Siraj Omar SC, a former managing director of dispute resolution at Singapore Big Four firm Drew & Napier, has left the firm with a team of five lawyers to launch his own practice focused on commercial disputes.
The new firm, known as Siraj Omar, will be led by Omar and fellow founding director Allister Tan, who was previously a director at Drew & Napier.
Omar is a well-regarded commercial litigator in the Singapore market who attracts recognition for his cross-border capabilities, according to his Chambers and Partners profile.
He has more than two decades of active trial and appellate practice in the Singapore Courts and in international arbitrations, with a focus on banking, defamation, fraud, professional negligence, insolvency, insurance and shareholders’ disputes.
Omar’s experience includes acting for a group of more than 200 investors in a representative action in the Singapore High Court against DBS Bank in relation to their failed investment in structured notes issued by the bank – one of very few representative actions launched in the Singapore Court, and the only one arising out of the 2008 financial crisis.
He also acted for Singapore business magnate Oei Hong Leong in a US$40m claim against Goldman Sachs International.
Omar rejoined Drew & Napier as a director in 2019, having begun his career at the firm in 1997. In the interim he was a senior partner at Singapore firm Tan Kok Quan Partnership and co-founded Premier Law, which later entered into a joint venture with UK law firm RPC.
Meantime, Tan brings more than 15 years of experience advising insureds, insurers, reinsurers and brokers across all insurance lines and in insurance-related disputes. He also has an active commercial litigation and arbitration practice, advising corporations and individuals in banking, contractual and fraud as well as employment-related disputes. Tan previously practised at RPC Premier Law and moved over to Drew & Napier at the same time as Omar.
Four more lawyers have joined for the launch from Drew & Napier – director Larisa Cheng, associate director Joelle Tan, senior associate Fitzgerald Hendroff and associate Robbie Tan.
The new firm will focus on providing strategic solutions for complex, high-stakes legal challenges, according to a statement.
“Our aim is to use the skills and experience garnered over almost three decades in practice to work with our clients to resolve their disputes in a manner consistent with their commercial objectives,” Omar commented.
Omar is the latest in a string of senior disputes partners in Singapore to leave local heavyweights to set up their own firms.
Last summer Sreenivasan Narayan SC left the managing partner role at K&L Gates Straits Law to launch his own dispute resolution and advisory firm, Sreenivasan Chambers, while in 2023 litigation duo Danny Ong and Wern-Jhien Yam exited Rajah & Tann to open a shop focused on dispute resolution, financial crime and insolvency.
Email your news and story ideas to: [email protected]
