Vi Ming Lok SC

Practice Areas

Dispute Resolution

International Arbitration

Insurance

Aviation

Professional Negligence

Crime, Fraud, and Investigations

Career

Vi Ming is the Managing Director of the Firm and a seasoned and well-known Senior Counsel with over 3 decades of advocacy experience. He has led numerous cases at all levels of the Singapore courts and before both local and international arbitration tribunals in institutions all around the world. Some of these are landmark cases that have created legal precedents and shaped business outcomes.

Vi Ming is frequently approached to act as an expert on Singapore law and has rendered his expert legal opinion in several international arbitration and litigation matters. He is also regularly appointed as arbitrator or mediator for commercially complex disputes and presently sits as the Deputy Chairman of the Singapore International Mediation Centre.

Prior to founding the Firm in 2016, Vi Ming practiced in Rodyk & Davidson for 30 years. He rose to the position of Senior Partner and garnered generous accolades for being an effective and incisive litigation lawyer.

Chambers and Partners has listed Vi Ming as a leading litigator with a “solid reputation” in aviation and insurance litigation with “very sound understanding of legal complexities”. The Legal 500 has acknowledged Vi Ming as a well-respected figure for litigation involving insurance, aviation, and trusts and “brings further senior-level gravitas to the practice.” Benchmark Litigation has recognised Vi Ming as a Litigation Star in commercial and transaction work.

Mr Philip Bass, a noted international aviation insurance lawyer who has worked with Vi Ming on various matters both before the High Court and the Court of Appeal, comments that “Having known Vi Ming for over 20 years, he remains my ‘go to lawyer’ for the complex, multi jurisdictional cases where you need technical ability and an advocate who is ‘good on his feet’ in Court. He also happens to be very nice to work with.” Dato’ Lim Chee Wee, Senior Partner of Lim Chee Wee Partnership and a former partner at Skrine, Kuala Lumpur and an ex-president of the Malaysian Bar Council, added: “I have had the privilege of working with and instructing Vi Ming on a number of briefs. Vi Ming is user-friendly, always thinking of the best and most effective solution and strategy for the client, whether in or out of the court room, a highly effective cross examiner with a style so disarming, witnesses don’t realize they have conceded their own case. Vi Ming is reliable and highly ethical. A formidable advocate one would always want in one’s corner.”

Vi Ming is well known for having led the defence teams for Singapore Airlines in the SQ006 incident and for SilkAir in the MI185 incident. He continues to be consulted and instructed on many aviation and airline-related claims, and he remains the counsel of choice for many insurers and insurance consultants for conduct of such claims.

Vi Ming has also been instructed on a significant number of shipping and international trade cases, several of which arose from the high-profile collapse of Hin Leong Trading (Pte.) Ltd in 2020, which is one of Singapore’s largest corporate scandals.

Besides aviation, shipping and international trade matters, Vi Ming has acted for and advised private clients, government-linked agencies, and statutory boards in complicated transactions for the supply of telecommunication equipment, service and infrastructure as well as various cross-border commercial and shareholder disputes; disputes relating to the development of land and disputes relating to international TV and media broadcasting rights. He has also acted in high-value employment, matrimonial and family disputes, commercial and corporate litigation as well as medical negligence cases.

Finally, Vi Ming strongly believes in contributing back to the legal fraternity as an act of service. He served as the President of the Law Society of Singapore from 2013 to 2014 and as a Vice President of the Singapore Academy of Law from 2014 to 2015.

Professional Memberships

Panel Arbitrator, Singapore International Arbitration Centre; Asian International Arbitration Centre, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (Sports Arbitrations); Korean Commercial Arbitration Board; China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC); Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission; South China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission; Chongqing Arbitration Commission; Qingdao Arbitration Commission; and Advisory Board member to the International Registry, Cape Town Convention.

Chairman, Singapore Exchange (SGX) Disciplinary Committee

Vice Chairman, Singapore International Mediation Centre

Chairman, International Relations Committee and Chairman, Professional Indemnity Committee, The Law Society of Singapore

President, Law Society of Singapore, 2013-2014

Vice President, Singapore Academy of Law, 2014-2015

Fellow, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and Singapore Academy of Law

Council member, Council for Estate Agencies

Member, Singapore University of Social Sciences Board of Trustees (formerly known as SIM University)

Advisory member, School Advisory Committee, School of Business, Temasek Polytechnic

Chairman, Bethesda (Bedok-Tampines) Church Ltd and Vice Chairman, Bethesda Care & Counselling Services Centre (an Institute of Public Character)

Personal

Asialaw. Elite Practitioner: Dispute Resolution, 2023; Leading Lawyer: Shipping, Maritime & Aviation, 2014; Leading Lawyer: Aviation, 2010-2013; Leading Lawyer: Dispute Resolution, 2009 and 2014.

Benchmark Asia Pacific. Local Disputes Star, 2023, 2014 and 2013.

Best Lawyers. Aviation, Insurance, and Litigation in Singapore, 2015, 2014 and 2010.

Chambers Asia Pacific. Leading Individual: Dispute Resolution/Litigation, 2017-2023.

Chambers Global. Leading Individual for Dispute Resolution: Litigation, 2013–2015; 2022-2023; Leading Individual for Dispute Resolution: Arbitration, 2013

Expert Guides. World’s Leading Lawyers - Aviation, 2008

The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. Leading Individual in Dispute Resolution, Litigation/Arbitration, 2016, 2019- 2023

Who’s Who Legal. Recommended Thought Leader in Commercial Litigation 2022 and 2023; Recommended Global Leader in Commercial Litigation 2021 and 2022; Recommended Thought Leader in Commercial Litigation (Southeast Asia) 2021 and 2022; Recommended Thought Leader in Aviation Contentious (Southeast Asia) 2021 and 2022; Recommended in International Who's Who of Commercial Litigators, 2014 and recommended in Business Lawyers for Aviation Practice, 2011–2014.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Singapore

Work Highlights

Successfully acted for Singapore Airlines Ltd in resisting an application by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (Republic of China) for immunity under the State Immunity Act in relation to the SQ006 crash (Civil Aeronautics Administration v Singapore Airlines Ltd [2004] 1 SLR(R) 570).

Successfully defended SilkAir in respect of claims arising from the crash of MI185 in the High Court and on appeal (Clarke Beryl Claire (personal representative of the estate of Eugene Francis Clarke, deceased) and another v SilkAir (Singapore) Pte Ltd and other actions [2001] 3 SLR(R) 504; Clarke Beryl Claire (personal representative of the estate of Eugene Francis Clarke, deceased) and others v SilkAir (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2002] 1 SLR(R) 1136).

Defended Singapore Airlines in respect of claims arising from the crash of SQ006 under the amended Warsaw Convention in a leading decision by the Court of Appeal on the costs principles to be applied in offer to settle cases (Singapore Airlines Ltd and another v Fujitsu Microelectronics (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and others [2001] 1 SLR(R) 38).

Defended Changi International Airport Services (Singapore) in the Court of Appeal in a matter involving the interpretation of Article 22 of the Warsaw Convention and the applicability of the defence of limitation of liability under the Convention to the carrier's agent.

Successfully acted for a multinational oil trading company in arguing a complex point of law involving insolvency set-off (Re Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd (in liquidation) [2023] SGHC 330).

Acting for DBS Trustee Ltd, the trustee of Eagle Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (EH-REIT), part of the Eagle Hospitality Group that was listed on the SGX-ST in May 2019 but financially collapsed within one year; advising Client on matters of potential liability of various parties for the financial crisis and failures of EH-REIT and the Eagle Hospitality Group.

Acting on behalf of Deloitte & Touche, the liquidators of Inter-Pacific Petroleum Pte Ltd, a company in compulsory winding up against a former director in respect of breaches of duty which caused the company to suffer loss and damage.

Successfully defended Mr Kwek Sum Chuan, the owner of a group of import-export businesses, against a claim by his son for the majority of Yes Supermarket Pte Ltd premised on an alleged oral contract (Kwek Hong Lim v Kwek Sum Chuan [2023] SGHC 67).

Acted for insurers in resisting claims brought by a contractor that arose from a fatal highway viaduct collapse that involved one fatality.

Successfully acted for Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP to strike out a claim for breach of confidentiality brought by an extremely influential oil and disgraced oil trading family.

Advised MS First Capital Insurance Ltd in relation to claims relating to insurance policy insuring against business interruption losses, whether they will be engaged in respect of losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Successfully acted as counsel for a Singapore-incorporated health products company to resist the enforcement of a Pennsylvanian-seated ICDR emergency award in the High Court based on a breach of natural justice. The decision was also a landmark one in which the High Court conclusively affirmed that foreign emergency awards may be enforced in Singapore as a foreign award under the International Arbitration Act 1994 (CVG v CVH [2022] SGHC 249).

Languages Spoken

English and Chinese

Education

Awards