Our Singapore practice was formally launched at the New Zealand High Commissioner's Residence in Singapore on 24th November 2022. Bankside is the first and only New Zealand barristers’ chambers committed to a permanent presence in Singapore. Nine of our members are part of the Bankside Chambers Singapore.  

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Close to 70 guests attended the launch, which was supported by the New Zealand Chamber (Singapore), with many from the Singapore legal fraternity and wider international legal community. 

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Why Singapore

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Members of Bankside are also members of the Asia Pacific dispute resolution community, offering expertise to ensure disputes within the region are resolved promptly.

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Singapore has, through visionary work on the part of its Government and judiciary, established itself as an important regional hub for the resolution of complex international commercial disputes. It is at the forefront of dispute resolution globally, including through its involvement in the Singapore Convention on Mediation, an international treaty that provides a legal framework for the enforcement of mediated settlements. 

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We see Singapore as the pre-eminent place in which international disputes can be resolved, whether through the Singapore International Commercial Court, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre or the Singapore International Mediation Centre.

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Bankside’s Singapore members

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Our nine Singapore members are experienced international dispute resolution lawyers. They act on complex cross-border litigation, international arbitrations (both commercial and investment-treaty based) and mediations. Several members also sit as arbitrators and mediators. 

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They have particular expertise in the Pacific, with experience practising or judging in Vanuatu, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Kiribati. They also have a deep understanding of the need to adapt their skills to meet the needs of differing cultures – whether that be in Asia or the Pacific. Our Singapore members hope to bring some New Zealand ingenuity, common sense and “can-do” attitude to international disputes.

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Bankside’s Singapore members are: 

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• Hon Paul Heath KC is a former Judge of the High Court of New Zealand. He is Chief Justice of the Pitcairn Islands and a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Tonga. Paul now sits as an international arbitrator and mediator. Paul is an insolvency and restructuring expert and is currently Co Chair of INSOL International’s ADR Colloquium, which is considering how private dispute resolution can complement the role of courts in dealing with cross border insolvency disputes under legislation based (primarily) on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross Border Insolvency.

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• Dr Simon Foote KC is a commercial litigator and arbitrator who specialises in complex engineering and construction matters and investment treaty arbitration.  Simon has a PhD in investment treaty law, and his book on that topic, The Bona Fide Investor: Corporate Nationality and Treaty Shopping in Investment Treaty Law was published this year by Wolters Kluwer. 

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• Dr Anna Kirk is an experienced international arbitrator and counsel. Anna has been involved in over 50 arbitrations over the past 15 years as counsel, arbitrator or tribunal secretary. For many years, she worked closely with Sir David Williams KC. She is now New Zealand’s Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. Anna has a PhD in international law from the University of Cambridge.

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• Graeme Christie is an experienced international construction lawyer, adjudicator, and arbitrator as well as being a director of the Region 3 Disputes review board foundation. His considerable construction project experience includes the Burj AL Arab hotel or sail hotel in Dubai. He has sat as an ICC arbitrator and been nominated a number of times for Singapore based construction arbitrations.

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• Lauren Lindsay has practised in international dispute resolution for over 15 years, with 7 years in the London office of a global law firm. As a qualified scientist, she regularly acts on disputes with a strong scientific or technical component. She is English law qualified, a fluent French speaker and a Fellow of CIArb. Lauren is ranked for dispute resolution in both Chambers & Partners and Who’s Who Legal and was recently appointed by NZ to the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR.  

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• Sam Carey is a barrister who has worked in London and New Zealand. He has extensive experience at all court levels, and in international arbitrations before all major institutions. Sam has previously worked with Singapore counsel before the Singapore High Court and in mediations involving New Zealand and Singapore based parties. 

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• Jeremy Johnson is an experienced counsel with strong expertise in international trust and relationship property work, arbitration, and commercial disputes. Jeremy has had involvement in a number of multi-jurisdictional cases in the past few years, including a mediation held by Zoom during the pandemic with parties in both New Zealand and the United States.  Since 2013 Jeremy has been ranked as a leading dispute resolution practitioner in the Chambers Asia-Pacific and Chambers Global Directories.

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• Ben Prewett is a commercial litigator and international arbitration specialist. Ben joined Bankside Chambers after several years with a boutique international arbitration firm in London and Paris, acting in both commercial and treaty cases. He is a Fulbright scholar with an LLM from Stanford University. Ben was recognised in this year's inaugural Legal 500 arbitration power list for Australia and New Zealand. 

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• John Walton is an international arbitrator and construction and infrastructure law specialist. He is a Fellow of CIArb and a Member of the Society of Construction Arbitrators (UK) (by invitation only). John has practised, and is admitted, in London and Hong Kong (where he advised the Government on the Chek Lap Kok airport).

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The Bankside Singapore practice is centrally located at Maxwell Chambers Suites.