24 September 2021
Questions:
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Generous, Loyal and Patience,
How did you first get involved in arbitration work?
My first appointment was a recommendation by a close friend who had a dispute with his distributor and the contract provided for arbitration. The distributor did not object to my appointment, and I rendered the decision accordingly.
At first the experience was daunting as I now had the chance of putting what I have learned at my Masters in Law in Arbitration and Dispute Resolution at City University of Hong Kong into actual practice. In the end I got there but the journey was rewarding as I quickly grasped the ins and outs of how the process worked from start to finish.
In the course of your work, do you notice a trend in clients preferring arbitration over litigation as a form of dispute resolution?
There is definitely a trend as clients prefer to keep their disputes private, not because of any wrong doings of any sort but rather to minimise the risk from adverse publicity in the public domain, as it affects the financial position of the company if it is a listed company.
What is the most memorable arbitration or arbitration related matter that you were involved in, and why?
The most memorable arbitration that I was involved with related to a famous person in the entertainment industry, who had a dispute with the agent who managed this person’s affairs. The experience of watching this person up close and being examined and crossed examination in person was entertaining as the person in question acted professionally throughout.
What advice do you have for a young fellow practitioner interested in arbitration work?
Pursue some legal qualifications in arbitration and attempt to shadow counsel who are representing disputants as well as arbitrators in arbitration and actively engage in various learned institutions that focus on Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Continuous learning and contributing one’s time and energy back to society are ingredients to success.
What are the challenges you think arbitration practitioners will face in the upcoming years?
Arbitrator’s appointment and awards rendered will continue to be areas where practitioners will face challenges in the coming years. Another area relates to professional diversity. Most people when they talk about professional diversity only focus on gender, I believe that we have to take into consideration disputants views and to ask them a few questions before an institution embarks upon the appointment process for them. Professional Diversity means more to me than simply gender. It refers to the existence of variations of different characteristics in a group of professional people. These characteristics could be everything that makes us unique within a certain industry, such as our cognitive skills and personality traits, along with the things that shape our identity (e.g., race, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, cultural background). In the context of international arbitration, it relates to the factors that contribute to a proper adjudication of a dispute which disputants feel that “Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done”. This dictum was laid down by Lord Hewart, the then Lord Chief Justice of England in the case of Rex v. Sussex Justices, [1924] 1 KB 256.
With the establishment of the Singapore International Mediation Centre and the introduction of the SIAC-SIMCArb-Med-Arb Protocol, do you see mediation as now having a bigger role to play in assisting parties to resolve their disputes?
Without doubt, parties are now embracing mediation, as the time and cost to achieve a mutually acceptable outcome is being preferred. My mediation caseload has increased steadily over the years and most of my clients prefer to resolve their difference within a financial year at the most.
Who is the person(s) who has had the greatest impact and/or influence on your career?
When I graduated from my first undergraduate University degree, I worked for an airline and of course we did have disputes and when my boss started asking questions as to why we cannot arbitrate matters here without having to travel to the United States. I became curious as I was fascinated with the entire arbitration proceedings and decided to search the internet to ascertain whether there were courses available in the marketplace for me to learn more. During my search I came upon the only course in Asia at that time, the Masters in Arts (now Masters in Law) in Arbitration and Dispute Resolution at City University of Hong Kong and enrolled on the course without hesitation. From that day onwards I never looked back and once I finished the Masters, I pursue an LLB(Hons) at the same establishment and completed the entire programme in two years and thereafter undertook the qualifying examinations to become a barrister-at-law. During my Masters, I often asked questions such as how we can decide which law to apply when there are a variety of laws in place, the concept of “conflict of laws” was new to me and I fondly remembered the lecturer at the time David Sandborg patiently explained the entire concept to me with clear examples, which to this day I can still remember. Another lecturer a well-known and highly respected international arbitrator and a former high court judge of Hong Kong, Neil Kaplan at first thought I was annoying as I asked a lot of questions of him during class which distracted his teaching, nevertheless this annoyance got his attention and he offered me the position of Secretary-General at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC). I was 29 years old at the time and at first, I thought the position was daunting as those engaged in international arbitration were well established and were mature compared to myself. At times I had second thoughts as to whether this career route was the right route for me, nevertheless I did give it a try with the support of three Chairpersons of HKIAC, namely, Neil Kaplan, Philip Yang and Michael Moser and to this day I have not regretted it at all.
On this basis, the persons who had the greatest impact in my career were Professor David, Sandborg, Professor Neil Kaplan, Mr. Philip Yang and Dr. Michael Moser.
If you weren’t in your current profession, what profession would you be in?
The aviation industry and may be in a management position of some sort.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
My guilty pleasure is eating ice cream to de-stress.
What is one talent that not many people know you have?
Playing the piano.
Fill in the blank
“Arbitration is to dispute resolution as salt is essential for life in general”