Singapore firm WongPartnership has named Sean Yu as managing partner, succeeding Wai King Ng, who is taking on a new position as senior partner in addition to retaining his chairman role.

Yu previously served as deputy managing partner and head of disputes. He is a commercial litigator specialising in banking and trade finance disputes, financial services regulation and commercial disputes – including arbitration, an area of significant regional importance for which Singapore is renowned.

Yu also frequently sits as an arbitrator empanelled by various international arbitration centres, including the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB), among others.

He is a member of the Court of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a member of the Specialist Mediator Panel of the Singapore International Mediation Centre.

Yu said: “I am grateful for the trust placed in me by Wai King and my fellow partners in being given this opportunity to lead the firm. This is a proud personal milestone for me, having started in the firm as an associate in 1997 and learning the ropes from luminaries such as Wong Meng Meng SC, the late Alvin Yeo SC and Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara.”

Praising Ng’s leadership, Yu said he hoped to build on the momentum for growth Ng had fostered, adding that as senior partner, Ng’s “experience will be a key pillar of our leadership”.

Ng passes on the leadership baton after 12 years, during which time he guided the firm through regional expansion, technological change, the pandemic and uncertain global political and economic conditions alongside the late Alvin Yeo SC, who was previously senior partner and chairman.

The senior partner role had fallen vacant following Yeo’s passing from cancer at the age of 60 in 2022. Ng later extended his term as managing partner past the firm’s official retirement age of 55 in 2023 and assumed the chairmanship alongside his executive role.

Under their leadership, WongPartnership achieved international recognition, with associated offices including Al Aidarous Advocates in the Middle East, Malaysia’s Foong & Partners, Makes & Partners in Indonesia and ZGLaw in the Philippines, as well as in China. It welcomed nine new partners to its partnership ranks in January this year.

Ng said: “I have every confidence in Sean Yu’s leadership and vision”, noting his leadership experience in disputes as well as the firm’s executive, adding that thanks to Yu, the firm’s disputes group had “grown in leaps and bounds”.

He continued: “[Yu’s] ability to forge relations and strategic nous will be invaluable as we look towards future opportunities and challenges, both in Singapore and across Asia."

Ng, a corporate lawyer specialising in M&A and private equity, has served as managing partner of the firm since 2013, initially as a joint managing partner before assuming the role of sole managing partner in 2016, winning a host of industry awards for innovation, employment, training and more.

Ng also guided WongPartnership to become an early adopter of legal technology, later forming a partnership with legal AI platform Harvey, making it the first Singapore law firm to do so. Subsequently, Ng brokered a deal with Thomson Reuters for a pilot of CoCounsel, a generative AI assistant designed for legal professionals.