Huai Yuan Chia

Arbitration, Commercial Litigation, Employment and Labor, Insurance, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, Professional Liability Litigation, White Collar and Government Investigations

Huai Yuan Chia is a partner in our Litigation, Dispute Resolution and Arbitration practice groups. He also holds a regional responsibility for the firm’s ASEAN portfolio, specifically, Vietnam and Thailand, and has represented clients in all levels of court and in arbitration proceedings. In 2018, he was appointed onto the Singapore Supreme Court’s panel of lawyers (known as amicus curiae or ‘friend of the court’) tasked with assisting it on select cases involving important questions of law of public interest. In a reported matter which Huai Yuan assisted on as amicus curiae, his submissions were commended for greatly assisting the Court in reaching its decision and helping establish a new framework in the area of law concerned. Huai Yuan has been recognised in several ranking publications as a leading practitioner, including Asian Legal Business as one of Asia’s Super 50 dispute lawyers and one of Singapore’s Rising Stars in the legal industry, The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific as a notable practitioner and key lawyer in the firm’s dispute resolution, insurance and employment practices, Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific as a Future Star in the field of Commercial and Transactions, and Singapore Business Review as one of Singapore’s 30 most influential lawyers under 40. He has also received very positive reviews from clients, which are set out on his firm profile.

Huai Yuan’s experience spans a wide range of contentious and non-contentious civil and commercial matters. In addition to complex international and domestic commercial disputes and multi-jurisdictional matters, Huai Yuan has acted on and advised on matters concerning fraud, debt recovery, breaches of directors’ duties, claims for breach of trust, banking, finance and securities claims, insolvency, insurance claims, labour and employment disputes, non-compete disputes, misuse of confidential information, professional negligence and medical negligence. His practice includes acting for individuals with regard to white collar / financial crimes, and investigations on behalf of companies. He also regularly advises institutional clients and start-ups (including tech start-ups) on legal matters, including contractual disputes.

After graduating from the National University of Singapore’s Law Faculty with First Class Honours in Laws and several awards (such as the Law Society of Singapore Book Prize for being the top student in his third year of studies), Huai Yuan was handpicked to assist the Chief Justice and judges of the Singapore Supreme Court as a Justices’ Law Clerk (“JLC”). The JLC scheme is a Singapore Legal Service programme by which top law graduates are selected to serve as judicial assistants / associates and provide assistance and counsel to Supreme Court judges in select cases.

During his stint as a JLC, Huai Yuan was involved in several landmark judgments spanning a variety of fields, including cases on the following specialised hearing lists: Complex & Technical Cases, Finance, Securities, Banking and Complex Commercial Cases, Company, Insolvency and Trusts, Arbitration, Tort Claims, Public Law and Judicial Review.

Huai Yuan has also served as a Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel with the Attorney-General’s Chambers (where he handled a wide range of cases involving white and blue collar crimes, as well as advised on enforcement and regulatory matters), and has experience as a Teaching Fellow in the National University of Singapore’s Law Faculty where he taught Company Law (the module of which has a component on insolvency).

Huai Yuan has published law journal articles in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore, and is a contributor to a treatise on Corporate Law and Governance in Singapore. He has also represented NUS in international moots, and was an English and Chinese debater in school. Huai Yuan is effectively bilingual and proficient in English and Mandarin (both written and spoken).