Wai Yue specialises in shipping, trade, commodities and insurance law. He regularly advises clients on sale of goods disputes, issues arising from charterparties/ contracts of affreightment, bills of lading, contracts for port services, unsafe port and cargo claims, and ship building/ship sale & purchase disputes. He also acts for parties involved in marine casualties.

Qualified to practise law in Singapore, England & Wales and Hong Kong, Wai Yue also has extensive experience in institutional and ad hoc international arbitrations in Singapore, London and Hong Kong. Aside from his local practice, he has worked in the Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong offices of top tier international law firms.

Wai Yue is counsel of choice for many international commodities traders, shipowners and their insurers whom he also assists with issues relating to coverage and subrogated recoveries.

Wai Yue is ranked in various legal directories and is noted for being ‘brilliant in the way he deals with complexities’, the lawyer who ‘understands the business practices and operations’, and a ‘strategist who can come up with detailed solutions’.

In 2021, Wai Yue made it onto the China Business Law Journal’s The A-List 2021, a list which honours the top 100 elite lawyers (foreign firms) in China, and now maintains his strong Chinese practice from Singapore.

Education (University):

• National University of Singapore

Professional Associations and Memberships:

• The Law Society of Singapore
• Singapore Academy of Law
• Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration (Member of the Procedure Committee)
• The Law Society of England and Wales
• The Law Society of Hong Kong
• Panel of the International Arbitrators of the Shanghai International Arbitration Center

Languages:

• English
• Mandarin
• Cantonese
• Hokkien
• Bahasa Indonesia/Malay (Basic)

Highlight matters include:

• Representing a Chinese State Owned trading company in one of the biggest litigation that has come before the Singapore High Courts and that has spawned various suits in connection with a shipping and insolvency dispute.
• Advising various insurers and reinsurers in relation to legal issues arising out of the explosion at Tianjin port in 2015.
• Advising one of the world’s largest dry bulk shipping operators as well as one of China’s largest commodity traders on shipping and international trade issues arising out of the Ebola crisis including the applicability of a force majeure defence in relation to its contractual obligations in the epidemic in Sierra Leone.
• Advising a major Chinese state-owned trading company claiming US$100 million damages in respect of a series of claims against multi-national oil companies arising out of delivery of off-spec oil cargoes tendered for loading in West Africa. Advising on a complex series of inter-related Commercial Court actions and LCIA arbitrations under a series of sales contracts and dealing with issues relating to defective delivery, non-delivery of contractual cargo and wrongful repudiation. Successfully achieved amicable resolution of dispute.
• Advising a Chinese state-owned oil company in negotiating multiple brokerage agreements for the trading of commodity futures/derivatives with various Chinese and European banks, including the provision of margin lending facilities.
• Advising major VLCC tanker charterers and oil traders against ship-owners in relation to claims under the contracts of carriage for delay in the arrival of the cargo, resulting in oil refineries’ losses.
• Advising an oil trading company in relation to a disputed multi-million dollar claim under a standby letter of credit, including advising on and co-ordinating complex multijurisdictional and cross-border litigation involving Hong Kong and French law and banking practice under UCP600.
• Successfully defended a large dry bulk shipping operator against a US$30 million exposure following mistaken payment of charter hire to insolvent shipowners rather than their financiers. This technically complex matter raised difficult questions on the law of assignment (both legal and equitable) and fraud.