Mohammad Haireez

Practice Areas

International Arbitration

International Trade, Shipping & Sanctions

Litigation & Appeals

Emerging Technology, Media & Telecommunications

White Collar Crime, Regulations & Advisory

Career

Haireez is an international dispute resolution specialist, with extensive experience as instructed counsel before the Singapore High Court and various arbitral tribunals. He has a broad commercial practice, with an emphasis on international trade, shipping, commercial fraud and multi-jurisdictional corporate disputes, including insolvency related matters. He graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2010 as the best student from the National University of Singapore in shipping law related subjects and has since been accredited as a specialist in Maritime and Shipping Law by Singapore Academy of Law. He has also been appointed as a single joint expert in Singapore shipping law in relation to a claim before the High Court of England and Wales.

Clients endorse Haireez as “an excellent lawyer, who adds value when providing his advice” with a ‘fast turnaround time”. He is also commended for his “top-notch advice from both a legal and commercial perspective’ and for “quickly able to pick up on key concerns and address these concerns in a timely manner, providing viable and even novel solutions”. He has also been described as “smart, quick-witted and receptive” whose “sharpness has given us an edge in the proceedings”.

Haireez is presently one of the lead counsels and leading a team for a major foreign state-owned entity against more than a dozen major financial institutions in five interpleader actions before the Singapore High Court, arising out of the fall-out and billion-dollar collapse of Hin Leong Trading (Pte.) Ltd and Ocean Tankers (Pte.) Ltd. The first tranche of the trial for these actions lasted 3 months, with the second tranche to resume in 2025. He is also presently involved in two mis-delivery claims before the Singapore High Court, one on behalf of a major financial institution and another, on behalf of a trading house.

Haireez particularly enjoys all forms of advocacy, particularly cross-examination. Some of his other notable matters as lead counsel:

1) In a SIAC arbitration concerning the failure to open a letter credit and nominate a suitable seaworthy vessel, and complex issues relating to damages.

2) Resisting an application to set aside an Arbitral Award issued under the SIAC Rules, before the Singapore High Court.

3) A wide-range of injunction-related matters before the Singapore High Court including (i) an injunction to restrain directors from acting on the Company’s behalf and (ii) discharging a freezing injunction.

4) A dispute arising out of 8 sale and purchase contracts for raw cashew nuts under the SIAC Rules;

5) A dispute under the LMAA 2017 terms arising out of the delivery of Indonesian steam coal without the production of the bills of lading;

6) A dispute over quality of a cargo of urea shipped from Qingdao for discharge at Lagos under the SIAC Rules;

7) A dispute arising out of a manning agreement that is subject to the SIAC Rules; and

8) A successful application before the Emergency Tribunal to obtain an injunction to prohibit the counterparty from selling or disposing iron ore extracted from a particular concession area in India.

Haireez has also appeared at all levels before the Singapore Courts and has an active arbitration practice, having handled a wide range of disputes that are subject to a variety of rules such as the SIAC, SCMA, LMAA, ICC, ICA and GAFTA.

Most recently, Haireez has advised on legal issues arising from sanctions, in particular, those arising out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Outside of legal practice, Haireez has been the Deputy Subject Co-ordinator for Admiralty Practice with the Singapore Institute of Legal Education since 2019 and has taught advocacy in the National University of Singapore. He has sat on the board of a leading bursary institution as its Honorary Secretary and is committed to making a difference in the society, both through the practice of law and beyond.

Professional Memberships

Member, Law Society of Singapore

Member, Singapore Academy of Law

Deputy Subject Co-ordinator for Admiralty Practice, Singapore Institute of Legal Education

Publications

Mohd Haireez, Benjamin Ow, Thong Ying Xuan “Order 34: Arbitral Proceedings” in Singapore Civil Procedure 2024 vol 1 (Cavinder Bull SC, gen ed) (Sweet & Maxwell, 2024)

SCMA Indonesia Conference 2024 – “Guided Walkthrough to Using Arbitration to Resolve Shipping & Commodities Trade Disputes”

Singapore Academy of Law, Annual Review of 2022 Cases on Admiralty and Shipping, 11 October 2023

Are Bills of Lading “Still the Keys to the Warehouse”, 7 March 2023, International Malaysian Society of Maritime Law