including as trustees and protectors) in a complex succession structure involving entities, assets and individuals in multiple jurisdictions worldwide. The matter involved an inter-generational family dispute following agitations by certain members of the family, with contests to the succession structures by the ultimate beneficiaries, attempts to obtain confidential trust documents, and remove the client from its capacities as trustees and/or protectors within the structures.

Publications:

• Chambers Global Practice Guides - Private Wealth – Singapore Chapter (2024)
• Lexology In-Depth: Private Wealth and Private Client (13th Edition) - Singapore Chapter (2024)
• No Presumptions – Who Owns the Money in the Joint Bank Account? (Casewatch, 2024)
• International Comparative Legal Guide to: Private Client – Singapore Chapter (Global Legal Group, 2019 - 2024)
• Wealth Management Institute (WMI) Impact: The Family Office Journal – Family Charters: Should They Be Legally Binding? (2024) (2024)
• Viva la Singapore Trusts: Lessons from La Dolce Vita. (Legiswatch, 2023)
• Changes to the Global Investor Programme. (Legiswatch, 2023)
• A Wealth Tax For Singapore? (IFC Review, 2023)
• The Private Wealth and Private Client Review (11th Edition) - Singapore Chapter (The Law Reviews, 2022)
• Family Office and Risk Management (IFC Review, 2022)