APIEx Symposium 2023

Date:

21 November 2023, Tuesday

Time:

09.00AM - 06.30PM

Venue:

NTUC Centre

Room 903, Level 9

One Marina Boulevard

Singapore 018989

Details/ Promotion:

Please click here for more details and to register.
Accredited tax professionals enjoy special rate!

Contact:

Please refer to organiser’s webpage here.

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Programme Synopsis

The Symposium will be split into two sessions, the morning conference portion will focus on the Judiciary’s approach to Expert Evidence in Singapore. We have the privilege of welcoming Justice Kannan Ramesh of the Singapore Supreme Court as the keynote speaker. Justice Ramesh offers a unique perspective, having been a leading advocate and now a Judge in both the Supreme Court and the Singapore International Commercial Court. The address will touch on the recently introduced 2021 Rules of Court, including how these rules impact the practice and utility of expert evidence, and the ethical aspects of expert evidence. Following the keynote address there will be two panel sessions discussing alternative dispute resolution in general and a deeper dive into the ethical considerations of expert evidence.

In the afternoon, APIEx will partner with the Advocacy Committee of the Law Society of Singapore on a workshop that focuses on the dark art of cross examining financial expert witnesses. This session will provide the opportunity for participants to hone their cross-examination skills, based on a fictitious financial/accounting problem in a mock international arbitration scenario. Both counsel and expert participants will work together to prepare for the cross examination, undertake a short cross-examination and receive feedback from leading arbitrators.

The training exercise will provide participants with an exclusive hands-on opportunity to learn about their role as counsel and expert witnesses in cross-examination, experience the interaction between experts and lawyers first-hand, as well as receive valuable practical and personalised guidance from senior practitioners.

Programme Outline

A Highlight of Key Areas:

Symposium Programme

Panel Discussion 1: Alternative Resolution
Ethics: Code Of Conduct One Year On!
Panel Discussion 2: Ethics

Mock Cross Examination Workshop Programme

Introduction & Overview
Preparation for Cross Examination Workshop
Cross Examination Workshop

About the Presenter(s)/ Trainer(s)

Justice Kannan Ramesh
Judge of the Appellate Division
Supreme Court of Singapore

Justice Kannan Ramesh was appointed Judge of the Appellate Division on 1 November 2022. He was appointed Judicial Commissioner in May 2015, and Judge of the High Court in April 2017. He was also appointed as a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Brunei Darussalam (“SCBD”) on a part-time basis on 7 October 2019 where he hears both commercial and civil cases in SCBD. He received his Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the National University of Singapore in 1990. He was then admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor in Singapore in 1991, and appointed Senior Counsel in 2012.

Before his appointment as Judicial Commissioner, Justice Ramesh was Managing Partner of Messrs Tan Kok Quan Partnership from 2008, where he specialised in dispute resolution, insolvency and restructuring, and international arbitration. He was also appointed as Board Member of the Singapore Aerospace Manufacturing Pte Ltd and M1 Limited. In the former, he had an added role as Executive Committee Member, while in the latter, he was Chairman of M1’s Risk Committee, as well as Member of their Nominating and Audit Committees.

He is a member of Singapore Academy of Law’s Law Reform Committee, and President of New York’s International Insolvency Institute (III) Executive Committee and part of III’s Arbitration and Conciliation working group. He was instrumental in establishing the Judicial Insolvency Network (JIN) which issued in October 2016, guidelines for court-to-court communications and cooperation in cross-border insolvencies. Justice Ramesh wrote Getting the Deal Through – Restructuring and Insolvency in 51 Jurisdictions Worldwide in 2010. He also authored the Singapore Chapter of the World Bank publication, Doing Business – Closing a Business Survey, published in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Prof. Leslie Chew SC
President; Dean; Senior Consultant
Asia Pacific Institute of Experts; School of Law at the Singapore University of Social Sciences; RHT Law Asia LLP

Prof. Leslie Chew SC is the founding and current Dean of the School of Law at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. He has practiced law in one form or another for over 4 decades. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2000. In 2007 he was appointed a judge in the State Courts

where he remained until his retirement in 2014. At the State Courts he was the Senior District Judge leading the Civil Justice Division. He retired from the judiciary in 2014.

Upon his retirement from the Singapore Legal Service, he returned to law practice. Currently, he is a Senior Consultant at RHT Law Asia LLP. He has an active practice as an arbitrator in International Commercial Arbitrations.

Mr. Gregory Vijayendran SC
Vice President; Former President; Partner, Dispute Resolution
Asia Pacific Institute of Experts; Law Society of Singapore; Rajah & Tann LLP

Gregory Vijayendran’s present practice encompasses a specialisation in litigation, arbitration and mediation of commercial disputes and chancery matters. He is also recognised expert in insolvency and restructuring as well as charities governance. Gregory has given expert witness testimony for overseas court proceedings.

Gregory was appointed Senior Counsel in 2019. He has also been appointed as a Fellow of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore, the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and the Singapore Institute of

Directors.

Associate Prof. Alvin Cheng
Associate Professor; Consultant
Singapore University of Social Sciences; Chris Chong & CT Ho LLP

Alvin Cheng is an Associate Professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, School of Law, and a Consultant with Chris Chong & CT Ho

LLP. Alvin mediates at the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC), the State Courts’ Centre for Dispute Resolution, and the Law Society of Singapore.

He is a senior member of SMC’s Adjunct Training Faculty, a Teaching Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education, as well as an Accredited Mediator with the Regent’s University (School of Psychotherapy and Psychology), London.

He has conducted mediation training for professionals from education, finance, legal, medical, and public sectors; including community leaders, foreign dignitaries and judiciary. He is a member of the Law Society of Singapore, the Singapore Academy of Law, the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and the Asia Pacific Institute of Experts. He is also a Founding Member of the Society of Mediation Professionals (Singapore).

Ms. Anne Connolly
Senior Managing Director, CD&A
Ankura Consulting (APAC) Pte. Ltd.

Anne Connolly is a chartered quantity surveyor with over 25 years’ experience working in the construction industries of Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the UK. Anne’s academic and professional qualifications, coupled with her extensive and detailed knowledge and understanding of the construction process, has led her to be appointed as an expert on quantum related matters on numerous occasions.

Before moving into the consulting sector in 2006, Anne worked as a quantity surveyor and commercial manager for more than nine years. Anne has been actively involved in live projects (ranging from mining, building and power projects to major infrastructure and oil and gas projects) and dispute resolution (including negotiation, mediation, adjudication, arbitration, expert determination, and litigation).

She has been appointed as a sole expert determiner and as an expert witness. Anne specialises in the detailed quantum analysis of construction claims. She has a keen eye for detail and strong forensic analysis skills supported by her formal study of construction law.

Mr. Jonathan Ellis
Committee Member; Partner
Asia Pacific Institute of Experts; HKA

Jonathan Ellis is a partner at HKA and is based in the Singapore office. He specialises in the quantification of damages and valuations, in particular in dispute contexts. He has worked on matters before the UK and Singapore High Courts as well as in ad hoc, SIAC, LCIA, ICC, HKIAC, UNCITRAL and ICSID arbitration forums.

He has provided oral testimony on a number of occasions, in both court and arbitration, and has been engaged as a tribunal appointed expert. Since 2017, Jonathan has been recognised among the leading arbitration expert witnesses worldwide by Who’s Who Legal, where he has been classified as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” and a “National Leader” in the inaugural Southeast Asia Arbitration list.

Mr. Francis Goh
Chair; Head
Advocacy Committee of the Law Society of Singapore; International Arbitration and Mediation and Head, Private Client Advisory. Harry Elias Partnership

Francis Goh has over three decades of dispute resolution experience. Francis is the Chairman of the Advocacy Committee of the Law Society of Singapore.

Francis is a SIMI and IMI Certified Mediator. He is also an IMI Certified Mediation Advocate. Francis leads the International Arbitration and Mediation Practice group at Harry Elias Partnership. An early adopter of mediation since 2001, Francis has incorporated mediation techniques into his dispute resolution practice, both as mediation advocate and as mediator.

Francis weaves litigation, arbitration and mediation expertise to obtain outcomes enabling clients and parties to ‘get back to doing business’ in a time and costs-efficient way. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. Francis is an Arbitrator on the panel of AAA-ICDR and the BAIAC.

Francis is a Mediator on the panel of many institutions including the Singapore Mediation Centre, the Singapore International Mediation Centre, the Singapore Law Society Panel of Mediators, the BAIAC and the AAA-ICDR.

Mr. James Nicholson
Head of Economic and Financial Consulting – Asia
FTI Consulting

James Nicholson has over 25 years’ experience as a consultant on matters of finance, strategy, and economics. Since 2005, his work has primarily involved acting as an expert witness on the identification and valuation of lost profits and related issues in litigation and arbitration.

He has testified 50+ times before the Singapore High Court, the SICC, High Court of England and Wales, Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, and commercial and investment treaty arbitration tribunals. From 2014 to 2021 James was President of the Standing Committee of the ICC’s International Centre for ADR, in which role he scrutinised the output of expert processes administered by the ICC, and James has twice been appointed expert valuer jointly by parties subsequent to orders by the Singapore High Court.

Since 2015, James has been identified by Who’s Who Legal as one of the five to ten ‘Most Highly Regarded Individuals’ and ‘Global Elite Thought Leaders’ in Europe and latterly Asia.

Ms. Dorcas Quek Anderson
Associate Professor of Law
School of Law, Singapore Management University

Dorcas has more than a decade of experience as a practising mediator and in dispute research. Prior to joining academia in 2016, Dorcas was a District Judge in the State Courts for almost seven years, where she conducted mediation and early neutral evaluation for hundreds of civil and criminal cases, contributed to the courts’ mediation policies as well as published extensively concerning dispute resolution. She was earlier an Assistant Registrar in the Supreme Court and concurrently Assistant Director of the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC). Dorcas is currently an Associate Professor of Law in the Singapore Management University’s Yong Pung How School of Law.

Mr. Yeo Chuan Tat
Senior Lecturer, School of Law
Singapore University of Social Sciences

Yeo Chuan Tat is an academic and a dispute resolution lawyer.

He is a Senior Lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, School of Law, where he teaches and conducts research in the following fields: legal ethics, trial advocacy, civil procedure, and various topics in international litigation and arbitration. Chuan Tat is Counsel at Breakpoint LLC. He previously practised in other leading Singapore and international dispute resolution practices. He has experience handling matters across a wide range of industry sectors.

Chuan Tat is actively involved in the broader legal community, serving (or having served) on various committees in a number of legal organisations. He is a member of the Asia Pacific Institute of Experts.

Chuan Tat is admitted to practise law in Singapore, England & Wales, and the State of New York. He obtained his LL.B. from the National University of Singapore and a LL.M. from Columbia Law School.

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