Singapore Big Four law firm Drew and Napier has welcomed back oil and gas specialist Chua Tju Liang as an equity director. Chua was most recently a partner at Chris Chua & Associates.

Having begun his career at Drew in 2001, Chua joined Vinson & Elkins in Shanghai in 2006, becoming a partner there. He returned to Singapore in 2013 to join Sidley Austin, and spent more than three years at that firm.

Chua advises on oil and gas M&A deals in Asia and the Americas, and also industry-specific transactions such as LNG and crude oil sale agreements, drilling services agreements, joint operating agreements and production sharing contracts.

Apart from this, he also advises on blockchain, distributed ledger technology and cryptocurrencies. Chua is global general counsel of the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit organisation that promotes and supports the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem.

Chua is the latest former Drew lawyer to rejoin the firm this year. In June, litigation and arbitration specialist Siraj Omar SC returned, bring with him a team of eight lawyers from UK firm RPC’s local joint venture in Singapore in June. Prior to this, Drew welcomed back its former head of tax and private client services, Ong Sim Ho, as a partner.

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