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Nandakumar Ponniya

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Nandakumar (Kumar) Ponniya heads the Dispute Resolution Practice of Baker & McKenzie in the Asia Pacific. He is widely acclaimed in international arbitration and cross-border litigation, with extensive experience in the areas of construction, technology, energy and financial services. His practice includes dealing with disputes arising from corporate and commercial matters, and managing multijurisdictional restructuring and insolvency. With over 25 years' experience, Kumar has handled disputes and matters across various industry sectors and jurisdictions, serving clients in Asia and beyond. He is qualified to practice in Singapore, England and Wales and New York; and is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Kumar is listed as a leading international arbitration lawyer in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific, is recognized for his capabilities in Construction and in Arbitration by Chambers Asia Pacific, as well as named a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific for Construction and for International arbitration. Chambers Asia Pacific commended "the 'well respected' Nandakumar Ponniya for having led commercial and investment arbitrations’ and notes that he "stands out for his quickness and perspicacity". He has also been described by clients as having "excellent advocacy skills" (Chambers Asia Pacific), being "intellectually sharp and street smart" (Legal 500) and "extremely technically proficient and commercially savvy" (Chambers Global). He has also been listed in the Guide to the World's Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration. Kumar is also ranked as a Recommended practitioner by Who's Who Legal in its Southeast Asia: Arbitration guide. Kumar also regularly sits as arbitrator and has acted as sole arbitrator and as presiding arbitrator under various arbitral rules and regimes. In litigation, Kumar has appeared as counsel before all divisions of the Singapore Courts, including the Singapore International Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal. In arbitration, he has sat as presiding arbitrator in high value disputes and as counsel, has had conduct of international arbitrations involving all the major arbitral rules with hearings in multiple jurisdictions. Further, Kumar is skilled in a range of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including adjudication and mediation, to help clients resolve complex disputes and avert the need for time-consuming and costly litigation or arbitration. In addition to disputes, Kumar has vast experience in front-end risk advisory work and risk management or mitigation. Aside from practice, Kumar has served as an adjunct assistant professor at various universities such as the National University of Singapore, the Singapore Management University, Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) and ESSEC Business School. Kumar also serves on statutory tribunals such as the Law Society’s Inquiry Panel. Kumar has a broad focus on dispute resolution with a focus on international arbitration, commercial litigation, and corporate restructuring and insolvency. Kumar has an in-depth understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks of the major Asian markets. His wealth of experience is drawn from handling disputes for government, state-owned enterprises, multinational corporations and regional industry leads arising from a variety of commercial transactions and investments, as well as complex engineering and development projects in Singapore, ASEAN and the wider Asia Pacific region. He has had conduct of international arbitrations involving all the major arbitral rules including ICC, SIAC, HKIAC, KLRCA, BANI, UNCITRAL and ICSID; with hearings in multiple jurisdictions such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Hong Kong, London and Mexico City. He also advises on investment arbitration, particularly in relation to matters in Asia. Kumar's litigation experience encompasses disputes in the areas of corporate and commercial law, banking and financial services, construction law and corporate restructuring. He has acted for clients across various industry sectors such as banking and financial services, infrastructure and construction, oil and gas, power, technology and telecommunications. He is well-versed in the mechanics of corporate restructuring and has a keen understanding of insolvency regimes across the region. He has significant experience with several large and complex restructuring deals relating to major projects in Singapore and the region, as well as the distressed debt restructuring of many large corporations in Asia.

In brief 2024 saw a number of significant rulings in Singapore that have provided clarity on issues such as the definition of completion for construction works and the limitation period for latent defects, as well as issues surrounding the application and interpretation of the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2004 (“SOP Act”). As readers may know, the SOP Act is fundamentally a statutory regime to facilitate cash flow in the construction industry.…

In brief When would the directors of a company be bound to consider the interest of the company’s creditors? This was the issue at the heart of the Singapore Court of Appeal’s (SGCA) watershed decision in Foo Kian Beng v OP3 International Pte Ltd (in liquidation) [2024] SGCA 10, which comes hot on the heels of the UK Supreme Court’s pronouncements on the same issue in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA and others [2022] UKSC 25. In a…

In brief On 18 January 2024, the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) issued its decision in Re PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk [2024] SGHC(I) (“Re Garuda Indonesia”), which was the SICC’s first decision on an application under the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (as enacted in Singapore in the Third Schedule of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (2020 Rev Ed) (“Singapore Model Law”)). In a landmark judgment, the SICC granted recognition and enforcement of…

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 brief In the recent decision of Janesh s/o Rajkumar v Unknown Person (“CHEFPIERRE”) [2022] SGHC 264, the Singapore High Court found that NFTs can be regarded as property, and a proprietary injunction may be issued by the Court to prevent the dissipation of NFTs. This decision follows the tenor of the Singapore High Court’s earlier decision this year in CLM v CLN [2022] SGHC 46 (“CLM”), which established that cryptocurrency could be classified as property that could be…

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…

Written records are of primary importance in construction projects. Not only do they obviate disputes as to alleged happenings, but they also help focus the parties’ attention on any potential adjustment of the contract sum. In Vim Engineering Pte Ltd. v. Deluge Fire Protection (SEA) Pte Ltd. [2021] SGHC 63, the General Division of the Singapore High Court (SGHC) held that a contractor is not entitled to claim for variation works that were carried out pursuant to…

In Range Construction Pte Ltd v Goldbell Engineering Pte Ltd [2021] SGCA 34, the Singapore Court of Appeal (SGCA) considered, for the first time, whether an employer has the right to set off its claim for liquidated damages against a contractor’s payment claim in an adjudication under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act (SOPA). The contractor’s payment claim was submitted on 2 December 2019, and the applicable statute was the pre-amendment Building and Construction…

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a profound impact on businesses, companies have started to look at the medium- to long-term implications of this crisis. We have seen how various industries are embracing and accelerating digital transformation as a way to achieve operational efficiencies, meet business demands and in avoiding, mitigating and resolving disputes during this time. We invite you to join us on Friday, 21 May 2021 as we take a closer look at…

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…