Rajah & Tann Singapore (R&T) has won multiple awards at Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific Awards 2021 yesterday. They included Firm of the Year in Singapore for two years running, Shipping Firm of the Year and two Impact Case awards, one of which involved the first-ever recognition of Singapore’s moratorium law in a landmark ruling by a UK court.
R&T was also named Runner Up for Competition/Antitrust Firm of the Year and Second Runner Up for White-Collar Crime Firm of the Year. Andre Yeap, SC, Head, International Arbitration and Partner, was named Second Runner up for International Arbitration Lawyer of the Year.
In addition, Assegaf Hamzah & Partners (AHP) in Indonesia, part of the Rajah & Tann Asia network, also won Indonesia Firm of the Year for the second consecutive year, with Eri Hertiawan, Joint Head, Litigation and Dispute Resolution and Partner, named Lawyer of the year for Indonesia while Chandra Hamzah, Partner and Co-founder of the firm, named Runner up in the same category.
Chau Huy Quang, Managing Partner from Rajah & Tann LCT Lawyers in Vietnam, was also recognised as Lawyer of the Year for Vietnam.
The case which won an Impact Case award started in 2019 was a boost for debt workouts across different jurisdictions and Singapore’s ambition to become Asia’s debt restructuring hub. It saw the High Court of England and Wales for the first time recognising
the moratorium relief granted by the Singapore court to Rajah & Tann’s client H&C S Holdings Pte Ltd under Section 211B(1) of the Companies Act (Cap. 50) as foreign main proceedings under the UNICITRAL Model Law.
In addition to the H&C S Holdings case, Rajah & Tann also won an Impact Case award for its Sanum investments v St Group case involving parties in Laos. This is a landmark case where R&T successfully argued that an award from a wrongly-seated arbitration
cannot be enforced. In this rare decision by the Singapore Court of Appeal, it is expected that the seminal decision will provide helpful guidance to courts around the world when faced with a similar issue. Parties to commercial arbitrations are also now apprised of the significance of their choice of seat, and arbitral tribunals around the globe have now been advised that wrongly seating an arbitration will result in an award that cannot be enforced.
Benchmark Litigation, which honours excellence in disputes and litigation practice in the Asia-Pacific market, announced the awards at a virtual ceremony held on 27 May.
Patrick Ang, Managing Partner at Rajah & Tann, said: “We are honoured to be recognised by Benchmark Litigation for numerous achievements and are grateful to our clients for their constant support of our work, and all my colleagues for their hard work and
dedication.
“The Impact Case award for securing the first-ever recognition of Singapore’s moratorium law by the UK court was particularly significant as it highlighted the strength of our restructuring regime and the talent pool we have in corporate restructuring.”