Luke Lee

Luke has a broad-gauged legal practice with a focus on international commercial arbitration and complex cross-border disputes. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) with Distinction from King’s College London, specialising in International Dispute Resolution, where he was top in cohort for Enterprise Law and earned First Class marks in International Commercial Arbitration (Dissertation), International Dispute Resolution, FinTech law, and Transnational Human Rights Litigation.

Luke is a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb), an Accredited Mediator with the Singapore International Mediation Institute, a member of the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration and empanelled as an International Mediator on the Sage Mediation International Mediators Panel. He is Assistant Editor of the Singapore Arbitration Journal, a co-publication by the SIArb and the Singapore Academy of Law. He also sits on the Public and International Law Committee of the Law Society and the Arbitration Bar Committee of the SIArb. He was invited to assist the Ministry of Law in its assessment of the Ministry-commissioned report by the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy (SIDRA) entitled Review of the Singapore Arbitration Act (2024), contributing views on the governing law of arbitration agreements as part of SIArb’s response to the public consultation on proposed reforms to the International Arbitration Act.

Luke has extensive experience in construction, engineering, and infrastructure disputes, including those involving construction of residential, commercial and industrial properties and developments in Singapore. He has acted as lead counsel in numerous adjudications under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act as well as construction-related litigation.

He has represented and advised property developers, management councils and corporations, and managing agents in matters under the Land Titles Act, Land Titles (Strata) Act, and Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act, including proceedings before the Court and the Strata Titles Boards involving strata governance, by-law enforcement, and management disputes.

His research focuses on the intersection of law and technology, with particular emphasis on digital assets and the regulation of artificial intelligence. His papers have been cited in over forty-five academic publications worldwide including journals Frontiers in Blockchain (Von Hafe et al., 2025), Pravo – Theory and Practice (Stojšić-Dabetić & Mirković, 2024), Highlights in Business, Economics and Management (Ng, 2025), and Revista Contemporânea (Teixeira & Mazzitelli, 2025). He speaks regularly at local and international conferences on arbitration, technology, and international law.

• international arbitration
• complex civil and commercial disputes
• cross-border investments and special projects
• matrimonial disputes
• insurance and personal injury matters
• medical negligence
• defamation actions
• investment advisory, venture capital and equity funds
• breach of director’s duties
• criminal litigation
• insolvency/bankruptcy
• wills and probate
• Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST)
• landlord – tenant claims
• restructuring and insolvency
• capital markets, securities and funds
• intellectual property and trademark infringement

Research Interests:

• International Commercial Arbitration
• Law & Artificial Intelligence
• Law & Regulation of Financial Technologies (FinTech)
• AI Governance

Professional Experience:

• • Represented a South-East Asian group of luxury real estate development companies in a Singapore-seated SIAC arbitration governed by English law, arising out of default under cross-border syndicated loan facilities. The dispute involved claims and counterclaims exceeding US$1 billion, including issues of alleged discharge of obligations, enforcement of guarantees, and the validity of default interest and security enforcement across multiple jurisdictions.

• • Represented an ultra-high net-worth individual as plaintiff in the Supreme Court in civil proceedings commenced in 2016 in relation to breach of trust. More than S$800 million in dispute. Matter was successfully settled after exchange of AEICs and before trial.

• • Represented an Indianapolis-incorporated international engineering consulting services company in a VIAC arbitration in Hanoi, Vietnam in relation to pharmaceutical quality assurance in compliance with European Medicines Agency’s Good Manufacturing Practices certification. Vietnamese law governed. More than US$1.5 million in dispute.

• • Represented a UAE-based company as plaintiff in the Singapore International Commercial Court against a China state-level entity in relation to solar power plants in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. More than US$10 million in dispute.

• • Acted for an ultra-high net-worth individual in proceedings before the Singapore High Court concerning the forced liquidation of silver futures positions under a margin trading account with a gross notional value of approximately US$8 million. The plaintiff claimed losses exceeding US$500,000, alleging misrepresentation, undue influence, duress, and breach of duty in the context of margin call enforcement and account management.

• • Represented a Cayman Island based group of companies in an SIAC arbitration in Singapore in relation to breach of fiduciary duties, fraudulent misappropriation and mismanagement of funds. Malaysian law governed. Approximately US$10 million in dispute.

• • Acted as lead counsel for the respondent subcontractor in BGW Pte Ltd v BGX Pte Ltd [2023] SGSOP 5, a reported Security of Payment Act adjudication, where, despite the absence of a payment response, the adjudicator accepted the respondent’s submissions on patent error and valuation, excluded unsupported variation claims and GST, and revised quantities and rates downwards, resulting in an approximately 30% reduction of the claimant’s recovery.

• • Succeeded in an application for interim injunctive relief and successfully defended against a parallel application for interim injunctive relief in an SIAC arbitration in Singapore.

• • Acted as lead counsel for the defendant in Ho Chee Kian v Ho Kwek Sin [2023] SGHC 192, one of the first High Court decisions interpreting the summary judgment framework under the new Rules of Court 2021. The decision is notable for the High Court’s refusal to grant the claimant specific performance of a mediated settlement agreement and its holding that relief should be limited to damages to be assessed instead.

• • Successfully obtained summary judgment as lead counsel for the claimant in the High Court against multiple defendants in a construction dispute involving issues of the scope and enforceability of guarantees, validity of consideration, and successfully resisted the defendants’ application to stay enforcement of the summary judgment pending trial of their counterclaims. Judgment and costs of nearly S$1 million was secured for the claimant.

• • Successfully obtained an urgent interim injunction in the High Court restraining a director from convening or acting on extraordinary general meetings called to amend the constitutions of a group of companies and remove our client, a minority shareholder-director, from their respective boards.

• • Provided strategic advice to an international provider of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems on cross-border contractual liability and risk exposure arising from an operational disruption at a regional data-centre facility that caused temporary network connectivity loss to hosted cloud infrastructure, including analysis of potential commercial loss exposure across multiple stakeholders.

• • Coordinated with Dutch and Indonesian counsel on ongoing concurrent proceedings in the Amsterdam Court of Appeal in the Netherlands and the Commercial Court of the Central Jakarta District Court in Indonesia.

• • Collaborated with King’s Counsel (instructed) for the purposes of his preparation of an expert English law opinion on novel points in relation to the law of contract.

• • Represented a major construction firm in mitigation plea hearings in respect of charges under the Environmental Protection and Management Act 1999 and procured a significantly reduced sentence.

• • Represented a major international hotel chain against a luxury co-working space and successfully negotiated a settlement.

• • Represented a CEO of a listed company against the listed company in relation to alleged breaches of his fiduciary duties as CEO.

• • Represented a subsidiary proprietor before the Strata Titles Boards in a claim against a management corporation in respect of exercising powers ultra vires of those legislated under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act 2004.

Selected Speaking Engagements

• • Panel Speaker, 6^th Global Legal Association (GLA) Arbitration & Litigation Conference 2025, Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC), Kuala Lumpur – Presented “Evolving Practice in International Arbitration: Technology, Strategy and the Human Element”, examining how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are transforming the practice of arbitration.

• • Speaker, Private Client Seminar (May 2025) – Presented “Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2004: What You Need To Know”, addressing practical adjudication issues in construction disputes.

• • Guest Speaker, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) HSAC Session (February 2025), by invitation of the Singapore Introductory Mooting Programme – Spoke on introduction to Singapore law, legal career pathways, and advocacy’s societal impact.

• • Speaker, Singapore Management University (SMU) Law Firm Dialogue Session (October 2024). Presented on arbitration and dispute resolution as part of a dialogue with law students.

• • Speaker & Moderator, National University of Singapore (NUS) Law Talk (Virtual) (July 2025), “From Classroom to Courtroom”. Presented on international dispute resolution and career pathways in cross-border legal practice, and moderated the discussion segment.

• • Lead Speaker, National University of Singapore (NUS) Law Talk (July 2025), “Litigation and Arbitration in Practice: Navigating Domestic and Cross-Border Disputes.” Delivered the full presentation on arbitration, cross-border disputes, and career pathways for practitioners in international practice.

• • Host & Moderator, Public Law Conference 2025, The Law Society of Singapore (October 2025) Hosted the Public Law Conference “Discretion in Public Law: The Prerogative Powers of Government and the Attorney-General” and chaired a panel on “Discretion: Unpacking the Attorney-General’s Prerogative Powers” consisting of Deputy Chief Prosecutor Wong Woon Kwong, S.C., Christopher Anand Daniel and Eugene Thuraisingam.

Authorship:

• • Contributor, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators’ Comments on the UNCITRAL Secretariat’s Stocktaking Project on Developments in Dispute Resolution in the Digital Economy (DRDE Project) (September 29, 2025): Authored analysis on the regulation of AI applications in arbitration (transparency, disclosure, human oversight, liability, evidentiary treatment, and security), governance and standards for platform-based dispute resolution, and safeguards for remote proceedings (technical, cybersecurity, evidentiary, and procedural integrity), to support MinLaw in formulating Singapore’s engagement with the UNCITRAL Secretariat.

• • Contributor, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators’ Response to the Ministry of Law’s Public Consultation on the International Arbitration Act 1994 (21 May 2025), pp. 24–26. Authored analysis on the governing law of arbitration agreements in response to the Ministry-commissioned SIDRA Report (Review of the Singapore Arbitration Act (2024)).

• • Dissertation for King’s College London LL.M. (International Dispute Resolution) entitled “Privatizing Justice: As ‘the only game in town’, has the international arbitration ecosystem evolved into an overly commercial endeavour?” (September 2024).

• • Luke Lee, ‘Examining the Legal Status of Digital Assets as Property: A Comparative Analysis of Jurisdictional Approaches’ (April 25, 2024). Available at SSRN

• • Luke Lee, ‘Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Regulatory Challenges: A Critical Analysis of Digital Banks and Alternative Lenders Through Digital Platforms, Machine Learning, and Large Language Models Integration’ (April 18, 2024). ​Available at SSRN
• • Luke Lee, ‘The Moral Hazard in BigTech: Navigating Enterprise Law in the Age of Digital Oligopolies’ (August 12, 2024). Available at SSRN

• • Luke Lee, ‘Breaking the Anchor: Strategic Responses to First Offer Bias in Distributive Negotiation Scenarios’ (April 24, 2024). Available at SSRN

• • COVID-19: The COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act: What it means for Landlords and Tenants, Lexology, 4 August 2020