Debate On The Motion:

“THIS HOUSE BELIEVES THAT THE FUTURE OF ARBITRATION BELONGS TO DISPUTES BOUTIQUES”

Networking Buffet and Drinks
Sponsored by FTI Consulting

Cathryn Neo – Chair, Young Practitioners Network, SIArb; Partner, PDLegal LLC

Cathryn Neo is a bilingual (English and Mandarin), triple-qualified (Singapore, England & Wales, and Australia (Vic)) dispute resolution partner at PDLegal LLC. Cathryn has a broad commercial disputes practice with experience in international arbitration, insolvency and restructuring, and mediation. She also works closely with PDLegal’s China Practice to advise clients on cross-border China-related disputes.

Cathryn regularly assists clients in managing cross-border litigation, including before the Australian, Brunei and Indonesian courts. She has advised and acted for global financial institutions in several prominent contentious insolvency and restructuring matters in the Singapore courts.

She has co-authored a book chapter and several case reports on landmark arbitration decisions which are
published in Kluwer Institute for Transnational Arbitration Case Reports. Cathryn currently sits as co-Vice Chairperson on the Women in Practice Committee of the Law Society of Singapore. She is a committee member of the Beihai Asia International Arbitration Centre and was also recently appointed as the inaugural chairperson of the Young Practitioners Network for the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb). She is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb).

Anthony Cheah Nicholls – Counsel, Havelock Law Corporation

Anthony is an international dispute resolution lawyer who is regularly engaged as counsel, arbitrator or mediator in commercial disputes.

Over the last twelve years, Anthony has worked on commercial and investment arbitrations including in the energy, construction, M&A, crypto and shipping sectors. These arbitrations applied numerous governing laws, were seated in different jurisdictions and were conducted under the rules of the most popular arbitral institutions (including the ICC, SIAC, LCIA, HKIAC, DIAC, LMAA and ICSID).

Anthony is admitted to the SIAC’s Reserve Panel of Arbitrators and wrote the arbitral rules of the Beihai-Asia International Arbitration Centre. He is an Accredited Mediator with SIMI and has given expert testimony before national courts on issues of Singapore arbitration law. He is also a Law Lecturer at the National University of Management in Phnom Penh and admitted to the bars of New York and Singapore

Asiyah Arif - Director, Providence Law Asia

Asiyah is a Director in the International Arbitration practice at Providence Law Asia, a boutique specialist dispute resolution firm. Asiyah regularly represents clients in complex, sensitive and high-value commercial arbitration and litigation matters. Her practice covers a diverse range of matters, including construction and infrastructure disputes, shareholder disputes, defamation actions, and matters involving foreign states.

Yvonne Foo – Partner, Harry Elias Partnership LLP

Yi-Jun Kang – Senior Associate, Morrison Foerster

Yi-Jun focuses on complex, cross-border commercial litigation and arbitration, and white-collar investigations. She has a broad range of experience, across a variety of industry sectors, in shareholder, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, joint venture, and other types of disputes.

Paras Lalwani – Director, Dispute Resolution, Drew & Napier LLC

Paras is a Director in Drew & Napier’s Dispute Resolution Practice. He is an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore, York. Paras is also a qualified Chartered Arbitrator and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Paras has extensive experience in handling high value and complex commercial litigation and arbitration matters. He regularly appears before the Singapore Courts, as well as before tribunals in several ad hoc and institutional arbitrations.

Paras focuses his practice on energy, digital assets, corporate investigations, information technology, banking & finance, and employment matters.

Paras handles disputes relating to contracts, tort, civil fraud, trusts, tenancy, and insolvency proceedings. Paras has also advised clients on various non-contentious matters including regulatory matters, aviation, maritime, project financing, oil and gas sales, employment matters and consumer issues.

Paras is a member of the SIAC’s Panel of Reserve Arbitrators, HKIAC’s List of Arbitrators and THAC’s Panel of Arbitrators. He is also on the panel of counsel acting as Prosecutor on behalf of the Law Society of Singapore in disciplinary matters.

Paras was recently endorsed by Best Lawyers International: Singapore (2022and 2023 editions) for his abilities in Litigation and Banking & Finance.

Delphine Ho – Resident, The Arbitration Chambers

Delphine Ho was the Registrar of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) from 2016 to 2021, overseeing the administration of thousands of arbitration cases filed with the SIAC and conducted under the SIAC Arbitration Rules (multiple editions), the UNCITRAL Rules and other institutional rules. In addition to supervising the SIAC Secretariat, she was also responsible for the scrutiny and approval of more than 800 draft awards and orders, and was the statutory authority for the taxation of arbitration costs under the Singapore International Arbitration Act.

Delphine started practice in one of the largest legal firms in Singapore, handling a broad spectrum of international commercial disputes, including construction and infrastructure projects, shareholder and joint venture disputes, energy, transportation and technology. She entered the Singapore judicial service in 2013, serving concurrently as an Assistant Registrar in the Supreme Court and District Judge of the State Courts. Delphine teaches international arbitration at various levels, and is a member of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators’ (SIArb) faculty.

Penny Martin – Counsel, Three Crowns LLP

Penny is Counsel in the Singapore office of Three Crowns LLP, the world’s first global specialist arbitration firm, having relocated from the firm’s London office this year.  Penny has a wide-ranging practice of high-value arbitrations arising under a range of governing laws, seat and arbitral rules, in Asia and across other regions.  She has over a decade of experience in international commercial arbitration and public international law, focused on energy-related disputes, including disputes relating to long-term oil and gas agreements (including environmental, abandonment and decommissioning, and cost recovery issues), renewable energy, licensing, and intellectual property.

Penny also has a background in academia and co-authored the leading text on the appointment of international judges entitled Selecting International Judges: Principle, Process, and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2010), which examined the process for appointing judges to the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, and other international courts and tribunals.  Recently, Penny assisted in the preparation of the Report of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee recommending measures to improve gender balance in international human rights bodies and mechanisms. Her pro bono work has also included assisting with an amicus brief submitted in Moore v. Texas (US Supreme Court).

Roger Milburn - Investment Manager, LCM

Roger joined Litigation Capital Management (LCM) in November 2018 as an Investment Manager upon the opening of LCM’s Singapore office. 

Prior to joining LCM, Roger spent over 12 years with Berwin Leighton Paisner (now Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner) where he specialised in international arbitration and gained experience of conducting arbitrations under the SIAC, LCIA, ICC and UNCITRAL rules as well as ad hoc arbitrations. After starting his career in London, Roger worked in BCLP’s Singapore and Hong Kong offices from 2012 onwards, where he handled a broad range of complex, high value, cross-border disputes with a particular focus on the Energy and Natural Resources, Financial Institutions, Construction and Technology sectors. 

He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and graduated with a degree in law from Wadham College, Oxford University in 2004. Roger is ranked in Band 1 in Chambers and Partners’ Litigation Funding in South-East Asia Guide.

FEES

(includes materials, if any)

SILE CPD Points 
Practice Area: Alternate Dispute Resolution 
Training Level: General
Public CPD Points: 1