Region Area

Lawyers

Shannon Rajan

Shannon Rajan

Skrine, Malaysia

Work Department

Construction Litigation, Arbitration and Adjudication Aviation Disputes Occupational Safety and Health Environmental law International Arbitration Mediation and Early Neutral Evaluation

Position

Partner

Career

Shannon is a disputes partner in the Infrastructure, Construction and Engineering practice and co-heads the Occupational, Safety and Health practice. His practice focuses on advising parties in the construction industry for the entire life cycle of the project. This encompasses advisory for tender and project documentation and project advisory work on a wide range of infrastructure projects including power and utilities projects, private sector projects particularly airports, rail, and road. His contentious work arising from projects have been mainly in arbitration (both international and domestic), mediation and litigation and a large majority of cases were factually and legally complex, engaging multi-disciplinary technical issues. His construction practice has evolved to include key sectors in environmental and occupational, health and safety matters (collectively, “ESH”). He advises domestic and multi-national corporations on all aspects of ESH compliance and dealings with/investigations by the Department of Environment and Department of Occupational Safety and Health. He has been involved in defending complex ESH litigation and enforcement actions in civil and criminal courts and statutory appeals board. He has vast experience in crisis management and dealing with the immediate aftermath of incidents involving fatalities, serious personal injuries, or significant environmental damage. His key clients include Petronas and PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited, 5N Plus Inc and LyondellBasell Industries. He has an active aviation practice focusing on a wide range of issues relating to airport operations including technical and economic regulatory compliance, large-scale complex construction projects, concession contracts and tenancies and leases for all 39 airports in Malaysia. He acted as lead counsel for Malaysia Airports against AirAsia Berhad and AirAsia X Berhad to successfully recover unpaid passenger service charges and late payment charges, the decision of which clarified the law on the dispute resolution jurisdiction between Malaysian Aviation Commission and the Malaysian courts. He is presently the co-counsel for a series of related litigation between Malaysia Airports and AirAsia including the landmark decision AirAsia X Berhad’s scheme of arrangement. Shannon has experience in the entire range of dispute resolution processes including litigation, arbitration, adjudication, mediation and bespoke processes. He is an accredited arbitrator, adjudicator and mediator who sits on the panel of the AIAC and the Malaysian and Singaporean international mediation centres.  He has acted as a sole arbitrator and as counsel under UNCITRAL, SIAC, AIAC rules and in ad-hoc cases, and frequently mediates construction, environmental and aviation disputes.    He speaks regularly in domestic and international conferences, and has also authored chapters in key areas of his practice namely; Aviation and Environmental Law, Bullen & Leake Forms and Precedents Malaysia (Sweet & Maxwell, 2018 and 2020) and Annotated Statutes of Malaysia on Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012, Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 and Mediation Act 2012 (LexisNexis, 2019 and 2020). He was named as “Commended External Counsel of the Year” by In-House Community for three consecutive years (2017-2019), shortlisted as Young Lawyer of the Year at ALB Malaysia Law Awards 2019.

Languages

English and Malay

Memberships

Deputy Chair, Malaysian Society of Adjudicators Former Deputy Chair, CIArb Malaysia Branch Immediate Past Chair, Society of Construction Law (Malaysia) Committee Member, Malaysian Bar Council Construction Law and Climate Change and Environment Committee Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) Fellow, Malaysian Society of Adjudicators (FMSAdj) Panel Arbitrator, Mediator and Adjudicator, AIAC Panel Mediator, Malaysian Mediation Centre, Singapore International Mediation Institute and Singapore Mediation Centre

Education

Diploma in International Arbitration, CIArb London (2018)  Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya (2007) Master of Laws (Int’l and Comp Law), National University of Singapore (2006) Certificate of Legal Practice (2006) LL.B (Hons), University of London (External) (2003)