Future of Disputes Asia Pacific: Gearing Up for What's Ahead

The resulting economic disruption of COVID-19 has driven an increase in the number and types of disputes globally and in Asia Pacific, and we are seeing familiar risks abound as the pandemic retains a significant influence in the disputes landscape even as economies start to rebound, and borders begin to open.

Our Future of Disputes Asia Pacific virtual programme gathered members of our regional Dispute Resolution practice, along with our guest speaker from Ndevr, to take a closer look at the future of disputes in the region. During the 90-minute session, our speakers shared valuable insights on managing multijurisdictional disputes and litigation preparation strategy to help future-proof organizations.

In this session, take a closer look at key findings from our research conducted on 600 senior lawyers at large companies across the globe where we asked about disputes risks and trends. Our speakers also tackled the increasing focus on ESG and supply chain disputes, and what can companies do to prepare for cross-border litigation post-COVID.

We also featured the Litigation Intelligence Tool, designed to assess a company’s litigation preparedness over more than a dozen factors, and benchmark it against peers. This reveals the areas where companies tend to do well in preparing for litigation and the areas where they tend to underperform.

Speakers:

Nandakumar Ponniya, Asia Pacific Chair of Dispute Resolution Practice Group – Singapore
Yoshiaki Muto, Partner – Tokyo
Cynthia Tang, Partner – Hong Kong

There is a considerable acceleration in the speed of advancement in the digital assets space in the past year. As more companies come across digital assets, related cases lawyers handle also increase particularly on litigation and regulatory work.

The session focused on presenting the most relevant recent cases and classification of crypto currency across key jurisdictions in Asia Pacific. The speakers also touched on the practical implications from an insolvency standpoint.

Speakers:

Emmanuel Chua, Local Principal – Singapore
Eddie Chuah, Partner – Kuala Lumpur
Ashish Chugh, Local Principal – Singapore

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disputes are widely discussed and are recognized as one of those that present the greatest risk. The speakers in this session shared their insights on how we can bring litigation and compliance under ESG principles.

Our guest speaker, Brian Kraft, from Ndevr focused on the broader disclosure trend in Asia Pacific and how the region is ramping up fast in terms of ESG-based disclosures. He also shared how organization can develop an internal strategy and orchestrated steps toward improving the ESG risks in planning out actions and activities.

Guest Speaker:

Brian Kraft, Principal Consultant on ESG & Human Rights, Ndevr

Speakers:

Richard Allen, Local Principal – Singapore
Mini vandePol, Asia Pacific Chair of Investigations, Compliance & Ethics Practice Group – Hong Kong
Christine Cuthbert, Special Counsel – Hong Kong

The session provided an overview on important supply chain risks and matters, particularly the effect of regulatory changes on supply chain operation; compliance issues and digitalization; and, overcoming downstream effects of delays. The speakers also highlighted the significance of participation across functions when managing supply chain risks, customizing contracts and addressing the new normal in dealing with the disruptions and expectations from stakeholders.

Speakers: