About this Seminar:

Mediation has become an increasingly popular dispute resolution option for international businesses in recent years. The launch of the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) and the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) in November 2014 marked a major milestone in Singapore’s development as a regional dispute resolution hub. SIMC will the first mediation centre of its kind to focus on offering international commercial mediation services by a panel of international mediators independently-certified by a professional standards body – SIMI. SIMC has also taken the innovative step of partnering with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) to offer an Arb-Med-Arb procedure. This procedure seeks to address user demand for a separate but complementary service to arbitration that can provide a quick, inexpensive and effective route to amicable settlement. Can these initiatives change the way international businesses resolve their disputes in Asia? What can the arbitration community expect and how can it be involved? Deputy Chairman of SIMC, Mr George Lim SC will offer his perspectives and views on these questions and more. 

The Singapore International Commercial Court attracted a lot of interest when it was announced. It borrows good practices and ideas from arbitration while being grounded in the reassuring, stable platform of a conventional Court. The requisite laws have already been passed or amended to enable its launch, which is expected to be in early 2015. Chan Leng Sun, SC who is a member of the SICC Committee will explain some of the ideas behind this bold initiative and highlight the features which make it unique. 

Seminar Programme:- 

About the Speakers: 

George Lim is a Senior Counsel, and Deputy Chairman of the Singapore International Mediation Centre. George was President of the Law Society of Singapore from 1998-99, and is currently with Wee, Tay & Lim LLP. 

George did his mediation training in 1996 at CEDR, and later at Harvard. In 1997, he helped to set up the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC). He is certified by the International Mediation Institute (IMI) and has successfully mediated many complex cross-border disputes. As part of SMC’s training faculty, George has conducted mediation workshops for judges and lawyers in Bahrain, Dubai, Fiji, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand. 

George serves on the panel of arbitrators of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). He is the Dispute Resolution Counsellor of the National Electricity Market of Singapore, and sits on the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). In 2014, George was identified by The International Who’s Who of Commercial Mediation as being among 298 of the world’s leading commercial mediators. 

Leng Sun heads the Dispute Resolution practice in Singapore and is Baker & McKenzie’s Asia Pacific Head of International Arbitration Practice. He is qualified in Malaysia, Singapore and England. Leng Sun was appointed Senior Counsel, Singapore's equivalent to the Queen's Counsel, in January 2011. In addition to years of experience in maritime-related work, he has a broad commercial practice that covers international trade, insurance and company law. Apart from being counsel, Leng Sun is an arbitrator and adjudicator on the panel of leading arbitral institutions. He is President of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb) and was Chairman of the Singapore Law Society ADR Committee. He serves on statutory tribunals such as the Income Tax Review Board and the Maintenance of Parents Tribunal. He is on the Advisory Panel of the Singapore Maritime Foundation. Leng Sun has taught at the law schools of the National University of Singapore and the Singapore Management University. Leng Sun was a legal officer of the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva and a SIAC-CIAC Observer to the UNCITRAL Working Group on Arbitration. He has published widely in international journals and is the author of the book Singapore Law on Arbitral Awards. Leng Sun has been recognized as a leading lawyer in legal and industry publications.

About the Chairperson: 

Naresh Mahtani, FSiArb, FCiArb, has been in legal practice for 30 years, in dispute resolution and in regional and international construction and oil and gas projects as counsel as well as arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator in various cases in Singapore and the region.

He was Chairman of the Society of Construction Law, Singapore (2006-2008) and is currently the Hon. Secretary of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators.

Amongst his other past appointments, he was a founding partner of ATMD Bird & Bird LLP; and is currently a Partner with ELDAN Law LLC, with an active practice in dispute resolution and construction projects.  

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