The breadth of legal talent available throughout Southeast Asia is impressive. All this talent is in full display in ALB Southeast Asia's Top 15 Litigators 2023 ranking, which include entries from seven countries across the region.

Drew & Napier's Cavinder Bull, SC has been with the firm for 25 out of 28 years he has been in practice, and is currently its CEO. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he focuses on dispute resolution, arbitration, and litigation.

Among the key milestones of his career, Bull has represented the Monetary Authority of Singapore in two actions for breaches of the Securities and Futures Act (SFA), which were the first time the central bank had instructed external counsel to appear for it in court. The two matters had been considered landmark decisions for subsequent actions. He had also successfully acted for the De Las Sala family members in the largest trust case ever to go to trial in Singapore, involving disputed assets estimated to be worth $800 million.

Also in Singapore is Jason Chan, a senior counsel and co-head of the white-collar and investigations practice at Allen & Gledhill. Chan has been practicing law for 20 years, and has been with Allen & Gledhill for 12 years. He represented the main defendant in the City Harvest Church case, perhaps the highest-profile criminal case in Singapore in the past decade.

Thawat Damsa-ard is a partner at Tilleke & Gibbins in Thailand. A lawyer for 29 years, Damsa-ard has been with the firm for 26 of those years and focuses on dispute resolution and litigation, anti-corruption, bankruptcy and insolvency, government relations, insurance and tax.

Based in Indonesia, Eri Hertiawan has been with Assegaf Hamzah & Partners since 2008 for almost half of his 31-year career. A senior partner at the firm, he co-heads its dispute resolution practice group and the regional dispute resolution and international arbitration practice through the Rajah & Tann Asia network.

Rahayu Ningsih Hoed is a partner at Makarim & Taira S., focusing on litigation and has been with the firm for 33 years. Two of the most significant cases Hoed has handled include an arbitration proceeding to end a 25-year clean water concession agreement in Batam Island and a listed power producer in multiple claims worth around $70 million.

Kumar Kanagasingam is a senior partner at Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Admitted in 1984, he has been practicing law for 39 years and has spent 33 years at his current firm, where he focuses on banking and insolvency.

Sanjeev Kapoor, a senior partner at Khaitan & Co., where he joined 20 years ago, has been in legal practice for 25 years, focusing on arbitration and dispute resolution. He is based in India, out of both Noida and Delhi. Among other mandates, Kapoor acted as an advocate in one of the leading cases in environmental jurisprudence in the country, which was hailed as a significant stepping stone towards striking the right balance between the needs of industry, the rights of indigenous people over their land, as well as conservation of natural resources.

Also in India, Charanya Lakshmikumaran is a partner at Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan, a firm she has been with for 11 years. Based in Delhi, Lakshmikumaran has been practicing law in India for 13 years, focusing on taxation and commercial litigation, arbitration, customs, and competition law.

Based in Vietnam, Truong Trong Nghia has been in legal practice for 41 years, 25 of those years spent with YKVN, where he has been a partner since 2008. His practice focuses on arbitration, corporate, M&A, labour and employment, foreign direct investment and litigation.  

Eximbank engaged a YKVN team led by Nghia in one of the first 16 precedents approved by the Supreme People's Court that resolved the issues of sales and purchase and L/C agreements in the country. He also acted as the lead counsel in Vietnam's first divorce case involving spousal common property division between two famous names in the local business agenda.   

Davinder Singh, SC is the executive chairman at Davinder Singh Chambers. He focuses on dispute resolution and international arbitration, which he practices from his base in Singapore. Singh has been in law practice for 40 years, the last four at his current eponymous firm.

Vijay Kumar Singh is a senior partner at S&A Law Offices, a firm he has been with for more than two decades and where he focuses on litigation and arbitration. Singh has been in legal practice for more than 23 years.

Based in Jakarta, Melati Siregar is a senior partner at UMBRA – Strategic Legal Solutions. Siregar has been in the legal profession for 19 years and at the current firm for almost four, after stints at ExxonMobil, Baker McKenzie, SSEK Legal Consultants and Bank International Indonesia. Siregar's practice covers complex litigation, alternative dispute resolutions, and industrial relations disputes.

Among many other noteworthy cases that Melati has acted in, she led UMBRA's litigation and alternative dispute resolution team in representing the Indonesian branch of a multinational securities company in an unprecedented "mass arbitration" at LAPS SJK. She successfully persuaded the tribunal to award the claimants only 5 percent of the claimed amount on an ex aequo et bono basis. She also represented a power project owner in dismissing a claim by a subcontractor at the Indonesian National Arbitration Board that affected various client contracts as part of a complex project financing.

In the Philippines, Elyrhey Cesar R. Vasig is a founding partner at Vasig Abarquez Lumauig Abarquez Puno Law Offices (VAL Law) and has been with the firm for almost six years since its inception. He is also the firm's CEO and heads both its litigation and dispute resolution, and labour and employment practice. Vasig has been practicing law for 12 years.

Based in Singapore, Abraham Vergis, SC has been practicing for 24 years, 10 of them at Providence Law Asia where he is now the managing director. His practice includes corporate and commercial litigation, international arbitration, restructuring, and insolvency. He has worked on the massive liquidation of oil trader HLT and as counsel to the promoters of Indian retailer Future Retail Limited.

Litigator Ajit Warrier has been with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas for almost a decade, the latest chapter in a 29-year career in India. He had argued cases before the Supreme Court and dealt with matters spanning a wide range of specialist subjects, including competition law, insurance, criminal proceedings, and more.