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Celeste Ang

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Celeste is a Principal in the Dispute Resolution and Employment Practice Group of Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow. Her practice encompasses corporate and commercial dispute resolution, compliance and investigations. She has significant experience acting for global clients in cross-border disputes and advising clients on compliance and regulatory issues in the context of cross-border investigations. Celeste also has a particular focus in employment, particularly contentious employment work and employee investigations, and currently heads Baker McKenzie's Asia Pacific Employment & Compensation Practice. Celeste has been recognised as a 'Litigation Star' in the Labor and Employment space by Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific, 2021 and has been ranked Band 1 in Employment in Singapore by Chambers Asia-Pacific since 2019 to date. She is recognised as "highly regarded in Singapore for her employment law advice, handling unfair dismissal claims and retrenchments"; a "source praises her 'very responsive and practical advice'" and that "Celeste is a brilliant lawyer and is able to provide effective advice to clients in a timely manner." Celeste is also ranked as a Leading Individual in Labour and employment in Singapore by Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2022 and noted as "a litigator with a strong record in employment disputes" and in the foreign firms section as "a dispute resolution specialist with an extensive record in contentious employment matters". With over 20 years of experience, Celeste has represented a broad range of multinational clients across various industries in domestic and international arbitrations administered under major institutional arbitral rules, and in court proceedings, before the High Court, Appellate Division of the High Court and the Court of Appeal in Singapore. She has also advised clients from various industries, such as financial/financial services, healthcare & life sciences, energy, oil and gas and technology, on compliance and regulatory issues, and assisted clients in internal and external investigations (including cross-border investigations) on anti-bribery/anti-corruption, anti-trust, tax, customs/export control and fraud issues and incidents. Celeste advises clients on a wide range of employment and employment-related issues, with a focus on contentious or potentially contentious issues, including termination of employment, dismissal, retrenchment, breach of fiduciary duties, enforcement of restrictive covenants and confidentiality obligations and protection of trade secret, and employee investigations. She has successfully represented employers on employment and employment-related disputes in the Singapore courts as well as in arbitrations and mediations.

In brief In Maxx Engineering v PQ Builders Pte Ltd [2023] SGHC 71, the General Division of the High Court of Singapore (“High Court”) dealt with the novel issue of whether a party could be compelled by a court order to refer a dispute to mediation pursuant to its contract with a counterparty, even if it did not want to mediate. The High Court held that it was just and equitable to order specific performance such that…

In two separate decisions, the High Court provides a new sentencing framework that imposes heftier punishments for failing to ensure the safety of employees at work and provides clarification as to whether settlement payments may be taken into consideration when determining the amount of compensation payable by an employer for workplace injury. In brief The General Division of the High Court (SGHC) in two recent decisions in Public Prosecutor v Manta Equipment (S) Pte Ltd [2022] SGHC…

In brief Best efforts clauses are a common feature in an array of commercial contracts, spanning across different industries and jurisdictions. These clauses typically require one or both party/parties to engage its/their best efforts to bring a certain stipulated outcome to fruition. Often, such clauses are regarded as preferable to clauses that guarantee a certain outcome, since it is not uncommon in commercial contracts for a desired outcome to be dependent on acts to be…

Our Singapore office has released its Dispute Resolution annual video series, where our speakers recap the highlights and developments in 2020. Please see full topic list and as well as the speakers for each and the link to all episodes: Episode 1: Restructuring and Insolvency by Emmanuel Chua. Access video here. Episode 2: Compliance by Celeste Ang. Access video here. Episode 3: Commercial Litigation by Kumar Ponniya: Access video here. Episode 4: Construction by Daniel…