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Lau Wen Jin

Director, Dispute Resolution

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Practice Areas

Qualifications

  • LL.B. (summa cum laude), Singapore Management University (2012)
  • LL.M. (International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution), National University of Singapore (2022)
  • LL.M. (International Dispute Settlement), Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement (University of Geneva & The Graduate Institute Geneva) (2022)
  • Advocate & Solicitor, Singapore, 2015
  • Solicitor (non-practising), England & Wales, 2026
  • SMC Accredited Mediator, Singapore Mediation Centre, 2019
  • Wealth Management Institute (WMI), 2022, Advanced Certificate in Trust Services
Overview

Wen Jin maintains a broad disputes practice which straddles over several practice areas, including International Commercial Arbitration, General Commercial Litigation, Construction, Trust & Private Wealth, Crypto, and White Collar Crime. Recently, Wen Jin has been named one of Singapore's 20 most influential lawyers aged 40 and under by Singapore Business Review in 2024, and identified in Benchmark Litigation 2026 and 2025 as a Future Star for disputes relating to commercial and transactions.

Wen Jin strives to be a skilful and tenacious advocate, and has appeared as lead counsel at all levels of the Singapore courts. The Singapore Court of Appeal has commended Wen Jin for his "valiant" and "steadfast" legal representation at the trial and the appeals (Public Prosecutor v GCK [2020] 1 SLR 486), and for his “diligent and painstaking effort” in seeking to persuade the Court (CA/CCA 27/2020, appeal from Public Prosecutor v BSV [2020] SGHC 115). Wen Jin also succeeded in an appeal as lead counsel in a case before the Court of Appeal relating to trusteeship (Chan Yun Cheong v Chan Chi Cheong [2021] 2 SLR 67). 

Wen Jin graduated from the Singapore Manangement of University with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) with highest distinction (summa cum laude) in 2012. In 2022, Wen Jin completed the Master of Laws programme in International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution (LL.M. (IADR)) at the National University of Singapore (where he attended on a Kwa Geok Choo Graduate Scholarship), and the Master of Advanced Studies (LL.M.) in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS) at the Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement. 

Before entering private practice in 2015, Wen Jin served as a Justices’ Law Clerk to the Chief Justice and the Judges of the Supreme Court of Singapore from 2012 to 2015.

  • Freezing Order / Mareva Injunction against fraudster: Successfully acted as lead counsel in an urgent application in the High Court for a Mareva Injunction against a fraudster with bank accounts in Singapore. Proceeded to successfully obtain judgment against the fraudster and executed enforcement orders against the fraudster's bank accounts in Singapore (Daniel Boon v Terry Birles (HC/OC 288/2023)).
  • Trust / Estate Administration: Successfully acted as lead counsel in resisting a co-trustee’s application to compel the client (who is a co-trustee of the trust) to consent to the co-trustee’s discharge from the trust under the Trustees Act 1967 (Chan Yun Cheong v Chan Chi Cheong [2021] 2 SLR 67; [2021] SGCA 33; Chan Chi Cheong v Chan Yun Cheong [2020] SGHC 43). The Court of Appeal agreed with our submission that there is no legal basis to compel our client to provide his consent under s 40 Trustees Act.
  • Cryptocurrency Disputes: Assisted clients who are victims of hacks where millions of dollars of tokens were stolen by unknown hackers with the tokens dissipated across numerous wallets held in various centralised exchanges. Achieved substantial recovery by working with law enforcement authorities as well as securing commercial remedies in the form of freezing injunctions to halt the dissipation of tokens, disclosure orders to track down the hackers, as well as judgments for the delivery-up of the stolen tokens. Coordinated with multiple centralised exchanges and law offices across multiple countries for the comprehensive and effective recovery (HC/OC 643/2024; HC/OC 33/2025). Advising clients on disputes relating to Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFTs) regarding token allocation and postponement.
  • Construction Dispute: Successfully defended the client, a management contractor, in a dispute in respect of the building of a multi-user business park development at Biopolis in Singapore. The case resulted in a 17-day trial in the High Court and in an appeal in the Court of Appeal (Crescendas Bionics Pte Ltd v Jurong Primewide Pte Ltd [2019] SGHC 4; Jurong Primewide Pte Ltd v Crescendas Bionics Pte Ltd [2019] SGCA 63). The Court agreed with our client that the price for the preliminaries was agreed to by the parties rather than a tentative sum contended by the plaintiff, that there was no agreement by our client to waive its entitlement to certain shared savings, and that the plaintiff/employer had committed acts of prevention which delayed the completion of the project. In the second tranche regarding assessment of damages, the claimant’s claim of S$35m for loss of net rental revenue was successfully withered down to S$4.1m after a 15-day trial involving property experts and an accounting expert (Crescendas Bionics Pte Ltd v Jurong Primewide Pte Ltd [2023] SGHC(A) 9).
  • Setting Aside of Arbitration Award: Acted as counsel in an application to challenge an arbitral award seated in Singapore on the basis that the tribunal breached the fair hearing rule as part of a breach in natural justice due to failure to consider an issue and for deciding an issue based on a chain of reasoning that has no sufficient nexus to the parties’ cases (Essar Exploration and Production India Limited v Nayara Energy Limited (HC/OA 586/2026)).  
  • Benchmark Litigation: Recognised as a Future Star for disputes relating to commercial and transactions, 2026
  • Benchmark Litigation: Recognised as a Future Star for disputes relating to commercial and transactions, 2025
  • Singapore Business Review: Recognised as one of Singapore’s 20 most influential lawyers under 40, 2024
  • Member, Singapore Academy of Law
  • Member, Law Society of Singapore
  • Member, Criminal Legal Aid Steering Committee, Ministry of Law
  • Member, Criminal Legal Aid Scheme Committee, Pro Bono SG
  • Adjunct faculty, Singapore Management University, Academic Year 2014/2015, 2016/2017