Lawyers

Koh Swee Yen SC

Koh Swee Yen SC

Work Department

Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group; Commercial & Corporate Disputes Practice; International Arbitration Practice.

Position

Senior Counsel, Head of International Arbitration, Partner - Commercial & Corporate Disputes Practice.

Career

Her practice has a particular focus on complex, high-value and multi-jurisdictional disputes involving asset recovery, commodities, energy, fraud, infrastructure, international trade, joint ventures, transport and technology. She regularly appears before the Singapore Courts (including the Singapore International Commercial Court) and in international commercial and investment arbitrations under the major institutional rules, including ICSID, ICC, ICDR, LCIA, SIAC, and UNCITRAL. She is admitted to the Roll of Solicitors of England & Wales and also has rights of audience before the DIFC Courts.

Swee Yen graduated with First Class Honours from the National University of Singapore (NUS). She was awarded the Singapore Academy of Law prize for being the top student in her final year, and won subject prizes for Evidence and Procedure and Intellectual Property Law. Swee Yen served as a Justices' Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of Singapore before entering private practice. During her time in practice, she received appointments as Law Clerk to assist the Competition Appeal Board in the first and subsequent appeals lodged against the Competition Commission of Singapore's Infringement Decisions relating to price fixing matters, and was also on the Supreme Court's Young Amicus Curiae scheme in 2010.

Languages

English, Mandarin.

Memberships

Swee Yen is the Co-Chair of the IPBA Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Committee, and a member of the ICCA-ASIL Task Force on Damages. She was the former Vice-Chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee, and was also on the Editorial Board of the ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin. She is currently a Board member of the Swiss Arbitration Association, and a member of the LCIA Asia Pacific Users’ Council. She has sat as an arbitrator in HKIAC, ICC, LCIA and SIAC administered arbitrations, and is on the Panel of Arbitrators of the AIAC, BICAM, HKIAC, KCAB and SIAC. She is a member of the Governing Board for the Centre of International Law, NUS, and the President of the Singapore branch of the International Law Association. She has also been appointed to the Executive Committee of the Foundation for International Arbitration Advocacy.

Swee Yen has been a member of the Rules of Court Working Party since 2005, and was also a member of the Civil Justice Commission whose work culminated in the promulgation of the new Rules of Court 2021 which seeks to effect transformative changes to the litigation process in Singapore.

She is appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs as a member of the Public Entertainment Appeal Board, Criminal Law Advisory Committee (Hearing), Citizenship Committee of Inquiry and is also a member of the Gambling Regulatory Authority's Patron Dispute Committee.

Education

LL.B. (First Class Hons), National University of Singapore (2004) Admitted to the Singapore Bar (2006) Admitted to the Roll of Solicitors of England & Wales (2008)

Mentions