Johnson is a Director in the Dispute Resolution Department and Private Client Dispute Practice. He specialises in family litigation, contentious and non-contentious probate proceedings involving large estates, mental capacity proceedings, and personal disputes.
He maintains an active civil and commercial dispute practice, representing personal and corporate clients in cases involving complicated legal and factual issues.
Johnson has been involved in many notable matters. Here are just a few:
- Lim Leong Huat v. Chip Hup Hup Kee Construction Pte Ltd and Anor [2011] 1SLR 657 - Johnson successfully represented an employee in a high stakes legal action. The High Court described the case as a “bitter dispute” between our client and the ultimate owner of his ex-employer, which had led to many separate legal proceedings and a criminal prosecution. The action involved claims totalling more than S$ 60 million and complex issues involving fraud, misappropriation, conspiracy, and illegality. The High Court granted our client’s claim and dismissed the bulk of the counterclaim following a grueling 6 week trial that involved testimony from numerous witnesses and voluminous documentary evidence. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court.
- AYZ v AZB [2012] SGHC 108 - In a custody tussle over a nine-year old girl, Johnson secured the Court’s permission for an American woman married to a wealthy businessman, the son of an influential Malaysian tycoon, to leave Singapore and relocate to America with the parties’ daughter. This case is significant in that, unlike the majority of relocation cases, the Court granted the wife permission to relocate, even though the final rights pertaining to custody and other child-related issues, as well as the financial issues ancillary to the divorce proceedings, had not been decided.
- Pang Rosaline v. Chan Kong Chin [2009] 4 SLR(R) 935 - Johnson represented the wife in the Court of Appeal. The team successfully overturned a finding in the High Court that the wife did not make any direct financial contributions to the acquisition of one of the parties’ properties. As a result of the appeal, the wife’s original entitlement to the property was doubled.
- ANJ v ANK [2015] 4 SLR 1043 – Johnson successfully represented the husband in this important Court of Appeal decision. In this case, the Court of Appeal disapproved the “uplift” methodology and laid out a new methodology to be applied when exercising the Court’s discretion in dividing matrimonial assets. This case is frequently cited by practitioners as the leading authority for the “structured approach” in the division of matrimonial assets in ancillary matters disputes.
- BPC v BPB [2019] 1 SLR 608 – Johnson acted for the wife in a nine-year long litigation, eventually successfully securing assets worth over S$11.6 million for the wife, despite the husband’s failure to give full and frank disclosure. In the appeal, the Court of Appeal held that the operative date for the determination of the pool and value of matrimonial assets are respectively the interim judgment and the date of the ancillary matters hearing, and that these principles apply equally to all matrimonial assets, regardless of its manner of holding.
- WEI v WEJ [2022] SGFC 51 – Johnson acted for the father of two young boys in bitter dispute against his ex-wife over care and control of his sons. The boys had been subjected to years of negative influence and parental alienation by their mother against their father, resulting in a complete breakdown of the father-child relationship. Two intense years of litigation involving expert evidence from a psychiatrist and reports from welfare officers, culminated in Johnson successfully obtaining an order for care and control of the boys in favour of the father. In a subsequent decision WEI v WEJ [2022] SGFC 73, Johnson secured a rare and substantial costs order against the mother who was legally aided, by showing that she had acted improperly in the proceedings from her repeated breaches of interim orders to discontinue her alienating behaviour
Asian Legal Business SE Asia Law Awards
Matrimonial and Family Law Firm of the Year 2021, 2022 and 2023
Johnson is part of the team that won the Matrimonial and Family Law Firm of the Year Award for handling some of the most complex, cross-border and intricate matrimonial and family law matters.
The Straits Times – Singapore’s Best Law Firms 2024
Johnson is part of the team rated full marks (5 stars) for Family Law for 3 years in the Singapore’s Best Law Firms 2024 survey by Singapore’s largest circulating broadsheet, The Straits Times, and international research company, Statista.