Full Profile
Rachel is a Legal Director and main area of practice is in civil and commercial disputes with a focus on infrastructure, engineering and construction related matters. She has acted for clients (including consultants and contractors) in domestic and international arbitrations as well as litigation at all levels of the Singapore Court. She is also familiar with adjudication under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act, having represented clients in multi-million dollar adjudication proceedings and prepared articles and seminars on the latest amendments to the Act.
Having represented main contractors in large construction projects, she has experience in advising on both upstream and downstream claims involving defects, variation works and delay-related losses. In respect of non-contentious work, she also has experience in drafting, amending and reviewing various construction as well as commercial agreements, including many of the standard form construction contracts such as FIDIC,PSSCOC, REDAS and SIA.
Experience
- Represented one of Indonesia’s largest state owned engineering and construction companies in multiple SIAC arbitrations. The arbitrations involve multiple contracts with different governing laws (Indonesian law and English law). The matters involves a dispute over a suite of design, construction and installation contracts for Indonesia’s largest Out-Of-Pit Crushing and Conveying System installed in a mining project.
- Acted for a joint venture consisting of a Korean contractor and a Japanese contractor in a SIAC arbitration seated in Singapore against a consortium of European sub-contractors arising out of a major railway project in Vietnam which involved issues of delay and prolongation costs.
- Acting for a joint venture consisting of a Korean contractor and a Japanese contractor in a Vietnam International Arbitration Centre arbitration against a Vietnamese government entity in respect of multi-million dollar claims for prolongation costs arising out of a major railway project in Vietnam.
- Acting for a Mongolian company in a ICC arbitration seated in Paris against its Chinese contractor in respect of defects arising out of the construction of a greenfield cement plant in Mongolia.
- Represented an architect firm based in Myanmar in an ICC arbitration against the employer, a subsidiary of a Singapore-listed company in respect of unpaid fees for an international school project in Myanmar.
- Acted for a Malaysian developer in a SIAC arbitration against a contractor in respect of a hotel project in Sabah.
- Acted for a major Singapore construction company in connection with its claims brought in two SIA arbitrations against the main contractor for variations and prolongation costs with counterclaims for defects and contra-charges arising in respect of a mixed development project.
- Acted for various corporations, including main-contractors, sub-contractors and employers/owners, in making and/or defending claims amounting to more than SGD 100 million in adjudication proceedings brought under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act.
- Advised a joint venture between 2 leading Korean conglomerates on upstream and downstream claims in relation to the construction of a mixed use development jointly developed by Malaysia and Singapore, including defending multi-million adjudication proceedings brought by the sub-contractors.
- Acted for a leading Korean conglomerate (main contractor) in a dispute with a supplier in the High Court of Singapore in relation to defective concrete suppl ied to a major hospital project.
- Acted for consultants and contractors in defending claims in the High Court of Singapore brought by MCSTs in relation to defects in residential projects.
- Successfully acted for a family holding company which held a significant percentage of shares in The Hour Glass Limited in the Court of Appeal case of Chan Siew Lee v TYC Investment Pte Ltd and others and another appeal [2015] 5 SLR 409 which involved cross-appeals. This case involved novel issues of law, and was the first Singapore decision which recognised the existence of reserve powers of shareholders in a general meeting and set out the scope of such powers.
- Successfully acted for a shipyard in defending a claim for misrepresentation in the High Court case of Goldrich Venture Pte Ltd and another v Halcyon Offshore Pte Ltd [2015] 3 SLR 990. The case involved novel issues of agency and representations.
- Preparing EPC Contracts based on the FIDIC Conditions of Contract for EPC/Turnkey Contracts on behalf of the employer in respect of the construction of a sulphur processing plant with a sulphur handling pier on Jurong Island.
- Acted for a prominent Singapore listed construction company in relation to a charge under the Workplace Health and Safety Act.
