LVM Law Chambers LLC

Aviation, Building, Construction & Infrastructure, China & Asia Practice, International Arbitration, Insolvency & Restructuring, Litigation & Appeals, Private Clients, Wealth & Trusts

Associate Director

Justin Chan is an Associate Director at LVM Law Chambers LLC.

Justin has an active court and internal arbitration practice, covering a wide and diverse range of complex, high-value, and multi-jurisdictional disputes. Most recently, Justin was nominated and among the final 5-shortlisted candidates for Young Lawyer of the Year at the ALB SE Asia Law Awards 2022. Clients have commended Justin as “possess[ing] a deep understanding of the law… [he] works diligently to meet the client’s needs”, and “a sharp practitioner who can appreciate a client’s overall commercial consideration in a dispute and provide feasible and cost-effective solutions backed by sound legal basis”.

Justin co-leads the firm’s restructuring and Insolvency practice, and has and continues to work closely with insolvency practitioners within the industry. Justin specialises in identifying and managing claw-back claims to recover assets for insolvent companies. Justin is presently part of the team acting for the liquidators of Inter-Pacific Petroleum Pte Ltd in on-going proceedings against a former director for alleged breaches of his common law / fiduciary duties in respect of USD 150 million which arose due to the director’s failure to prevent significant drawdowns on banking facilities on the strength of what were in fact non-existent transactions.

Aligned with his insolvency practice, Justin has extensive experience managing investigations concerning corporate fraud. Justin is also part of team looking into the demise of Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust, a REIT with an aggregate valuation of USD 1 billion.

Beyond his insolvency practice, Justin also specialises in advising domestic and foreign clients on the intricacies of jurisdictional challenges and the enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards in Singapore. Justin was involved in the seminal High Court decision (upheld on appeal to the Court of Appeal) of Humpuss Sea Transport Pte Ltd (in compulsory liquidation) v PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi TBK [2015] 4 SLR 625 clarifying the law on service of Singapore process overseas. More recently in 2021, Justin successfully obtained for a national flag carrier a declaration that the Singapore courts had no jurisdiction in respect of claims which fell within the Warsaw Convention of 1929.

In addition to his institutional clientele, Justin represents and advises private individuals on a range of subject-matters, including minority shareholder oppression claims and other shareholder-related disputes, claims of breaches of family trusts, contests over validity of wills.

Outside of practice, Justin is a regular tutor in the preparatory course for the Singapore Bar Examinations run by the Singapore Institute of Legal Education, where he teaches modules on insolvency and ethics. He was also previously an adjunct faculty member of the School of Law of the Singapore Management University (2013-2017). In 2016, Justin was appointed as amicus curiae under the Supreme Court’s Young Amicus Curiae scheme. His involvement and efforts were recognised in the reported decision in Cher Ting Ting v PP [2017] 3 SLR 1009 where the High Court Judge acknowledged Justin’s contributions to be “thoughtful and thorough”. Justin also advised the Singapore Management University’s Yong Pung How School of Law as a member on its Practice Advisory Committee.

Justin has also contributed to a number of local leading publications, including the Singapore Civil Procedure and the Singapore Academy of Law Journal.

Justin graduated from the Singapore Management University and was called to the Singapore Bar in 2013. In 2018, Justin obtained his LL.M. from the University College London, scoring Distinctions in Insurance Law, The Law of Unjust Enrichment and International Commercial Litigation.

English, Chinese

Member, Law Society of Singapore Member, Singapore Academy of Law Young Amicus Curiae (2016) Adjunct Faculty, School of Law, Singapore Management University (2013-2017) Facilitator, Preparatory Course leading to Part B of the Singapore Bar Examinations (2013-present)