Wai Yue is a litigator specialising in shipping, international trade and insurance disputes. Apart from having spent his early years of his career as a lawyer working on complex cases in the High Court and the Court of Appeal in Singapore, working with Singapore’s leading Senior Counsel specialising in shipping and international trade, Mr Steven Chong SC (now Justice of Appeal Steven Chong of the Court of Appeal), Wai Yue has extensive experience of arbitrations in Singapore, London and Hong Kong as well as litigation and mediation across multiple jurisdictions.

A significant part of his practice involves representing various international clients (including Chinese clients) in both ad hoc and institutional arbitrations. He is particularly familiar with arbitrations carried out under the SIAC Rules, LCIA Rules, LMAA Rules, and HKIAC Rules, as well as with enforcement issues that arise following such arbitration proceedings.

With almost 20 years of experience both in Singapore and internationally, Wai Yue’s expertise spreads across contracts and disputes in relation to the trading of oil, dry bulk cargoes (including coal and iron ore) and trade finance. He is also a leading lawyer on charterparties, bills of lading, contracts for port services, unsafe port and cargo claims, and ship building/sale and purchase disputes. His experience and reputation particularly in the Chinese Hull & Machinery and Marine Cargo insurance markets also makes him a port of call for insurers and insureds on issues of coverage and subrogated recoveries. As a member of the Ince’s Asia Casualty Team, Wai Yue also has considerable experience in the investigation and handling of maritime casualties and claims.

Wai Yue practised in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai before moving to Beijing in 2012 to set up the Ince Beijing office where he has been Managing Partner for the last 7 years, and is responsible for all aspects of the firm’s practice in northern China. He is a regular speaker, both regionally and internationally, on topics relating to commercial disputes, maritime law, international trade, and risk & compliance.

 In addition to being a Singapore lawyer with rights of audience and extensive experience before the Singapore Courts, Wai Yue is also qualified to practise Hong Kong and English law, making him one of the few triple – qualified lawyers in Asia with a deep knowledge of the various legal systems and clients’ commercial needs within the region.

Wai Yue is often ranked as a leading lawyer in various legal directories and is noted for being “commercial” and a “strategist who can come up with detailed solutions”, and has more recently been described as being “brilliant in the way he deal with complexities” and “an excellent lawyer with rich professionalism and experience’ who is ‘familiar not only with English law but also with Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China’.

Wai Yue was recently appointed on the Panel of the International Arbitrators of the Shanghai International Arbitration Center. 

• Representing a Chinese State Owned trading company in one of the biggest litigation that has come before the Singapore High Courts and that has spawned various suits in connection with a shipping and insolvency dispute.
• Advising various insurers and reinsurers in relation to legal issues arising out of the explosion at Tianjin port in 2015.
• Advising one of the world’s largest dry bulk shipping operators as well as one of China’s largest commodity traders on shipping and international trade issues arising out of the Ebola crisis including the applicability of a force majeure defence in relation to its contractual obligations in the epidemic in Sierra Leone.
• Advising a major Chinese state-owned trading company claiming US$100 million damages in respect of a series of claims against multi-national oil companies arising out of delivery of off-spec oil cargoes tendered for loading in West Africa. Advising on a complex series of inter-related Commercial Court actions and LCIA arbitrations under a series of sales contracts and dealing with issues relating to defective delivery, non-delivery of contractual cargo and wrongful repudiation. Successfully achieved amicable resolution of dispute.
• Advising a Chinese state-owned oil company in negotiating multiple brokerage agreements for the trading of commodity futures/derivatives with various Chinese and European banks, including the provision of margin lending facilities.
• Advising major VLCC tanker charterers and oil traders against ship-owners in relation to claims under the contracts of carriage for delay in the arrival of the cargo, resulting in oil refineries’ losses.
• Advising an oil trading company in relation to a disputed multi-million dollar claim under a standby letter of credit, including advising on and co-ordinating complex multijurisdictional and cross-border litigation involving Hong Kong and French law and banking practice under UCP600.
• Successfully defended a large dry bulk shipping operator against a US$30 million exposure following mistaken payment of charter hire to insolvent shipowners rather than their financiers. This technically complex matter raised difficult questions on the law of assignment (both legal and equitable) and fraud.