Magdalene Chew

Background

About Magdalene Chew

I am one of the Founding Directors of AsiaLegal LLC, Singapore law firm. From 1 July 2015 to 31 March 2022, AsiaLegal LLC was a member of HFW AsiaLegal, a Formal Law Alliance, with HFW Singapore. I have been consistently ranked in Band 4 of the “Shipping: Domestic: Litigation” category of Chambers and Partners’ rankings. Since 2017, I have been on the Expert Panel (Maritime) of the S’pore Mediation Centre. From Jan 2019, I have been accredited by the Singapore Academy of Law as a Senior Accredited Specialist in Maritime and Shipping Law. From Aug 2015 to Sept 2021, I was President of the Singapore chapter of the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA). I am also a Fellow of the Singapore institute of Arbitration (SiArb) and the current Vice President of Mensa Singapore. I have extensive experience in both contentious and non-contentious legal work. My litigation experience covers general commercial litigation and more specific areas such as shipping/admiralty and insolvency. I was lead counsel in a 10-day trial before Ang J in 2017 for the owners of the “Arctic Bridge” in respect of a collision between the vessel and “Tian E Zuo” - The “Tian E Zuo” [2018] SGHC 93. This was one of the 1st collision trials to be heard in the Singapore Supreme Court in over 20 years and was also one of the first trials in the Singapore Court where the experts were “hot-tubbed”. I have also acted for owners of “Asian Hercules” in a landmark decision (See Toh Siew Kee v Ho Ah Lam Ferrocement (Pte) Ltd [2013] 3 SLR 284;[2013] SGCA 29) where the Court of Appeal abolished the law of occupiers’ liability in Singapore, holding that the same is subsumed under the tort of negligence. I have independently advised on the closure and/or completion of many sale & purchase and ship financing transactions. In 2012, I was appointed and appeared in a London arbitration as an expert witness on the registration of ships under Singapore law.