Yuen Gi Ko

Full Profile

Yuen Gi (YG) is a Senior Consultant (Qualified and admitted in England & Wales only. Not admitted in Australia) in our Melbourne office, who is dual-qualified in England & Wales and Singapore. He specialises in maritime and trade disputes and advises on sanctions issues.

Prior to joining Clyde & Co in our Melbourne office, YG worked for international shipping law firms in Singapore, and also worked as a Freight Demurrage & Defence (FD&D) lawyer at an IG P&I Club in Tokyo, Japan.

Being proficient in both wet and dry disputes, YG acts for shipowners, charterers, P&I Clubs and H&M insurers in various disputes arising out of charterparties and also advises on and investigates maritime casualties such as collisions, groundings, pollution and fires at sea.

YG regularly advises on sanctions risks and compliance in respect of trade and cargo shipments under various sanctions regimes, including Syrian, Iranian and Russian. YG also has experience corresponding with OFAC regulators, including, applying for the release of funds blocked by OFAC.

Born in Busan, Republic of Korea but raised in Singapore, YG is fluent in both Korean and Mandarin Chinese.

Experience

• Acting for a South Korean shipowner to defend against claims arising out of COVID-19 in an SCMA arbitration
• Acting for a major Japanese shipowner to advise on trade sanctions in respect of a series of potential shipments of coal involving Russian entities
• Advising an international logistics company on the regulations in respect of deployment of drone delivery services in Australia
• Acting for a South Korean shipyard in a shipbuilding dispute arising out of Russian sanctions
• Advising a Japanese shipowner in respect of repossession of vessel due to suspected Iranian petroleum trade by charterers
• Acting for a US waste recycling company to defend against a claim arising out of a fire resulting from hazardous waste loaded on a vessel
• Advising a Singapore shipowner on Syrian sanctions in respect of potential charter involving discharge of LPG cargo at Syrian ports
• Acting for an Indian shipowner to assist with application to US OFAC on the release of funds blocked by US OFAC
• Acting for a Danish shipowner in respect of 30+ vessels in a damages claim arising out of an oil pollution incident caused by a bunker vessel at a major container port in Malaysia
• Advising a Japanese shipowner on sanctions issues in relation to the carriage of Russian petroleum products/cargo from Russia
• Advising a Brazilian charterer on amendments to time and voyage charters to deal with USTR tariffs/service fees
• Acting for a Russian shipowner following a collision with a bulk carrier in the Singapore Traffic Separation Scheme, which involved on-board investigations, review of VDR data and VTIS communications
• Acting for owners of a sand dredger following a collision with a tanker vessel in the Singapore Traffic Separation Scheme, which involved liaising with authorities, and dealing with bunker pollution clean-up and wreck removal
• Acting for a major Malaysian logistics company in an arbitration under JCAA Rules following a dispute arising under a freight forwarding contract to provide multimodal transportation services
• Acting for a Japanese shipowner following the spill of reformate in the US