Ooi Huey Hien (Joanne)

Full Profile

Ooi Huey Hien (Joanne) is a Legal Director in the Projects & Construction team at Clasis LLC. She has particular niches in cross-border infrastructure and construction, and international arbitration. Huey Hien also advises on cross-border insolvency and restructuring, investigations and joint venture and shareholder disputes, which often involve regulatory, insolvency and enforcement elements. 

She has appeared before the Singapore courts at all levels, including the Singapore International Commercial Court, the High Court, the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeal. She has acted in arbitrations under the rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and in ad hoc proceedings. She regularly advises Mandarin-speaking clients and PRC state-owned enterprises on disputes with a Singapore nexus.

Huey Hien has been recognised as a Future Star (Commercial and transactions) by Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific 2026. She has also been named a Key Lawyer in Legal 500 Asia Pacific in International Arbitration (2025), a Rising Star in Women in Business Law Awards (2022) and as Asia’s 40 under 40 in Asian Legal Business (2022). She is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Singapore Management University, and currently serves as a Panel Neutral Evaluator on Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre Ltd (FIDREC). She also contributes to the Law Society of Singapore through the Women in Practice Committee and the Professional Indemnity Committee. 

Clients describe her as having a very strong “level of sophistication and commercial vision”. She has been commended as “responsive, detailed and diligent” and praised for being “knowledgeable” with “remarkable” legal insight. 

Huey Hien has been an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore since 2013.

Experience

• Acted for a China SOE in respect of a dispute governed by the laws of India in respect of the severely delayed cross-border construction of the Indian metro line which was a significant Indian infrastructure project.
• Successfully applied to set aside an adjudication determination under SOPA on the basis that the adjudication application was lodged out of time (see Lendlease Singapore Pte Ltd v M & S Management & Contracts Services Pte Ltd [2019] SGHC 139).
• Acted for a main contractor against a developer under SOPA obtaining a favourable determination and successfully resisting an application for the adjudication determination to be set aside.
• Acted for a China international shipping company in respect of a supply chain contract dispute over the sale and purchase of coal in a contract of several million dollars which culminated in an SIAC arbitration.
• Counsel to a joint venture dispute in the renewable energy sector (China, Thailand, Singapore), involving industrial tax exemptions and cross-border supply chain disruption, in an SIAC Arbitration, applying Thai law.
• Advised on regulatory compliance in a dispute involving a PRC telecommunications entity and global antitrust issues (EU, French, UK, PRC law) in FRAND arbitration which disputed value was in the hundreds of millions.
• Acted for an Indian investment fund in respect of Singapore legal proceedings and other arbitration proceedings in relation to a joint venture into a unicorn company concerning an Indian technological software platform in respect of a joint venture dispute under SIAC and in the Singapore High Court.
• Acted for a multinational telecommunications company in a complex and highly technical international arbitration concerning license fees and royalty payments in respect of video conferencing devices over a decade long period in an SIAC arbitration.
• Obtained an order to enforce PRC judgments locally in Singapore against several defendants, and to enforce these judgments as a money debt in Singapore against Singapore assets.
• Represented a unitholder and shareholder of a listed trust in litigation and HKIAC emergency arbitration involving corporate insolvency and restructuring, corporate governance and minority oppression, trust law issues, and issues concerning the SGX Listing Rules and Securities and Futures Act, amidst other regulations. The dispute concerns trust assets amounting to over SGD 1 billion.
• Represented a shareholder in respect of Court of Appeal proceedings in which novel issues of trust law and the law on insolvency and restructuring were dealt with.
• Led a multi-party investigation into audit fraud affecting Brazilian assets, coordinating cross border legal advice, and defending the escrow agents who were sued in the Singapore High Court. This was a multi-million-dollar dispute.
• Acted for a company which was part of a global group of companies having substantial presence in China and in Australia, in respect of a corporate guarantee worth tens of millions of dollars.
• Assisted in acting for a partner in a joint venture partnership for breach of partnership concerning a multi-million dollar project in China concerning the construction of a theme park in Shanghai under the Singapore International Commercial Court.
• Assisted in acting for a local major telecommunications company in a regulatory dispute with a state-linked entity in Singapore which involved an appeal to the Minister.
• Acted for a multinational industrial applications company to obtain a Search Order against ex-employees which had stolen confidential information from the company prior to the end of their employment, for which the value of the information is more than S$100 million.
• Acted for a company in a streamlined arbitration procedure under the SIAC Rules which debuted in 2025 in respect of a breach of contract and defects arising from the sale and purchase of motor vehicles in Madagascar.