IEL Elite

Overview

Partners Jenny Tsin and Vivien Yui co-lead the cross-practice employment team at Wong Partnership. Tsin in 2022 was featured in IEL’s Women Leaders survey.

The department regularly acts for important multinationals on their issues within Singapore, and is adept at coordinating multi-jurisdictional issues in the broader South-East Asia region.

The firm’s membership of the Employment Law Alliance further strengthens its ability to take on cross-border mandates, both within South-East Asia and beyond.

Ho Wei Jie is another key contact in the team.

Specialisms

The team’s cross-practice approach allows it to assist with the full life cycle of employment law issues – from those related to companies entering the market, through to industrial relations, immigration issues, employee incentives, and workplace safety – and the firm’s full-service offering enables specialists within the group to bring in other expertise when required.

Clients regularly go to the department for assistance with a wide range of contentious matters, such as insolvencies, allegations of wrongful termination, issues with trade unions, or workplace accidents.

The team has been particularly active of late supporting clients facing claims of stigma damages (harm to the employees’ future employment prospects) from ex-employees. For example, Tsin led the advice to PE fund L Capital Asia and two senior executives on a lawsuit raised by a former employee who claimed stigma damages totalling US $43m. As well as wrongful termination, the former employee claimed that L Capital Asia had reneged on a carried interest arrangement.

Notably, the department is increasingly instructed to assist with issues relating to whistleblower claims, including highly sensitive workplace investigations. Aside from acting for a number of prominent companies on these matters, the team also acts for individuals. For example, Tsin and partner Chang Qi-Yang successfully represented Bhuta Viral Ashok in a wrongful termination case. Viral Ashok had been a whistleblower at UTI International (Singapore), who had formally filed allegations relating to the company’s CEO before his employment was suspended and later terminated.

Another significant area of activity for the department is its advice to leading clients on the employment aspects of critical commercial decisions, such as M&A. This experience was demonstrated in its advice to Shiseido on the divestment of its shampoo and skincare business to CVC Capital Partners, which involved a workforce restructuring.

Clients