Success Stories : Straits Law Practice

Litigation

Sreeni was instructed as counsel in a case involving complex technical and factual issues related to a marine engine supplied for a "newbuild". The case gave rise to novel points of law on negligence and contractual exclusions in a chain of contracts situation. Collin Choo, a Senior Associate with expertise in shipping related claims managed the complex pleadings and documentation. Sreeni, with valuable input on the law from Raj, argued the appeal successfully after all the three lawyers involved painstakingly analysed the case, distilled the key legal issues and prepared the legal arguments. To leave no stone unturned, outside opinion was also obtained.

Si Sen and Jennifer's expertise in criminal law range from petty crimes to capital offences. Both of them firmly believe that communication with clients is vital. One of their success stories involved a case in which the accused person stabbed his girlfriend to death in her sleep. Both observed that the accused person was always humming a particular song which was entitled "The Silent Lamb". Jennifer recognized the song. Curious, they bought the CD of the song and studied the lyrics. It was then that they realised that the accused person often likened himself to the protagonist who suffered from acute jealousy in the song.

The accused person was believed to be the first killer in Singapore to suffer from "pathological jealousy". Unfortunately, it is not included as one of the exceptions to murder. However, Si Sen and Jennifer successfully managed to reduce his charge of murder to culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Insolvency

Rajaram, with Ratanesh assisting, acted for a client who had large accumulated losses from commodity trading with majority of the creditors being banks. We prepared a major debt restructuring proposal and arduous task as the banks were loathe to accepting a "haircut" on the debts, which ran into millions of dollars.

Through numerous court sanctioned Creditors' Meetings, we managed to convince the creditors of our client's sincerity and credibility, by advising our client to be transparent and cooperative with the creditors' requests. The Voluntary Arrangement was eventually implemented and our client is presently repaying the creditors a reduced portion of the debts in instalments.

Learning from this gruelling experience, our client has now implemented a new business model, which he started with no financing from banks. His new business has taken off and his credibility with the financial institutions remains, enabling him to become a success once again.

Straits Law’s approach in such matters is to address the valid commercial concerns and realities of creditors by viable solutions by the debtor. Not all problems can be solved. But our approach is to be practical and fair, which goes a long way.

Corporate Finance

The firm acted as solicitors to the public listing of Eucon Holding Limited on the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited on 8 September 2004. Our Director, Robert Wong, handled the listing assisted by our Senior Associate, Jenny Lee.

Eucon is in the business of providing mechanical drilling, laser drilling, routing and manufacturing of printed circuit boards. Eucon's operations are carried out in Taiwan and Shanghai, the People's Republic of China (“PRC”).

Eucon was incorporated for the purpose of listing. Prior thereto, the business of mechanical drilling services was undertaken by Zeng Kang Enterprise Co. Ltd, a company incorporated in Taiwan (“Taiwan ZK”). Taiwan ZK owned three subsidiary companies incorporated in the PRC through Sunny Worldwide Int'l Ltd, a Mauritius company (“Sunny Worldwide”). At that time, the shares of Sunny Worldwide were also held by other shareholders, including Eucon's Chief Executive Officer, Wen Yao-Long.

To prepare for the listing, apart from other issues that were resolved, we also assisted the clients in the restructuring exercise. The restructuring process was somewhat complex as it involved Eucon acquiring all the shares of Taiwan ZK and the PRC subsidiaries, and Sunny Worldwide becoming one of the shareholders of Eucon. Several discussions were held with the clients and the auditors to explore the ideal group structure and the best way to achieve the restructuring exercise taking into consideration time, procedure and cost. The restructuring exercise was successfully completed and the listing went ahead.