Kah Wah Leong

Practice Areas

Leong Kah Wah specialises in shipping and international trade and has appeared as lead counsel in landmark Court of Appeal judgments of the STX Mumbai and the Bunga Melati 5. He was appointed as a Senior Accredited Specialist (Maritime and Shipping) by the Singapore Academy of Law.

Kah Wah is ranked in Band 1 in Chambers and “is widely viewed as a prominent litigator in the market.” In Legal 500 Asia Pacific, he is acknowledged as a leading individual and is described as “an outstanding and experienced wet shipping lawyer and a good advocate who proposes solutions rather than disagreeing with opposing counsel for the sake of it”.

Besides shipping and international trade, he has extensive experience in handling commercial disputes in Court litigation, arbitration and mediation. His perspective on commercial disputes is highly sought after as his expertise is developed from his regular appointments as counsel, arbitrator and mediator on diverse commercial areas and industries. He is most comfortable arguing from first principles, as can be seen from his win in Re: Attilan Group Ltd [2018] 3 SLR 898, where the Singapore High Court agreed with his arguments in a green field area on the requirements of super priority financing in a scheme of arrangement. His acute sense of commercial fairness can also be seen in the published decisions he has delivered on tribunals constituted by the Income Tax Board of Review to hear and decide tax appeals.

Kah Wah is deservedly ranked as one of the world’s most prominent shipping lawyers by Who’s Who Legal: Transport (2021), as well as a ‘Distinguished Practitioner’ by asialaw Leading Lawyers (2021) and a ‘Litigation Star’ by Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific (2020).