Personal Details
Matthew began his career in the largest legal practice in Singapore dedicated to banking and financing disputes, corporate insolvencies, business advisory, workouts and debt restructuring. He has advised and acted in practically all major shipping and oil-related restructurings and insolvencies in the past 10 years resulting from the downturn in the shipping and oil industry.
Besides restructuring and insolvency, Matthew also specialises in shareholders’ disputes, directors’ duties and employment law - both contentious disputes, as well as advisory work on strategic and commercial issues. Matthew also routinely advises on security arrangements as well as insolvency risks on transactional matters.
Employment law is another area of Matthew’s specialisation. He often advises on restrictive covenants, contentious terminations of employment and non-contentious aspects such as drafting employment contracts and disciplinary policies. Matthew acts regularly in employment disputes, and has been involved in high profile employment disputes in Singapore.
In 2017, the Supreme Court of Singapore appointed Matthew as amicus curiae under the prestigious Young Amicus Curiae Scheme. He assisted the Supreme Court as amicus curiae in a landmark decision on the registrability of contractual liens in charterparty contracts in the Diablo Fortune case.
Matthew graduated summa cum laude amongst the pioneer batch of law students from the Singapore Management University, and was awarded a number of academic prizes during his time there. Unlike many lawyers, Matthew reads (and understands) financial statements as he also has a Bachelor of Business Management (Finance Major), from the Singapore Management University.
Education
Professional Experience
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Award & Honors
Association /Affiliations
Notable Matters
- For his work on a major restructuring deal Matthew shared an award for International Deal of the Year at the Asialaw Dispute Resolution Awards 2017, for Finance Deal of the Year: Restructuring & Insolvency at the Asia Legal Awards 2017, and was nominated for IFLR Restructuring Deal of the Year (Asia) in 2017.
- Advised the receivers and managers appointed by a bank creditor (with about US$ 500 million exposure) over the assets of a subsidiary of the collapsed Hyflux Group.
- Advised a physical supplier against various foreign OW Bunker entities and ING Bank in relation to US$12 million of bunker supplies.