Jiahui is developing a broad practice across all of Chambers’ core practice areas, including international commercial arbitration and litigation, shipping, and public international law. He is qualified both in England and Wales and in Singapore, and has been instructed in relation to high-value commercial disputes in both jurisdictions.
Before joining Chambers, Jiahui was an Assistant Registrar and District Judge at the Supreme Court of Singapore, where he dealt with a wide range of civil and commercial disputes. He was concurrently appointed Special Assistant to Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, and assisted on numerous lectures and a book on international commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation in that capacity.
Prior to that, he spent two years clerking for the Chief Justice and the judges of the Singapore Court of Appeal and High Court and the Singapore International Commercial Court as a Justices’ Law Clerk. He began his legal career with the Singapore Attorney-General’s Chambers in 2017, when he was gazetted as a State Counsel and Deputy Public Prosecutor.
Jiahui studied law at the University of Oxford, graduating first in his year and winning a number of other academic prizes. He then obtained a Masters of Law from Harvard Law School, where he received the John Gallup Laylin Prize for best student paper in public international law and worked as a research assistant for Professor Naz K Modirzadeh at the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict.
Jiahui grew up in Singapore and China, and is a native Mandarin Chinese speaker. He maintains an active interest in the Singapore and Asia-Pacific markets.
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Example cases
- Acting in a London-seated arbitration on a US$50 million salvage operation in the Gulf Coast (led by Timothy Hill KC).
- Advised on an SIAC arbitration involving a US$20 million trade financing claim and allegations of sham trading in commodities (led by Simon C Milnes KC).
- Assisted (as a pupil) Julian Kenny KC and Michal Hain in King Crude Carriers v Ridgebury November [2023] EWHC 3220 (Comm), [2024] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 115 (appealed to the Court of Appeal in [2024] EWCA Civ 719, [2024] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 140), involving a section 69 Arbitration Act 1996 appeal regarding the deemed fulfilment of conditions precedent for the payment of a deposit in a ship sale contract and a section 68 Arbitration Act 1996 challenge against the failure of the tribunal to decide issues put to it.
- As an Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court of Singapore, heard interlocutory applications in civil and commercial cases ranging from summary judgment and the enforcement of arbitral awards to disclosure applications and bankruptcy petitions.
- As a Justices’ Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Singapore, worked on a wide range of cases spanning areas such as international arbitration, commercial law, insolvency, criminal law and constitutional law, both at first instance before the High Court and the Singapore International Commercial Court, and on appeal before the Court of Appeal.
Arbitration and mediation
- Assisted (as a pupil) Julian Kenny KC and Michal Hain in King Crude Carriers v Ridgebury November [2023] EWHC 3220 (Comm), [2024] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 115 (appealed to the Court of Appeal in [2024] EWCA Civ 719, [2024] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 140), involving a section 69 Arbitration Act 1996 appeal regarding the deemed fulfilment of conditions precedent for the payment of a deposit in a ship sale contract and a section 68 Arbitration Act 1996 challenge against the failure of the tribunal to decide issues put to it.
- Drafted skeleton (as a pupil) to set aside the enforcement of an arbitral award under section 66 of the UK Arbitration Act 1996.
- Drafted mediation position paper (as a pupil) in a claim for laytime, demurrage and detention arising out of a voyage charterparty.
- As an Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court of Singapore, regularly dealt with applications for enforcement of arbitral awards under the Singapore International Arbitration Act 1994 and Arbitration Act 2001, and issued a judgment (DFD v DFE [2023] SGHCR 23) addressing the joinder of third parties seeking to set aside the enforcement of an arbitral award.
Shipping
- Acting in a London-seated arbitration regarding a US$50m salvage operation in the Gulf Coast (led by Timothy Hill KC).
- Assisted (as a pupil) David Lewis KC in Orion Shipping v Great Asia Maritime (The Lila Lisbon) [2024] EWHC 2075 (Comm) regarding the recoverability of loss of bargain damages when exercising a contractual right of termination under the Norwegian Saleform.
- Drafted opening skeleton (as a pupil) for an LMAA arbitration in respect of a voyage charterparty demurrage claim arising out of a restraint of princes.
- Drafted defence (as a pupil) in an English Admiralty Court claim for general average in relation to an explosion on a cargo ship.
Public international law and sanctions
- Worked on sanctions advice (as a pupil), including the interpretation of the OFSI legal services general licence and the application of the UK, EU and US sanctions regimes to arbitration proceedings.
- Assisted (as a pupil) with advice on the UK Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and its interaction with UNCLOS.
- Prepared research note (as a pupil) on the prospects of an investment treaty claim.
- As a research assistant at the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, assisted with preparing weekly updates on counterterrorism and humanitarian law to a Senior Law and Policy Working Group.
Commodities and international trade
- Advised on an SIAC arbitration involving a US$20 million trade financing claim and allegations of sham trading in commodities (led by Simon C Milnes KC).
- Drafted advice (as a pupil) on the merits of a claim for unjust enrichment by a subsequent purchaser against the original seller in a chain of contracts involving a fraudulent sale of commodities.
- Drafted statement of claim (as a pupil) in relation to a dispute over conflicting versions of a contract for the sale of oil.
Commercial law and civil fraud
- Drafted defence (as a pupil) against a claim for breach of a confidentiality agreement.
- Prepared research note (as a pupil) on the enforceability and interpretation of a contractual price review clause containing an agreement to negotiate.
- As an Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court of Singapore, regularly dealt with the merits of commercial disputes in applications for summary judgment and the striking out of proceedings, including substantial claims brought under banking and commercial contracts.
Civil procedure and private international law
- Drafted skeleton (as a pupil) seeking security for costs in the English High Court for a multi-jurisdictional charterparty claim.
- Prepared research note (as a pupil) on the validity of service out of jurisdiction under an exclusive jurisdiction agreement and the application of Art 8 of the Rome I Regulation.
- As an Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court of Singapore, assisted with the drafting of the Singapore Rules of Court 2021 and the Singapore International Commercial Court Rules 2021, and regularly heard interlocutory applications in civil and commercial cases, including applications for summary judgment, disclosure of documents, security for costs and stay of proceedings.
- As a Justices’ Law Clerk at the Supreme Court of Singapore, assisted on a number of cases on civil procedure and conflict of laws, including a jurisdictional challenge before the Court of Appeal in a substantial claim for breach of trust.
Technology law
- Drafted advice (as a pupil) on the legal implications of payments made on fraudulent invoices sent via spoofed or hacked email accounts.
Jiahui is familiar with programming in Python and VBA and with web design using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. He also has a working knowledge of programming in C/C++. He holds a graduate certificate in law and technology from the Singapore Management University Academy, covering blockchain, smart contracts, AI and machine learning.
Insolvency
- Drafted skeleton (as a pupil) on the application of the fraudulent trading provisions under the ADGM Insolvency Regulations.
- As an Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court of Singapore, regularly heard bankruptcy applications (including issuing a judgment dealing with the effect of premature reliance on a statutory demand: DBS Bank v Bryan Ong [2023] SGHCR 2), dealt with presentations of company winding up applications under rule 63 of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution (Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring) Rules 2020, and worked on reviewing cross-border insolvency procedures in Singapore.
(Re)insurance
- Prepared research note (as a pupil) on the aggregation of claims for personal injury under a liability insurance policy.
