Julian Tay

Julian Tay is a Senior Partner and Co-Head of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution department at Lee & Lee in Singapore. His practice focuses on Commercial Litigation.

Julian was admitted into partnership in 2004, promoted to Senior Partner in 2010, and appointed Co-Head of the firm's Litigation and Dispute Resolution department with effect from January 2022.

Over the years in practice, Julian has acted as counsel in several notable cases at both trial and appellate levels. His versatility in practice is reflected through the broad range of cases he handles, such as matters involving civil and commercial disputes, professional liability with a keen interest in medical litigation, criminal defence roles, family trust wills and estate, bankruptcy and insolvency, defamation, real estate disputes, accident and personal injury claims, and building and construction disputes.

Beyond the realm of legal practice, Julian is also an active advocate of continuing professional development and has made contributions to academia. He is a Civilian Panel Member of the Military Court of Appeal.

His case highlights include representing several directors of a public listed company in a high-profile case involving board-related disputes; representing a family trust vehicle in successfully defending against a $70 million suit in the High Court over alleged loans (Shen Sophie v Xia Wei Ping and others [2022] SGHC 206); representing an individual in a successful claim in the High Court and on appeal to recover more than S$7 million in damages for breach of contract concerning shares in a Catalist-listed company (Fu Hao v Evancarl Ltd and another [2021] SGHC 137); representing the Keppel Club in a High Court claim against a fraudulent former employee who conspired with others to defraud club members in excess of S$37 million; and representing a prominent high net worth individual before the High Court in his claim against an international bank for foreign exchange and bond trading losses of about S$1 billion.

In medical litigation, as a panel lawyer for the Medical Protection Society as well as the MOH Holdings Medical Malpractice Indemnity programme, Julian regularly acts for medical practitioners from both public hospitals and private practice in professional liability claims, Singapore Medical Council complaints, Disciplinary Tribunal hearings and Coroner's Inquiries.

In criminal litigation, his cases include representing one of the ten individuals arrested following an island-wide operation in Singapore involving a S$3 billion money laundering case and achieving a positive result through plea bargain; representing an individual in a landmark case involving a criminal reference to the Court of Appeal on questions of law of public interest, the first case under the Criminal Case Disclosure regime which established that the court has the power to order the Prosecution to furnish additional particulars (Public Prosecutor v Li Weiming and others [2014] SGCA 7); and representing an individual in a robbery-turned-murder case before the High Court and Court of Appeal, involving a landmark Court of Appeal decision on the requirements for the offence of murder under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code (Public Prosecutor v Lim Poh Lye and Another [2005] SGCA 31).

In real estate litigation, he represented the majority owners in the successful collective sales of various developments, such as Peace Centre, Peace Mansion, Tulip Garden, Hollandia, Pearl Bank, Kemaman Point and Villa D'este, and represented a property developer before the Court of Appeal in a multi-million dollar claim involving the interpretation of a rent review clause (Lucky Realty Co Pte Ltd v HSBC Trustee (Singapore) Ltd [2015] SGCA 68).

He holds an LLB (Hons) from the National University of Singapore (1997) and is a member of the Law Society of Singapore and the Singapore Academy of Law. He was a Dean's Lister at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, and a recipient of the Kwa Geok Choo Scholarship. He has been a Civilian Panel Member of the Military Court of Appeal since 1 July 2024 and has mentored law students in the Part B Examinations conducted by the Singapore Institute of Legal Education from 2010 to 2022.