Yong Seng Tay

Practice Areas

International Arbitration; Litigation; Employment, Health and Safety

Career

Yong Seng acts as lead counsel in a broad spectrum of commercial disputes, in both litigation and arbitration. His clients include global financial institutions, Japanese trading companies (“sogo sosha”) and engineering conglomerates, leading multinational corporates and government bodies.

Yong Seng is recognised as a leading litigator by various top-tier publications, and was shortlisted for Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific for Singapore Lawyer of the Year for 2023.

In the High Court, he has particular expertise in commercial, banking, real estate and employment litigation. He has acted for top-tier trading companies like Itochu, BGC Partners and Maersk in ground-breaking litigation that pushed the boundaries of Singapore law, including a 24-month long international non-compete injunction for Itochu and the enforcement of multi-million dollar employee cash advance agreements for BGC Partners. He has also successfully represented banks, real estate companies and marine engineering companies in complex Court claims.

In the Court of Appeal (Singapore’s highest Court), his experience lies in arguing novel and difficult points of law. His successful cases as lead advocate include a landmark 5-Judge decision on defamation, and leading decisions on company/insolvency law and tort law. He successfully argued Singapore’s first civil action under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012. This was a ground-breaking decision that recognised emotional distress as being part of “loss or damage” actionable under the Act, and was recognised as an Impact Case by Benchmark Litigation in 2023.

Yong Seng has a busy international arbitration practice, representing heavy industries, power generators (both conventional and renewable), aerospace and media companies. He has acted for top-tier Japanese heavy engineering MNCs and trading companies (sogo sosha), as well as leading US and European companies in international arbitrations. In this regard, he has significant experience in handling large-scale industrial accidents and complex product liability cases, having defended leading companies in the heavy engineering, power-generation, renewable energy, automotive and chemical industries. He also has significant experience in defending arbitration awards in Court against setting-aside challenges.

Publications

Subject Editor, SAL (Singapore Academy of Law) Practitioner (Employment Law).

Co-Editor, SAL Annual Review of Singapore Cases (Equity and Trusts)

Personal

Adjunct Faculty, Singapore Management University (Commercial Remedies in Litigation)

Education

Languages Spoken

English; Mandarin