20 January 2013 - Shook Lin & Bok LLP is pleased to announce the admission of Debby Lim to Partnership, with effect from 1 January 2013.

Debby Lim’s main areas of practice are banking and finance-related disputes, insolvency and restructuring, domestic and international arbitration. She has acted in some of the most prominent and complex cross-border insolvency and restructuring matters in Singapore and the Asia Pacific region. She has been involved with daily operational, management and creditor issues, and has advised insolvency practitioners on various matters arising from the liquidation and judicial management of companies. She has also acted in construction and property-related disputes as well as shareholder disputes.

Please click here for Debby’s full profile.

22 November 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok is ranked as a top-tier firm for Restructuring & Insolvency in the Singapore market for the second consecutive year in the 2013 edition of The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. The Firm has also been recommended in the following nine practice areas:

• Banking and Finance
• Capital Markets
• Corporate and M&A
• Dispute Resolution
• Employment
• Intellectual Property
• International Arbitration
• Real Estate and Construction
• Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT)

More notably, half of the Firm’s partners have been mentioned as either leading or recommended lawyers in the directory.

The Legal 500 is an independent guide, and firms and individuals are recommended purely on merit.

For more information, please click here.

18 September 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok is pleased to announce the appointment of Probin Dass as a Partner in its Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice, with effect from 17 September 2012. With a particular focus on shipping-related matters and years of experience in wet and dry shipping work, his addition will help the Firm to expand its shipping service offering to meet the needs of its clients.

Probin also has varied experience in areas such as asset and project finance as well as general commercial disputes.

Prior to joining Shook Lin & Bok, he was with another leading Singapore law firm before moving on to work with a protection and indemnity association where he handled a wide range of P&I and FDD matters for the association's members.

Please click here for Probin's full profile.

29 August 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok acted for DBS Trustee Limited, the trustee of Far East Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (Far East H-REIT), in relation to the offering of stapled securities in Far East Hospitality Trust (Far East H-Trust) on the main board of the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise approximately S$717.6 million, and in obtaining unsecured loan facilities of up to S$725 million for Far East H-REIT.

Far East H-Trust is the largest initial public offering in Singapore in 2012 and is the first and only Singapore-focused hotel and serviced residence hospitality trust.

Partners Tan Woon Hum and Andrea Ng led the transaction.

1 August 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok acted for The Trust Company (Asia) Limited, the trustee of Ascendas Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (A-HREIT), in relation to the offering of stapled securities in Ascendas Hospitality Trust (A-HTRUST) on the main board of the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise gross proceeds of approximately S$706.6 million, and in securing term and revolving facilities of up to S$83 million for A-HREIT.

A-HTRUST is the first pan-Asian hospitality trust in Singapore, with the portfolio properties (at listing) geographically diversified across Australia, People's Republic of China and Japan. A-HTRUST is also the first hospitality trust with an active business trust (Ascendas Hospitality Business Trust) holding part of the properties at listing.

Partners Tan Woon Hum and Andrea Ng led the transaction.

27 July 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok has been ranked as a leading international firm for India-related work for the second consecutive year by India Business Law Journal in its sixth annual survey of international law firms for India-related work. The survey examines the India-related achievements and activities of over 600 law firms from every continent over the past year and reveals the key players in India-related work.

6 July 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok LLP is pleased to announce the admission of Andrea Ng to Partnership, with effect from 1 July 2012.

Andrea specialises in trust, asset and wealth management matters with a focus on REITs where she has broad experience in advising on various REIT transactional matters such as initial public offerings, equity fund raising exercises, debt financing, mergers and acquisitions and securitisation matters. She advises on the establishment of private trusts, private funds (including real estate funds) and other wealth management matters. She also handles the full range of fund documentation, including trust deeds, subscription agreements, private placement memorandums, investment agreements and custodian agreements.

Andrea also advises on a wide range of corporate finance transactions, particularly listed company matters, as well as general corporate advisory work.

Prior to joining Shook Lin & Bok, Andrea worked in-house with the manager of a major Singapore-listed real estate investment trust which managed properties located in Singapore and overseas and she was involved in a range of REIT transactions ranging from mergers and acquisitions to debt financing. She also assisted with compliance issues and was involved in the drafting and implementation of compliance policies relevant to holders of a capital markets services licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Click here to read Andrea Ng's full profile.

31 May 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok LLP is pleased to announce that Vinodh Coomaraswamy, SC, a Partner in the Firm’s Dispute Resolution Practice, has been appointed to the High Court as a Judicial Commissioner with effect from 1 August 2012.

Shook Lin & Bok’s Senior Partner Sarjit Singh Gill, SC said “This Firm has a tradition of contributing more than its fair share to public service and the High Court bench. We are proud to continue this tradition.”

Judicial Commissioners are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and they have the powers of a Judge. Their appointment is for a specific period determined by the President.

7 May 2012 - Leading Singapore law firm Shook Lin & Bok LLP is pleased to announce the appointment of Azmul Haque as a Partner in its Corporate and India Practices. Azmul will also co-head the India Practice.

A senior corporate lawyer with a decade of transactional experience, Azmul is qualified to practice both Indian law and English law. He has been based in Singapore since 2005, prior to which he worked in Mumbai with a leading Indian law firm.

Azmul joins from Berwin Leighton Paisner in Singapore, where he worked in the Corporate Finance team on a variety of matters, including cross-border M&A, finance and commercial transactions involving India and South-East Asia. Azmul works regularly both with Indian clients expanding overseas as well as regional multi-nationals investing in India and the Asian region, across a number of sectors, including telecoms, commodities and real estate. Azmul is described in The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2012 under the Corporate and M&A section as “committed and approachable with a good knowledge of several jurisdictions”.

This hire continues the growth of Shook Lin & Bok’s India Practice and Corporate Practice. The increase in intra-regional M&A and finance transactions and the importance of Singapore as a regional financial centre has enabled the Firm to grow rapidly to meet the demands of a wide range of Indian and international clients doing business in the region.

Shook Lin & Bok’s Senior Partner Sarjit Singh Gill, SC said: “Azmul is an exceptional international lawyer, having both significant international transactional experience, as well as invaluable knowledge of the Indian legal market place and extensive experience of doing deals in India and for Indian clients overseas. We are very pleased to have him on-board. His addition to the India Practice will help us to broaden our scope of service to clients.”

10 February 2012 - We are pleased to announce that Shook Lin & Bok LLP is a leading Singapore law firm for its role as legal advisor to issuer for G3 bonds in the Asia Pacific and the Asia Pacific ex Australasia, Central Asia markets in the recently released Thomson Reuters Full Year 2011 Global Capital Markets Legal Advisors Review.

The Firm is one of two Singapore law firms listed in the tables, ranking ahead in the Singapore pack at number 12 in the Asia Pacific G3 Bonds ex Australasia, Central Asia (Issuer Legal Advisor) table and at number 17 in the Asia Pacific G3 Bonds (Issuer Legal Advisor) table by deal value. In terms of deal count, the Firm's ranking draws with that of its Singapore competitor at number 11 and number 14 in the aforementioned tables respectively.

For more information on the rankings, please click here.

To read more about our Capital Markets Practice, please click here.

20 January 2012 - Shook Lin & Bok LLP is pleased to announce the admission of Stephanie Wee to Partnership, with effect from 9 January 2012.

Stephanie specialises in civil and commercial litigation and financial dispute resolution. She has advised and represented individuals, multi-national corporations and international banks on a range of issues including contract, trust, insolvency, banking, employment, defamation and professional negligence. She is also actively involved in dispute advisory work relating to employment and corporate disputes, and has advised on competition law, probate and family related matters.

To read more about Stephanie, please click here.

1 November 2011 - Shook Lin & Bok continues to maintain its position as one of the top three Singapore law firms for Mergers & Acquisitions and consistently stands among leading international law firms in the Bloomberg and Mergermarket league tables.

In the recently released Mergers & Acquisitions league tables for the first three quarters of 2011 by Bloomberg and Mergermarket, Shook Lin & Bok is one of three Singapore law firms to have made it to the top 15 for the South East Asia tables (ranked by value). The Firm is ranked 10th by Bloomberg and 11th by Mergermarket.