Selvam is a boutique law firm with a litigation and arbitration practice that specialises in commercial and transaction, construction and family matters. It is experienced in cross-border disputes that rope in the expertise of its Duane Morris network offices in Shanghai, Vietnam, Myanmar and New York. The Selvam litigators act in local and international cases in the Singapore courts and are experienced in handling international commercial arbitrations under the major international arbitration conventions and rule systems, such as the SIAC and ICC rules. The firm has a strong reputation for contentious construction matters, where it acts for Korean and Japanese construction companies. It is also active in the oil and gas industry, with its international disputes practice covering Vietnam, Myanmar and Mexico. The team has grown its ranks in the past few years and now comprises 11 qualified lawyers and four directors.
Sarbjit Singh Chopra is a key name in the firm’s dispute resolution team, with expertise in commercial disputes, international arbitration, construction and family law. Other active lawyers to note include insolvency specialist Daniel Soo, Ramiro Rodriguez, Clement Tan and Priyank Srivastava.
The firm successfully represented a Korean logistics and shipping company on its legal action against two former employees and a nominee director of a third-party company, Asia One. The client is alleging the two ex-workers had embezzled various sums of money from the client during their employment tenure and had transferred some to Asia One. The key question in this case is whether the nominee director of Asia One should be liable for the sums transferred to his entity even though he had no knowledge of the transactions.
On the insolvency front, the team advised the directors of a Singapore cosmetics company in relation to an upcoming application by the company to be placed in judicial management and advised them in negotiations with the creditors of the company on the restructuring of the company’s outstanding loans. Additionally, it acted for Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank in relation to an extension of credit to Agritrade. This matter was notably complex because it involved the judicial management of a large commodity company with international subsidiaries and there were allegations of fraud.
In 2011, Duane Morris and Singapore-based Selvam entered into the first US-Singapore joint law venture to be approved by the city-state to leverage Selvam’s corporate practice across Asia. However, Selvam handles all Singapore law disputes matters as an independent entity, as joint law ventures restrict practice areas and litigation is not allowed.
