International Commercial Arbitration
● HKIAC Arbitration (2024): defending a prominent cryptocurrency service platform provider and a cryptocurrency mining service provider in an arbitration and an emergency arbitration involving injunctive reliefs and a claim exceeding USD30 million arising out of cryptocurrency and crypto machines lending and security agreements
● ICC Emergency Arbitration (2024): advising a leading media and video game company in resisting a prohibitory injunction application to release certain products in the market. The arbitration applies ICC procedural rules and the governing law is New York law
● HKIAC Arbitration (2024): defending a cryptocurrency logistics service provider and its director against a prominent crypto mining company for alleged breach of contract for cryptocurrency transportation in the sum of around US$10 million. The dispute involves complex geopolitical issues in the region and procedural issues including misjoinder of parties
● HKIAC Arbitration (2024): acting for a listed contractor against its subcontractor for more than HKD10 million claims arising from termination of a construction contract
● HKIAC Arbitration (2024): defending a group of multinational asset companies against another group of companies in a complex commercial arbitration arising from a series of intercompany loans in more than USD400 million, which is complicated by the fact that the parties originally belonged to the same company group with the claimants undergoing private receivership shortly before the arbitration
● HKIAC Arbitration (2023): defending a prominent Chinese telecommunications company and its subsidiaries in multiple arbitrations filed against it by various international banks for sums ranging from USD25 million to USD 100 million; and successfully resisted applications for expedited arbitration and consolidation of arbitrations
● HKIAC Arbitration (2023): acting for a listing company and its subsidiary in defending a claim of around USD3 million arising out of an investment agreement
● HKIAC Arbitration (2022): acting for a leading Chinese investment management company in filing a claim for more than US$260 million against the counterparty for failure to pay the purchase price of the client's shares in a Cayman Islands fund under a call and put option agreement; acting for the client in applying for interim measures in Mainland China to freeze the counterparty's assets in Mainland China, in support of the arbitration in Hong Kong; also advising clients on claims against the funds, fund directors and fund managers for negligent management of funds and/or dissipation of fund assets
● HKIAC Arbitration (2022): advising and filing a claim on behalf of the client in relation to a loss of over $5 million, resulting from Binance’s delay in depositing the client’s Luna coins into his account, and working with cryptocurrency experts to assess the amount of lost profits suffered by the client in different trading scenarios
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2021): Acting for a Hong Kong main contractor to deal with unpaid construction costs resulting from the employer’s early termination of the construction contract on alleged delay and various defective issues for construction of luxury villa in Hong Kong, the total amount of claim was more than HKD70 million
● HKIAC Arbitration (2021): Advising the Chinese company on its challenge to the validity of an arbitration agreement under Hong Kong law and the jurisdiction of the tribunal to hear the arbitration commenced by a Germany company under a contract of supply of equipment for a sum of more than EUR1.1 million
● HKIAC Arbitration (2019): successfully acted for owners in respect of disputes arising out of a charterparty and the subsequent settlement agreement with charterers. More importantly, we were the first one in Hong Kong to successfully obtain an order from the Shanghai Maritime Court for interim measures in aid of an arbitration administered by the HKIAC, immediately seizing on a new mainland-Hong Kong arrangement concerning mutual assistance in interim measures for arbitration proceedings that came into effect on 1 October 2019
● LCIA Arbitration (2016): acted for a large state-owned oil and gas company defending a claim of a multi-million dollar sum brought by an UAE based company and the disputes involved the supply of high value, complex, machinery
Commercial Litigation
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1603/2024: defending listed companies against complex claims of force majeure, frustration and unjust enrichment and restitution of a USD2 million investment arising from the production of a high-profile Hollywood movie
● Hong Kong High Court – HCB 3178/2024: acting for a bank against the Chairman of a listed company in recovering a debt in more than HK$300 million arising from complicated loan and guarantee agreements
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1939/2023: acting for a prominent commodities trading company in recovering its consignment of precious metals amounting to USD6 million which had been fraudulently re-directed to an unauthorized consignee
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 2050/2023: defending a Hong Kong creditor which had obtained a charging order over two Vessels of a debtor, against another creditor’s claims that our clients did not act in compliance with charging order
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1629/2023: acting for a prominent Chinese investment company in obtaining interim injunction against its former employee prohibiting the said former employee from disclosing the confidential information of the company
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1961/2023: acting for a former director of a distinguished financial firm, defending against claims of an alleged breach of fiduciary duty and the demand for the return of a bonus exceeding HKD20 million
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1887/2020: acting for a leading investment firm in their efforts to recover a debt for over HKD20 million by imposing charging order on the debtor’s shares within a publicly listed company
● Hong Kong High Court – HCCW 365/2022: representing Chinese bank creditors in enforcing creditors' rights in a liquidation case involving more than HK$340 million, and representing creditors in commencing legal actions against collateral and personal guarantees provided by debtors
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1100/2022; HCSD 36/2022: acting for a state-owned bank as creditor/lender in Hong Kong to successfully oppose the default borrower’s application for an interim injunction application to prevent the bank to issue a winding up petition against the borrower with costs be to the client; to oppose the default guarantor’s application to set aside THE statutory demand against him; and the loan amount was more HK$200 million
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 681 / 2020: acting for a lead creditor bank in Hong Kong in applying for summary judgment against borrower and guarantor for a loan over US$45 million
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1171/2022: acting for a seller to claim at least HK$6 million against Christie’s Hong Kong Limited for mishandling the sale of her painting
● Hong Kong High Court (2022): acting for multiple creditors to enforce arbitral awards and other interim reliefs against a mastermind of fraud and its alter egos for a claim over RMB170 million
● Hong Kong High Court (2022): acting for a Hong Kong company as the mortgagee having the right to foreclose or redeem the mortgages and to claim for relief for the purpose of securing repayment of the underlying debt in a sum of more than RMB100 million
● Hong Kong High Court - HCCW 379/2021: acting for a Hong Kong aviation spare company and its former shareholders as opposing creditors to resist the conversion of a voluntary creditor’s liquidation to a compulsory winding up of the company applied by a major European airway company for disputes in a sum of more than EUR10 million
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1711/2021: assisting the PRC clients in enforcing an arbitral award issued by the Shanghai Arbitration Commission arbitral tribunal as a Hong Kong judgment for a totalling sum of more than RMB185 million. As part of the enforcement proceedings, bringing a HCAJ Kong court action under s.60 of the Hong Kong Conveyancing and Property Ordinance to set aside an assignment of a Hong Kong property for a stated consideration of HKD33 million from the award debtor to his son
● London High Court – QB-2021-004480: successfully secured an urgent Mareva injunction from English High Court to freeze the bank account and disclosure order against the recipient bank, while acting for a Hong Kong company as a victim who had been deceived to transfer about 3 million US dollars from Hong Kong to a virtual bank account in the UK in the context of email fraud, and ultimately obtained the refund of the money through summary judgment
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1160/2021: acting for an investor in seeking damages against a SFC-licensed investment advisory firm for various false representations and breach of tortious duties in inducing to invest in a HK-listed company; also acting for the investor in his capacity as a creditor in the liquidation of that HK-listed company
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1887/2020: acted for a security company to recover debt from mainland Chinese individual and apply for service of court documents out of the jurisdiction of Hong Kong
● Changfeng Shipping Holdings Limited –v- Sinoriches Enterprises Co., Limited [2020] HKCFI 2703: acted for London arbitral award creditor and successfully obtained leave from the court to serve oral examination orders made under O.48, Rule of High Court (Cap 4A) on officers of award debtor out of the Hong Kong jurisdiction; established Hong Kong law on the oral examination of foreign officers of local judgment debtors
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 1964/2020; HCA2021/2020: acted for a Mainland Chinese steel manufacturing giant in several matters involving their payment default and that of their Hong Kong-listed subsidiary in respect of bonds valued at an excess of HK$710m in aggregate; advised the debtor about the enforcement action taken out by the creditors against the corporate and personal guarantees given by related persons
● Hong Kong High Court – HCA 145/2020; HCA 162/2020: acted for a PRC state-owned enterprise in defending claims for recovery of mistakenly transferred funds and successfully setting aside a Mareva injunction order against the client
Shipping & Commodities Arbitration & Litigation
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2024): acting for the shipper in pursuing a claim against the carrier under a bill of lading for damages resulting from carrier’s deviation and failure to provide a seaworthy vessel. This complicated legal dispute involves the unsettled legal principles regarding the applicability of package limitation provided by the Hague-Visby Rules in a deviation claim.
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2024): acting for the charterers in pursuing a claim against the owners under a voyage charterparty in the sum of around US$2 million. The dispute involves the owners’ liability in providing an unseaworthy vessel, improperly stowing the cargo on vessel in contravention of the Port State Control (PSC) regulations and failing to deliver the cargo to the discharge port within reasonable time.
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2024): acting for the bareboat charterers in defending a claim of non-payment of hire in the sum of around US$8 million. This dispute also involves the evaluation of legal effect of various sanction regimes to the contract
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2024): acting for owners to recover demurrage and deadfreight in the sum of around US$4.5 million from charterers, a subsidiary of a state-owned enterprise
● Hong Kong High Court (2024): A vessel was detained by the Hong Kong Marine Department in Hong Kong waters, represented a Canadian cargo owner to recover the cargo loaded on the vessel
● LMAA Arbitration (2024): acting for the seller of the vessel to recover a loss exceeding US$1 million as a result of the buyer’s breach of the Memorandum of Agreement for the sale of Vessel. This case is complex as it involves the issue of whether the seller has taken reasonable steps to mitigate loss after the breach of the buyer
● HKMAG Arbitration (2023): acting for the shipowner in claiming an outstanding sum of over US$1 million, which involves freight, demurrage, detention, and other charges. The case also involved a dispute over the scope of expert evidence
● HKMAG Arbitration (2023): acting for the shipowner in liaising the LOU, releasing a vessel arrested by the consignee, whilst also defending the charterers’ claim under the charterparty to recover the hire and bunkers
● HKMAG Arbitration (2023): acting for the shipowner in defending the charterer’s claim of unclean hold, and counterclaiming for premature cancellation of the charterparty. Issues including the meaning of ‘clean hold’ and whether clean hold is a condition or warranty are explored. This case was further complicated by shipowner’s unwitting partial refund of hire without reservation of rights, thus implying admission of liability
● LMAA Arbitration (2023): Assisting a charterer in a case involving misrepresentation by owners who wrongly suggested that the vessel could possibly pass through New Panamax Canal, and the charterer conveyed such a message to the sub-charterer. Eventually, the vessel did not fulfil the canal requirements and was re-routed to Suez Canal, thus the sub-charterer has deducted hire. The issues in this case involved breach of contractual warranty, misrepresentation and contractual interpretations on the canal requirements
● SIAC Arbitration (2022): Acting for a Singaporean trading company to deal with disputes arising from two sale and purchase contracts of Indonesian coal concerning a rapidly-evolving context following the coal ban policy of the Indonesian government and the total amount of dispute is more than US$4 million
● LMAA Arbitration (2022): Acting for charterers in dealing with hire disputes in an amount of about US$750,000 concerning whether a certain type of coal cargo was permitted to be carried under the charterparties. The case involved legal issues of interpreting the lawful trades clause and technical issues concerning the characterises of certain type of coal
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2021): successfully acted for owners to claim against charterers for off-hire, underperformance, and propeller damage caused by ice floes at the loading port
● Hong Kong High Court – HCAJ 57/2020: acting for the largest shipyard in Hong Kong and defending them in an action brought by Airport Authority for an alleged allision between a barge and the jetty during the passage of Super Typhoon Mangkhut for a claimed amount of more than HK$74 million
● LMAA Arbitration (2020): advised owners and buyers in relation to the oral ban imposed in Mainland China on the import of Australian coal
● HKMAG Arbitration (2020): acted for charterers successfully defending owners’ claim for reliance loss resulting from failure to load cargo under a voyage charterparty brought by owners
● Singapore International Arbitration (2020): successfully acted for owners to claim damages against charterers for wrongful termination of a voyage charterparty
● LMAA Arbitration (2020): acted for charterers successfully defending an over-performance claim under a voyage charterparty brought by owners
● HKIAC Arbitration (2019): acted for a Singaporean trading company in respect of disputes arising out of a chain of sale contracts for light cycle oil involving more than US$2 million claims, and successfully helped the clients in recovering substantial claim
● P v Q and others [2018] EWHC 1399 (Comm); [2018] 2 Lloyd's Rep. 452: acted for one of the parties in a chain of charterparties and in this case, the English Commercial Court was asked to consider the principles governing contractual time-bars and an application under s. 12 of the English Arbitration Act 1996 to extend a contractually agreed limitation period to allow the claimant to bring claims in an arbitration
● LMAA Arbitration (2017): acted for a major Chinese tanker fleet owner in relation to a claim brought by the charterers following the cancellation of a charterparty as a result of the failure of the vessel’s crane and complex factual and legal issues involved e.g. construction of cancellation clause, hedging loss and its remoteness etc
● LMAA & Hong Kong Maritime Arbitrations (2016): acted for a Hong Kong registered shipping company as charterers under a time charter in London maritime arbitration, and as owners under a voyage charter in Hong Kong ad hoc arbitration, in relation to charter chain disputes arising out of a fire incident happened on the vessel during loading at Tianjin port involving a multi-party multi-million dollar claims with complex issues of causation, seaworthiness and general average etc
● LMAA Arbitration (2015): acted for charterers of MV “Bulk Jupiter” in tens of millions US dollars dispute concerning the alleged risks of liquefaction as regards the carriage of bauxite cargoes
● Hong Kong Maritime Arbitration (2015): successfully acted for owners in defending cargo claims arising from loss of deck cargo and other marine casualties, associated indemnity claims, and general average issues
● LMAA Arbitration (2014): acted for buyers in the trial of a dispute concerning a trilateral MOU to purchase a fleet of 10 vessels said to be worth US$75 million. Issues as to whether the MOU was unenforceable for uncertainty and/or as an agreement to agree, ostensible authority and ratification, and whether the prima facie measure of damages under section 50(3) of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 applies
● LMAA Arbitration (2014): acted for charterers against owners in respect of loss or damage to the vessel allegedly caused by the negligence of the crewmembers on board and/or unseaworthiness for which the owners were contractually responsible under the charterparty
● LMAA Arbitration (2014): acted for a Chinese shipyard in shipbuilding disputes under two shipbuilding contracts totaling more than US$30 million was claimed by the buyers
● Hong Kong Maritime Arbitration (2014): acted for charterers in demurrage disputes under more than 10 voyage charterparties in which more than US$1 million was claimed by the ship-owners
● LMAA arbitration (2013): acted for a Chinese shipyard in a shipbuilding dispute in which more than US$20 million was claimed by the buyers
Acted as Arbitrator
● HKIAC Arbitration (2024): Served as sole arbitrator for a purchase contract dispute involving an amount exceeding USD8 million; the arbitral award was published in December 2024
● LMAA Arbitrations (2024): Served as co-arbitrator alongside renowned other four LMAA full members in a complex dispute involving multiple Chinese ship lessors/owners and Greek charterers in 12 arbitrations under LMAA Terms for a total sum of more than several billion US dollars; responsible for drafting all arbitral awards, the case centred on breaches of bareboat charters, failure to pay hire, and the validity of vessel arrests. The four arbitral awards were published in June 2024
● SCIA Arbitration (2024): Served as the third and presiding arbitrator for disputes arising from a dead-freight agreement related to the air carriage of goods, the performance of which was disrupted due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and changes in the aviation cargo market, involving a total sum of HK$5 million; the arbitral award was published in February 2024
● SCIA Arbitration (2023): served as the sole arbitrator in a dispute concerning an international railway transportation agency contract, adjudicated on the legality and validity of the contract in question, as well as whether the applicant has fulfilled their obligations comprehensively; arbitral award was published in September 2023
● HKMAG Arbitration (2023): served as the sole arbitrator in respect of disputes arising out of a cargo claim worth of approximately USD 5.4 million, adjudicated on clauses in respect cargo discharge against a LOI and the surrender of original bill of lading thereafter and examined principles of double recovery; arbitral award was published in April 2023
● HKMAG Arbitration (2023): served as a sole arbitrator in respect of disputes arising out of a charterparty, adjudicated on deadfreight clause interpretation thereunder and revisited principles of liquidated damages in conjunction with the contractual interpretation; arbitral award was published in March 2023
● HKIAC Arbitration (2022): served by HKIAC as sole arbitrator to deal with disputes arising out of a voyage charterparty in relation to hull damages in the sum of about USD600,000; arbitral award was published in March 2022
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2022): served by HKIAC as sole arbitrator to deal with disputes arising out of three voyage charterparties in relation to unpaid freight and demurrage; arbitral award was published in January 2022
● Hong Kong Arbitration (2021): served by HKIAC as sole arbitrator to deal with hire dispute under a time charterparty; arbitral award was published in August 2021
● LMAA Arbitration (2020): served as co-arbitrator in relation to disputes arising out of a time charterparty between the parties with owners claiming demurrage, and charterers counterclaiming for damages; arbitral award was published in May 2020
