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.
Case Highlights
- Acting for the liquidators of a Singapore company in on-going proceedings against a former director for breaches of his common law / fiduciary duties, for the sum of US$150 million constituting the loss caused to company due to his breaches. The liquidators claim that the director had failed to prevent significant drawdowns on banking facilities, pursuant to which monies were disbursed on the strength of what were in fact non-existent transactions.
- Advising and acting for DBS Trustee Ltd, a subsidiary of Singapore’s largest local bank, in respect of on-going investigations into the demise of the Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust, a REIT with an aggregate valuation of US$1 billion.
- Acting for a Singapore entity linked to established American jewellery retailers against one of India’s largest manufacturer and supplier of diamonds and jewellery in multi-million cross claims, amounting to the estimated aggregate sum of US$70million, involving breaches of a joint venture agreement, fraudulent misuse, conspiracy, inducement of breaches and quantum meruit.
- Acting in a matter concerning allegations of fraudulent breaches of trust and accessory liability based on dishonest assistance and knowing receipt. The alleged trust is in respect of shares in a Singapore company and made more than forty years ago in favour of a formerly prominent Singapore realtor.
- Acting for directors of a Singapore company who were former members of the company’s EXCO defending allegations of breaches of their directors’ / fiduciaries’ duties, specifically for breaches of the no conflict of interest rule, in connection with the extension of six loans from the company / its subsidiaries to their affiliate companies (which amounted to the estimated aggregate sum of US$800million).
- Acted for a former co-founder of a Catalist-listed company in the conduct of an appeal before the Singapore Court of Appeal in respect of the lower court’s decision that the co-founder had breached his fiduciary duties and was involved in a conspiracy to injure the company in respect of a S$20 million facility that was entered into by the company. The appeal concerned the novel issue as to whether the doctrine of novus actus interveniens could operate to limit the extent of a wrongdoing director’s liability: Crest Capital Asia Pte Ltd and others v OUE Lipppo Healthcare Ltd (formerly known as International Healthway Corp Ltd) and another and other appeals [2021] 1 SLR 1337.
- Acted for the former directors in the conduct of an appeal before the Singapore Court of Appeal in respect of claims of breaches of directors’ duties in relation to transactions that were the subject of claw-backs: Parakou Investment Holdings Pte Ltd and another v Parakou Shipping Pte Ltd (in liquidation) and other appeals [2018] 1 SLR 271; [2018] SGCA 3.
- Advised and acted in a matter concerning the validity of a will contested on the basis that the testator lacked the requisite testamentary capacity to execute the will in question, specifically that the testator was burdened by the existence of prior overvalued ideas/delusions at the material time: UWF and another v UWH and another [2021] 4 SLR 314
- Advised and acted in a matter concerning the validity of a deed of family arrangement, which pertained to a draft will prepared for the patriarch of the family but which was never signed. The matter eventually proceeded to be considered before the Court of Appeal: Tan Wei Leong v Tan Lee Chin and others [2020] SGHC 196; Tan Wei Leong v Tan Lee Chin and others [2021] 4 SLR 84.
- Acted for a director of Singapore company, defending allegations by the beneficiaries of a share charge of dishonest assistance of breaches of trust over the shares in the Singapore company that were the subject of the charge: MKC Associates Co Ltd and another v Kabushiki Kaisha Honjin and others [2017] SGHC 317.
- Acted for a director in respect of disputes concerning the affairs of a family-run Singapore company. The disputes spawned proceedings before the High Court which raises the issue as to whether a director could seek to remove a co-director by a formal request to resign in a 2-director scenario. Another novel issue that arose was whether a beneficiary of shares (of the company) could invoke what is known as the Wong Moy exception to seek relief and to commence a section 216A derivative action against a wrongdoing director.
- Advised and acted for a multi-national company in arbitration proceedings, conducted under the auspices of the Japan Commercial Arbitration Association, in multi-million cross-claims (amounting to an estimated aggregate sum of US$63million) over a distribution agreement relating to a novel coronary stent to be marked and sold in Japan.
- Advised and acted for a main contractor in a series of claims under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act brought by a sub-contractor in the aggregate sum of S$12.5million, which included a successful objection against the late adduction of documents which led to the sub-contractor withdrawing its claims of up to S$11million.
- Advised one of the leading companies in the aviation industry in Singapore in negotiations pertaining to agreements for the provision of, inter alia, security, ground-handling and inflight catering services to an established airline company.
- Advised and assisted in the rendering on several expert advices on a wide range of matters of Singapore law. Such work included advices on patent infringement (for the purposes of US International Trade proceedings), the recognition and enforceability of Singapore judgments / arbitral awards overseas, and merits of prospective/on-going actions or appeals.
- Advised and acted for several MCSTs on a diverse range of issues relating to the management of their respective strata-titled developments.
Appointments
- Member, Law Society of Singapore
- Member, Singapore Academy of Law
- Young Amicus Curiae (2016)
- Adjunct Faculty, School of Law, Singapore Management University (2013-2017)
- Member of the Practice Advisory Committee, School of Law, Singapore Management University (2022)
- Facilitator, Preparatory Course leading to Part B of the Singapore Bar Examinations (2013-present)
Publications
- “Problems in the Recognition and Enforcement of US Class Action Judgments in Singapore” (2013) 25 SAcLJ 51
- “Conflict of Laws Issues: The Republic of the Philippines v Maler Foundation [2013] SGCA 66” Singapore Law Blog (25 May 2014)
- “Clarity in Effecting Service Outside of Jurisdiction: Humpuss Sea Transport Pte Ltd v PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi TBK [2015] SGHC 144” Singapore Law Blog (18 June 2015)
- Continuing contributor to the Singapore Civil Procedure (2019-Present)
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