Shem is the Managing Director of the firm. He has more than two decades of international arbitration and litigation experience and was previously a partner in one of Singapore’s largest firms. He has represented both Singapore and international clients in numerous high-value disputes spanning a wide range of industries, including oil and gas, energy, shipping, insurance, commodities trading, biotechnology, banking and finance, mining and natural resources.

Shem is has been ranked by Euromoney Benchmark Asia Pacific as a “Disputes Star”, and by Legal 500 Asia Pacific as a “Recommended Lawyer”. Shem regularly appears in the Singapore High Court and was one of the first lawyers to handle a dispute before the Singapore International Commercial Court. He also acts in international arbitrations under various institutional rules (including ICC, SIAC, LMAA, AIAC (formerly KLRCA) and LCIA) as well as ad hoc arbitrations, seated in major arbitration venues, such as London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. 

He has vast experience in joint-venture, shareholder and boardroom disputes. He is currently advising shareholders and directors of an English Championship football club in an ongoing boardroom struggle. His cases also involve sale & purchase agreement disputes, construction disputes as well as disputes arising out of commodities trading agreements, charter parties, bills of lading, oil trading contracts, hull & machinery marine insurance and letters of credit.   

Shem regularly advises corporations who need assistance on issues relating to insolvency and restructuring, with a special focus on cases involving commodities trading houses. He has been instructed to act for parties in each of the trilogy of oil trading house collapses that shocked the oil trading community – Hin Leong, Hontop and Zenrock. He is currently representing the liquidators of Hin Leong Trading in the complex interpleader proceedings before the Singapore High Court. Prior to that, he advised an Indonesian state-owned company in a large-scale corporate restructuring of one of its subsidiaries, involving debts of over US$1.5 billion as well as a large group of forex investors adversely affected by a forex broker’s re-pricing of trades following the 15th January 2015 EUR/CHF crash. Shem also regularly advises companies on cryptocurrency and tech matters as well as ICOs. 

Shem has an intimate knowledge of, and affinity for, Indonesia, having spent close to 4 years as a director of an Indonesian iron ore exploration company, where he was involved in raising finance for the company’s exploration program, restructuring the Project’s group of mining companies to align the businesses with provisions of Indonesia’s New Mining Law of 2009 and overseeing the exploration and mining program of the company. He is therefore particularly well-placed to advise clients on issues and disputes relating to mining and natural resources sectors in Indonesia. He was also previously adjunct faculty at the Singapore Management University School of Law, where he taught international arbitration.