Allen & Gledhill

Has had a string of successes in the Singapore courts, including defending a nearly US$300 million award relating to a Manila resort

Founded in 1902 and now one of Singapore’s largest firms, Allen & Gledhill started growing its international arbitration practice in the late 1980s under the leadership of former partner Michael Hwang SC. The practice now has 30 lawyers and is co-led by partners Chong Yee Leong, a member of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre’s board of directors, and Dinesh Dhillon, the president of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. Andrew Yeo heads the wider litigation and dispute resolution department and is the vice chair of the ICC’s Singapore arbitration group.

The firm has been recognised for its expertise in energy, infrastructure, construction and engineering disputes. It has handled cases at SIAC and the Asia International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) in Kuala Lumpur as well as ICC and UNCITRAL cases within and outside Singapore.

The practice expanded significantly in 2013 with the hire of five partners from Rajah & Tann – including Chong Yee Leong, who had headed that firm’s international arbitration team. It also recruited former heads of SIAC’s India and China desks.

Members of the firm have been closely involved in Singapore’s various dispute resolution initiatives. Former senior partner Lucien Wong, a much-respected banking and finance lawyer, was chair of the SIAC board of directors before becoming Singapore’s attorney general in 2017. Chong Yee Leong and retired partner Ang Cheng Hock SC were part of a committee that drew up the plans for the Singapore International Commercial Court, and the firm also has a number of members on the SIAC Users’ Council.

Chua Kee Loon and Ramesh Selvaraj – co-deputy heads of the firm’s international arbitration group – are also names to note.

Network

Beside its base in Singapore, Allen & Gledhill works with associate firms in Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Myanmar firm is headed by Minn Naing Oo, a former chief executive officer of SIAC who is qualified to practise in Singapore and New York. He was born in Myanmar, speaks Burmese fluently and has helped to draft the country’s new arbitration law. In Malaysia, Allen & Gledhill is associated with Rahmat Lim & Partners.

In 2019, the firm announced a strategic alliance with Indonesia’s Soemadipradja & Taher. As part of that alliance it welcomed a new partner to its foreign law practice group.

Who uses it?

The firm acts for corporations across South East Asia, multinationals, government agencies and government-linked entities.

Clients on public record include Global Gaming Asset Management, India’s Reliance Power, Korea’s Daesung Industrial Gases and Singapore’s TYN Investment Group and DBS Bank. Sony used it for an ICC case over media rights for Indian Premier League cricket.

It has also acted for the Philippine National Bank and other financial institutions in a US$350 million SIAC case relating to a distressed steel plant; and for Lufthansa in a dispute with a Thai IT services provider.

More recently, the firm has entered the investment treaty arena, advising clients on claims against South East Asian states.

Track record

The firm has done great work for Las Vegas casino operator Global Gaming Asset Management, fending off various court challenges to a US$296 million award against a Manila gaming resort owner. The Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed allegations the tribunal was fraudulently misled. The client is now trying to enforce the award in the US.

In 2018, it helped Reliance Power Netherlands win a US$68 million SIAC award against affiliates of Indonesia’s Sugico Group concerning three coal-mining concessions. The Indonesian courts upheld the award.

For Daesung, it managed to quash a ruling that found a SIAC tribunal in Singapore could hear a case under a clause providing for “arbitration in Shanghai”.

Most of the firm’s cases aren’t public but it says it obtained a significant win for a US Fortune 500 company against government-linked natural gas supplier. It also won a case for one of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies over media rights worth US$1 billion.

In the Singapore courts, it successfully defended a US$1.4 billion ICC award relating to an airport terminal project.

Further back, it helped the Philippines defeat a US$565 million ICC claim by a German-led consortium over a concession for an airport terminal in Manila, as co-counsel with White & Case.

Recent events

Allen & Gledhill helped TYN obtain a freezing order against assets linked to Singaporean entrepreneur Andy Ong in aid of a SIAC case over the sale of the House of Tan Yeok Nee, a 19th century mansion of historical importance in Singapore.

The firm represented DBS Bank in its unsuccessful efforts to reinstate the award of a sole arbitrator who engaged in witness-gating.

It has recently been advising a Malaysian client in a suite of arbitrations against an Italian supplier worth US$240 million and is helping a multinational enforce an ICC award worth more than US$2 billion.

William Ong was made co-head of the litigation and dispute resolution department.

Client comment

Atsushi Miwa at Panasonic says the firm made a “remarkable contribution” to an arbitration matter. He is “deeply impressed” by Chua Kee Loon’s “substantial knowledge and experience”.

Tomoyuki Nozaki of Japanese construction company Obayashi Corporation, who used the firm in an arbitration and a subsequent award challenge, says Allen & Gledhill was “precise” and “to the point”.

He also commends Chua for his “quick response” and “excellent” organisation of all the issues involved.

Overall, the firm was “convincing to the management”, he says.