WongPartnership LLP

Private Wealth; Specialist & Private Client Disputes

Sim Bock Eng is the Head of the Specialist & Private Client Disputes Practice and a Partner in the Private Wealth Practice.

Her main practice areas are in private wealth and civil litigation, which include family, matrimonial law, succession trusts and probate law, banking and finance, property and employment.

Bock Eng has over 20 years of experience in trust, estate and family laws – both front-end as well as litigation. She regularly advises ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families on succession and estate planning and business continuity. Bock Eng has represented local and international banks, financial institutions and private investors in a wide variety of on-shore and off-shore matters including acting for the trustees of the Lehman-linked minibond in the Global Financial Crisis, acting for Deutsche Bank in defending one of the biggest private client claims in the history of Singapore in the High Court of the Republic of Singapore and acting for an international bank implicated in the Olympus saga when Olympus Corporation used funds from various mergers and acquisitions to fund its losses for more than 20 years. She is recognised as one of the leading probate, trusts and private wealth management lawyers in Singapore and has been involved in several landmark decisions.

Work Highlights

Matters of significance in which Bock Eng has been involved in include acting/advising for the following:

An ultra-high-net-worth foreign patriarch on succession and estate planning, setting up of family office as well as residency issues for his family. An ultra-high-net-worth individual who was the founder of a multinational listed pharmaceutical company on asset protection, involving multiple asset classes in various jurisdictions. The client faced enforcement proceedings with a quantum of several hundred million US dollars. The challenge was thus in navigating the laws as to asset protection against creditors, for succession and in the event of insolvency. The intended interim administrators of the estate of a high-profile high-net-worth foreign businessman who died under mysterious circumstances in the investigation of the deceased’s estate and preservation thereof. This application was unprecedented as there was complex multi-jurisdictional litigation relating to the deceased’s estate which holds significant assets in multiple jurisdictions. A high-net-worth family to review the businesses and asset-holding of the family in the PRC, and working towards their protection as family assets. HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited (the "Trustee") in its capacity as trustee for the holders of the structured notes (the "Minibond Notes") issued by Minibond Limited ("Minibond") pursuant to the Minibond S$10 billion Secured Note Programme, to provide advice to the Trustee on issues arising from the event of default occurring on the Minibond Notes following the commencement of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the United States by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Lehman Brothers Special Financing. Societe Generale in successfully defending against an action commenced in the High Court of Singapore by Jurong Shipyard Pte. Ltd. for a sum of approximately US$200 million.

Publications & Legal Updates

• Chambers Global Practice Guides - Private Wealth – Singapore Chapter (2023)

• Viva la Singapore Trusts: Lessons from La Dolce Vita. (Legiswatch, 2023)

• Changes to the Global Investor Programme. (Legiswatch, 2023)

• International Comparative Legal Guide to: Private Client – Singapore Chapter (Global Legal Group, 2019 - 2023)

• A Wealth Tax For Singapore? (IFC Review, 2023)

• The Private Wealth and Private Client Review (11th Edition) - Singapore Chapter (The Law Reviews, 2022)

• Family Office and Risk Management (IFC Review, 2022)

Bock Eng is the Vice Chairman of the Wealth Management Institute's Global-Asia Family Office (GFO) Circle Committee, a member of the Probate Practice Committee of the Law Society of Singapore, and past Chairman and current secretary of STEP Singapore. She is also the course co-ordinator for Probate in the Preparatory Course Leading to Part B of the Singapore Bar Examinations.

National University of Singapore (LL.M., MBA, LL.B., Hons.)