The ROAP Asia Finals brought to a close our advanced remote oral advocacy and cross-examination courses, by featuring the most persuasive and skilled participants on each course.
The outcome of the finals was determined by a panel of world-class arbitrators consisting of Kevin Kim (who sat as President of the Tribunal in place of Alvin Yeo SC), Yoshimi Ohara, and Chelva Retnam Rajah SC.
The winners were: Minjae Yoo (Lee & Ko, Seoul) and expert Darrell Lee (Accuracy, Singapore) for the cross-examination course, and Asher Chin (Wong Partnership, Singapore) and Thara Gopalan (TSMP Law Corporation, Singapore) for the oral submissions course. The other finalists were: Tian Kai Loh (Drew & Napier LLC, Singapore) and Srimant Jain (Alvarez & Marsal, New Delhi) for the cross-examination course, and Vishal Aggarwal (Albertson Solicitors, London) and Eden Li (WongPartnership LLP, Singapore) for the oral submissions course.
You will find short bios of our finalists and tribunal members below.
The ROAP Asia Finals 2023 are generously sponsored by Wong Partnership and Accuracy, and part of Singapore Convention Week 2023.
THE ROAP ASIA 2023 FINALS TRIBUNAL
Kap-You (Kevin) Kim is a senior partner at Peter & Kim in Seoul. He was previously a senior partner at Bae, Kim & Lee LLC, where he worked for the past three decades in various roles, including as the co-founder and head of the International Arbitration Practice and the head of the Domestic and International Disputes Group. Over the past 30 years, Kevin has acted as counsel, presiding arbitrator, co-arbitrator or sole arbitrator in more than 300 cases of international arbitrations under various arbitration rules. Presently, he is involved in several investment and commercial arbitrations. Among other positions that he holds, Kevin is an Advisory Board Member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and the Chairman of the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board’s (KCAB) International Arbitration Committee. In the past, Kevin has served as the Vice President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration (2014 – 2021), Secretary General of ICCA (2010 – 2014), member of the LCIA Court (2007 – 2012) and Vice Chair of the IBA Arbitration Committee (2008 – 2010).
Yoshimi Ohara is a Partner at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu. Her practice focuses on international arbitration, international complex litigation and mediation. She represents both domestic and foreign clients in international arbitration in various venues under the rules of the ICC, AAA/ICDR, SIAC and JCAA. With a strong corporate and IP background, she has extensive experience in dealing with disputes covering a wide range of subjects, including joint ventures, M&A, energy, construction, technology transfer, intellectual property, shipping, sales and distribution. Ms. Ohara also serves as an arbitrator in international arbitration. She has contributed to shaping soft law in international arbitration through IBA activities.
Chelva Ratnam Rajah SC has practised at Tan Rajah & Cheah since being called to the Singapore bar in 1972, and he has led the firm as managing partner from 1997 till 2022 and is now its Senior Partner. Chelva was appointed as Senior Counsel on 10 January 1998. Chelva is recognised as an established and sought-after senior counsel in Singapore for litigation and arbitrations, particularly in substantial commercial disputes. He brings his deep and extensive knowledge of the law shaped by his professional experience of 50 years to the table.
THE ROAP ASIA 2023 FINALISTS
Vishal Aggarwal is an International Disputes Associate at Albertson Solicitors, London, United Kingdom. He advises and represents both private and State parties in domestic and international arbitration proceedings as well as in complex cross-border disputes before various courts. He is admitted to practice law in England (Solicitor) and in India. He is the Senior Editor of the arbitration book “Law, Practice and Procedure of Arbitration in India” published by Lexis Nexis. Vishal regularly works as a Tribunal Secretary for international arbitrations in the MENA region and is an Accredited Tribunal Secretary with HKIAC. He holds an LLM degree from the London School of Economics where he specialized in commercial and investment arbitration. He is a Member of SIArb and an Associate of CIArb. He holds the position of Vice Chairperson of the Young Member’s Group at AIADR. He is the co-founding chair of India Very Young Arbitration Practitioners (India VYAP) and ArbChat. He has also been selected as the Young ICCA Mentee for the year 2022-23.
Asher Chin is a Senior Associate in the Specialist & Private Clients Disputes Practice at WongPartnership LLP where he focuses on both litigation and arbitration across a wide range of areas. He has represented clients in complex disputes under various arbitral rules (including the SIAC, UNCITRAL and SIA rules), and his experience spans a broad range of fields, including construction, shareholder disputes, trusts & charities, investigations and criminal defence. Asher is admitted to the Singapore Bar and is fluent in English and Mandarin.
Thara Gopalan is an Associate Director at TSMP Law Corporation in Singapore with an active commercial disputes and antitrust advisory / investigations practice. She regularly appears as counsel (led and unled) in arbitrations and in the Supreme Court of Singapore. She has extensive experience with shareholder disputes, economic torts, and the procedure and jurisdiction of arbitration tribunals.
Srimant Jain is a Manager in the Disputes and Investigations practise of Alvarez & Marsal, India. He specialises in dispute advisory engagements and complex finance and accounting matters. He is a well-rounded dispute and forensic professional, specialising in experience in cross border and commercial disputes along deep expertise in assisting Regulators, investors and managements on complex and sensitive deep accounting investigation and matters. He has worked in providing litigation and arbitration support services, business valuations, quantification of claims and loss of profits, financial and business modelling, judicial investigations, corporate governance reviews and financial and forensic reviews. His experience also includes working on shareholder and JV disputes, management disputes, contractual disputes, and family disputes. His clients range from global conglomerates, reputed listed entities, large multinational corporations, promoter groups, foreign and local governments, and regulators.
Darrell Lee is a Manager in the Singapore office of Accuracy. He has in depth experience in the quantification of economic damages across many disputes scenarios. Overall, he has more than 8 years of experience in disputes, forensic accounting valuations, financial due diligence and lost profit assessments.
Eden Li is a senior associate in WongPartnership LLP, an award-winning law firm headquartered in Singapore. Eden practices commercial litigation, international arbitration, and restructuring and insolvency. She has advised and acted for clients in a variety of complex commercial disputes before the Singapore courts and arbitral tribunals. Prior to joining private practice, Eden was a Justices’ Law Clerk in the Supreme Court of Singapore.
Tian Kai Loh is a Senior Associate at Drew & Napier LLC’s dispute resolution practice, having joined from an ‘magic circle’ international law firm. He has experience in litigation at all levels of the Singapore courts and international arbitration under the auspices of various institutions such as the SIAC, ICC, LMAA and the LCIA. Tian Kai represents clients across various industries and sectors, including banking, private equity, commodities, mining, energy and construction, to manage and resolve disputes spanning a wide range of legal issues. He speaks fluent English and Mandarin, and knows basic French. Outside work, Tian Kai teaches at his alma mater, the National University of Singapore.”
Minjae Yoo is a Korean lawyer and a junior associate in the International Arbitration Team of Lee & Ko, located in Seoul. His practice is focused on international arbitration. Minjae has advised clients in investment treaty arbitrations and international commercial arbitrations in a range of applicable laws and various industry sectors. He has also represented clients in high-value construction arbitrations, and provides legal advice in enforcement and provisional measure-related proceedings as well.
Find out more about the ROAP programme here.
