MNCs FOR MEDIATION: from Disputes to Deal-Making

About this event

A good corporate governance framework should include redress to deal with disputes in a timely, cost-effective manner. Mediation lends itself well to this purpose as a management tool and additionally demonstrates a strategic commitment to ESG that extends beyond one's products and services.

In this by-invitation luncheon event, join over 40 leading multinational corporations and industry associations as they collectively declare their support for mediation. Hear speakers share their dispute avoidance strategies and how they manage their disputes, from an in-house perspective. They will also discuss what they expect from their external counsel and how, at times, disputes may benefit from new opportunities and creative deal-making to address underlying commercial interests.

We are honoured to have Ms. Indranee Rajah, Second Minister for Finance and National Development as our Guest-of-Honour at this high-level gathering of in-house counsel, legal practitioners and business leaders from Singapore and abroad.

Tower Ballroom, Shangri-La

August 30, 2023

Main Schedule

9:15 AM - 10:00 AM

Registration - Morning coffee, tea and snacks

10:00 AM - 10:05 AM

Welcome by SIMC CEO, Chuan Wee Meng

10:05 AM - 10:15 AM

Opening Remarks by SIMC Chairman, George Lim SC

10:15 AM - 10:30 AM

Keynote Address by Guest-of-Honour, Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Finance and National Development

Indranee Rajah (Guest-of-Honour) (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development)

10:30 AM - 10:35 AM

Address by Special Guest, Chief Justice (Ret’d) NV Ramana, India

Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana (Former Chief Justice of India)

10:35 AM - 10:50 AM

MNCs for Mediation Signing Ceremony

10:50 AM - 11:00 AM

SIMC Updates by SIMC CEO, Chuan Wee Meng

11:00 AM - 11:45 AM

Panel Discussion

Justice (Ret'd.) L Nageswara Rao (Former Judge, Supreme Court of India | Trustee, IAMC Hyderabad | Member, 39 Essex Chambers)

Hiroyuki Tezuka (Chief Director, JIMC-Kyoto | Vice President, JAA | Partner, Nishimura & Asahi | International Mediator, SIMC)

Brian Chi (General Counsel, Kyndryl Japan | Specialist Mediator, SIMC)

Maree Myerscough (COO & General Counsel, Asia Pacific at Aquila Clean Energy)

Antony Lee (Moderator) (Experienced General Counsel in MNCs | Director of Strategic Engagements & Specialist Mediator, SIMC)

11:45 AM - 1:00 PM

Lunch

Speakers

Indranee Rajah (Guest-of-Honour)

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development

Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana

Former Chief Justice of India

Justice (Ret'd.) L Nageswara Rao

Former Judge, Supreme Court of India | Trustee, IAMC Hyderabad | Member, 39 Essex Chambers

Hiroyuki Tezuka

Chief Director, JIMC-Kyoto | Vice President, JAA | Partner, Nishimura & Asahi | International Mediator, SIMC

Brian Chi

General Counsel, Kyndryl Japan | Specialist Mediator, SIMC

Maree Myerscough

COO & General Counsel, Asia Pacific at Aquila Clean Energy

Antony Lee (Moderator)

Experienced General Counsel in MNCs | Director of Strategic Engagements & Specialist Mediator, SIMC

Ms Indranee Rajah is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office. She is also Second Minister for Finance, and Second Minister for National Development.

Ms Rajah is the Leader of the House for the 14th Parliament. She has been a Member of Parliament for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2001.

She is a Senior Counsel, and was a practising lawyer before joining Government.

Under her law portfolio from 2012 – 2018, she co-chaired the Committees on Family Justice, the formation of the Singapore International Commercial Court as well as the Committee to Strengthen Singapore as an International Centre for Debt Restructuring. She also co-chaired the Penal Code Review Committee whose recommendations led to major amendments of the Penal Code, including greater protections of women and the vulnerable.

Ms Rajah assists in the oversight of the National Population and Talent Division in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Under her Finance portfolio, Ms Rajah is involved in the development of the Government’s fiscal policies. She also oversees the:

- Professional Services Programme Office (PSPO), to develop and promote the legal and accounting industries in Singapore and catalyse the internationalisation of such professional services; and
- Infrastructure Asia, the Singapore government platform that connects infrastructure demand and supply in the region

As Second Minister for National Development, she is involved in the formulation of Singapore’s housing and development polices. She also assists in overseeing:

- The Centre for Liveable Cities and the World Cities Summit;
- The professional services in the built environment sector;
- Review of Singapore’s long-term land-use planning for urban development;
- Strategies for sustainable housing; and
- Policies guiding Singapore's transformation into a City in Nature

Ms Rajah is also involved in the Forward Singapore exercise, as one of the Ministers overseeing the Care pillar. This pillar explores how to enable every Singaporean to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, and to better care for themselves and other around them. Forward Singapore is a collective effort between the Government and Singaporeans, to refresh Singapore’s social compact and set out a roadmap for the next decade and beyond.

Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana is born on 27 August 1957 in an agrarian family in Ponnavaram Village, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh.

He enrolled as an Advocate on 10 February 1983 and practiced in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals and the Supreme Court of India in Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Labour, Service and Election matters. He specialized in Constitutional, Criminal, Service and Inter-State River laws.

Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana functioned as a Panel Counsel for various Government Organizations and as an Additional Standing Counsel for Railways in the Central Administrative Tribunal at Hyderabad before rendering services as Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh.

He as appointed as a permanent Judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on 27 June 2000 and served as President of the Andhra Pradesh Judicial Academy and as the Executive Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Legal Services Authority. Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana acted as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh from 10 March 2013 to 20 May 2013.

Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana elevated as the Chief Justice of High Court of Delhi on 02 September 2013, and thereafter as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on 17 February 2014.

Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana served as Chairman, Supreme Court Legal Services Committee from 7 March 2019 to 26 November 2019. He held the office of Executive Chairman, National Legal Services Authority from 27 November 2019 to 23 April 2021 and as its Patron-in-Chief from 24 April, 2021 to 26 August, 2022.

Chief Justice (Ret'd.) NV Ramana took oath as the 48th Chief Justice of India on 24 April 2021 and he retired as Chief Justice of India on 26th August, 2022.

Justice L. Nageswara Rao was elevated to the Supreme Court of India in 2016 and served a term of six years as a judge during which he authored over 248 judgments whilst being a part of the quorum in over 700 of them. He is the seventh person to be directly elevated to the Supreme Court from the Bar. During his tenure, Justice Rao has been pivotal in shaping Indian law with his notable judgments on commercial laws, personal liberty and social security for the marginalised communities in Indian society. Additionally, he played a fundamental role in structuring of tribunals and revamping the criminal judicial system tackling the issues of expediency of trials and appeals.

Prior to his elevation, Justice Rao was designated as a Senior Counsel in 2000 and had an illustrious career spanning over three decades during which he appeared regularly in various high-profile cases across different courts in India in a spectrum of commercial, civil, criminal, and constitutional matters. He has also served two terms as the Additional Solicitor General of India in August 2003 to May 2004 and again from August 2013 to December 2014.

Justice Rao is presently an arbitrator in both sole and three member arbitrations having been appointed by institutions, courts in India, as well as nominations by parties. At present, Justice Rao is an arbitrator in 6 international arbitrations and 20 domestic arbitrations demonstrating his extensive experience in the field of construction, oil and gas, energy, corporate disputes, media and entertainment, insurance, automotive and real estate matters. Justice Rao delivered several judgments during his tenure as a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India that specifically dealt with Indian arbitration law. Before his elevation to the Supreme Court of India in 2016, Justice Rao was a counsel in several commercial arbitrations.

Apart from being a member of the Panel of Arbitrators at the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) and Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC) Justice Rao is also empanelled as an arbitrator in the Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA), Delhi International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) and as a mediator in Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC). Justice Rao is the recipient of several awards over the course of his career, most recently being awarded the lifetime achievement award by the Society of Indian Law Firms.

Hiroyuki heads the international dispute resolution practice at Nishimura & Asahi. He specializes in international commercial litigation, arbitration, and mediation. He has represented many international clients, including multi-national manufacturers, banking and securities firms, insurance companies, and news media in disputes involving M&A, antitrust laws, corporate governance, insurance laws, intellectual property, defamation, joint ventures, licensing, construction, and other commercial matters, as well as international bankruptcy. He has been involved in a number of international arbitrations as counsel, sole arbitrator, and co-arbitrator (including chair) before the ICC, JCAA, AAA-ICDR, VIAC, KCAB, and SIAC.

Hiroyuki serves as Vice President of the Japan Association of Arbitrators and as Chief Director of the Japan International Mediation Center in Kyoto, was Vice Chair of the Arbitration Committee of the IBA Legal Practice Division, and was Co-Chair of the Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Committee at the IPBA from 2016 to 2020. From 2013 to 2016, he taught international arbitration and international dispute resolution at the University of Tokyo, School of Law as a visiting professor. Since 2013, he has been a member of the SIAC’s Court of Arbitration. He is also a member of the International Court of Arbitration of the ICC, and since 2018, he has been a Council member of the ICC Institute of World Business Law.

Maree serves as COO & General Counsel, Asia Pacific at Aquila Clean Energy. She has broad transactional experience in corporate and financing transactions, with a focus on renewable energy and infrastructure projects.

Maree was recently awarded In-House Lawyer of the Year by The Legal 500 at the South East Asia Awards 2023. In 2018, Maree was honoured to win the “General Commercial” award at the Global Counsel Awards in New York.

Maree serves as a board member of the Association of Corporate Counsel in Singapore. She has been acknowledged for her for her work on pro bono projects, community service initiatives, mentoring and service leadership within the legal community in Singapore.

Maree was a senior associate with Latham & Watkins in Singapore and began her legal career at Mallesons in Sydney.

Antony Lee recently retired from HSBC. He was in HSBC for 18.5 years as the General Counsel for HSBC Singapore and Deputy General Counsel, Asia Pacific for HSBC, a regional role. As HSBC Singapore GC, Antony has managed a department of 36 persons that is responsible for the management of legal matters for all HSBC entities in Singapore. As Deputy GC Asia Pacific, Antony looked after legal teams from 7 countries. Antony sat on various committees and work groups within the global HSBC legal function where he had the opportunity to work with persons from diverse backgrounds, geographies and legal systems.

Before HSBC, Antony has worked in various capacities in the banking sector and in private legal practice as a financial services and commercial lawyer (both contentious and non-contentious).

Antony has been active in various professional and community bodies including the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA). In 2022, SCCA recognised Antony’s contributions to the in-house legal community and presented him with the Chief Legal Officer’s Award for the Year in the MNC category.

Antony is an accredited mediator of the Singapore Mediation Centre and the Singapore International Mediation Centre. He has mediated a range of commercial and civil disputes. Antony actively promoted mediation while he was GC as he saw its benefits as a cost-efficient and sustainable dispute resolution mechanism. He has, therefore, seen the benefits of mediation as a mediator and a user. As such, Antony looks forward to remaining involved in mediation as he embarks on his next chapter.

Organiser

SIMC's signature event, MNCs for Mediation, is part of Singapore Convention Week 2023 (28 August to 1 September) organised by Singapore's Ministry of Law in collaboration with various local and international partner organisations.

Singapore Convention Week 2023 serves as a key platform for ADR thought leaders, experts, practitioners and policy makers to discuss emerging trends, address common issues and drive change. The week-long series of events will feature a rich and exciting line-up of keynotes, discussions, debates, workshops, lectures, networking opportunities and visits.

SIMC is also proud to support the UNCITRAL Academy Industry Capacity-Building Workshop on 29 August. Register for the workshop and other partner events by clicking on the Singapore Convention Week logo below.

Singapore International Mediation Centre

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