Telok Ayer Street · Est. 2019

Commercial advisory and disputes, for companies a big firm won't make time for.

Two partners, one associate, one paralegal, one office manager. Senior counsel take matters directly. We quote where we can. Hourly is a last resort, disclosed in advance.

Book a 30-minute intake call → Our fee principles

On the practice

Most shareholder disputes are avoidable. Most of the ones that reach us shouldn't be in court. Call us before you sign — not after you've signed and things have gone wrong.

N. Tan & D. Pillai

The office

Third floor of a shophouse on Telok Ayer. Five people, one meeting room, a kettle that works. The phone rings; Linda picks it up.

54 Telok Ayer Street, Level 3 · Singapore 068574

I — Practice

What we do, and on what basis.

SME commercial advisory and the disputes that come when advisory wasn't taken. We don't take every matter. If we can't help you win cheaply, we'll tell you — and where it helps, refer you to a firm that can.

Practice area	Typical matters	Fee basis
Shareholder & founder disputes	Deadlock, oppression claims, buyout structures, exits, non-compete enforcement. Advisory first; litigation only when negotiation has closed.	CappedHourlyCapped project fee for early-stage advice. Hourly (disclosed) once escalated.
Family-business succession	Shareholder agreements across generations, estate coordination with tax counsel, governance setup for second- and third-generation transitions.	FixedHourlyFixed fee for document packages. Hourly for the family conversations.
SME commercial contracts	Supply, distribution, IP licensing, employment agreements for founders and key hires. Drafting and review.	FixedFixed fee per document. Quote provided before we start.
Incorporation & housekeeping	Pte Ltd incorporation, constitution drafting, AGM minutes, director resolutions, ACRA filings.	FixedFixed fee. Serene handles the filings.
Small M&A (under S$10m)	Share sale, asset sale, joint-venture formation. Deals that don't warrant a Magic Circle team.	FixedPhasedFixed fee for clear-scope deals. Phased billing when scope is complex.
Commercial disputes	Mediation, arbitration, litigation up to High Court. We settle where settlement is the win.	HourlyHourly, disclosed weekly. Budgets revised in writing at each phase.

II — People

The partners take the matter. That's the model.

No pyramid. No handoffs to a junior you didn't meet. The associate does first drafts and research; the partners do the work you're paying for.

Portrait — shophouse window, 3F

Nicholas Tan

Partner · Disputes

Called: Singapore Bar, 1998
Prior firms: Drew & Napier (12 yrs, senior associate, commercial disputes)
Focus: Shareholder & founder disputes; commercial litigation; mediation
Languages: English, Mandarin, Hokkien
Service: Chair, Law Society SME Committee (2023–)

Twelve years at Drew & Napier taught Nicholas which disputes need a Senior Counsel and which need someone who will tell both sides to go away and rewrite their shareholders' agreement. He left in 2019 because the matters he cared about most — founder disputes in smaller companies — were the ones he had the least time for at a big firm. Three kids, bad at golf.

Koh v. Lim Holdings Pte Ltd [2017] SGHC What this established: the scope of minority-oppression relief under s.216 where a shareholders' agreement is silent on exit mechanics.

Portrait — shophouse window, 3F

Divya Pillai

Partner · Advisory & succession

Called: England & Wales (Lincoln's Inn), 2002 · Singapore Bar, 2003
Prior firms: Allen & Gledhill (7 yrs) · In-house, family holding co. (3 yrs)
Focus: Shareholder disputes, family-business succession, governance
Languages: English, Tamil · Mandarin (working), Bahasa (social)
Training: Trained at the London Bar; returned to Singapore, 2008

Three years in-house at a family holding company taught Divya more about succession than any course she could have taken. She runs the advisory side of the practice — the long conversations that precede the documents, and the documents that make the conversations unnecessary the next time. She is the reason clients say, afterwards, that they wish they'd called sooner.

Re Anand Family Trust [2020] SGHC What this established: the enforceability of a pre-2010 discretionary-trust protector clause against a corporate trustee in a succession dispute.

The rest of us

Five people total. No business development team. No receptionist with a headset.

Priya Kumar

Associate · Called 2022

First drafts, research, and most incorporations. Previously at WongPartnership's corporate M&A team.

Serene Ang

Paralegal · 10 yrs

Knows the IPOS and ACRA filing systems better than either partner. Doesn't miss a deadline.

Linda Chua

Office manager

Answers the phone until four. Makes the kopi. Has, on three separate occasions, declined to make coffee from a pod machine.

III — Work

Recent matters, anonymised.

Six matters from the last two years, chosen because the outcome illustrates how we work — not because they were the largest. Clients and counterparties anonymised; no deal values cited without written permission.

Two-sibling shareholder dispute Logistics · Closed in 6 wks

Acted for a family-owned logistics company in a two-sibling shareholder dispute. Negotiated a buyout structure that kept the company operating through peak season. Avoided the s.216 petition the other side had drafted.

What this established The younger sibling's non-compete under the 2011 shareholders' agreement was unenforceable — but the buyout made the point moot.

Third-generation succession Trading co. · 11 mos

Advised a third-generation trading business through a transition from founder to two cousins. Rewrote the 1998 constitution, introduced a tag-along/drag-along, coordinated with tax counsel on the estate piece. No litigation followed, which was the point.

What this established A working governance framework for when the next generation disagrees — one that made the partners redundant by design.

Founder exit, Series A-stage SaaS Tech · 9 wks

Acted for the departing technical co-founder of a Series A SaaS company. Negotiated vesting acceleration on a reasonable basis, released mutual claims, kept the exit out of the cap-table update the company was about to circulate to investors.

What this established Vesting accelerators drafted before Series A are easier to interpret than the ones you'd prefer at the time of departure.

Small M&A — asset sale F&B · Fixed fee

Acted for a buyer acquiring the assets of a well-known single-location F&B business. Structured as an asset sale to cleanly exclude historical tax exposure. Closed on fixed fee despite two late-stage landlord-consent issues.

What this established Fixed-fee scoping holds up when the scope is honest — including the bits that look like they might go wrong.

Distributor termination, cross-border Industrial · Mediation

Acted for a Singapore principal terminating an Indonesian distributor after ten years. Structured the termination notice, the transition assistance, and the release. Mediated a stock-repurchase dispute that arose two months later; settled in one session.

What this established A properly drafted termination notice does more work than a post-hoc demand letter. We'd rather draft one than respond to the other.

Referred out Advisory · Declined

Approached by a founder facing a criminal regulatory investigation alongside a civil claim. Ran the intake call, declined the matter, referred to a criminal silk and a larger disputes team. We followed up twice to make sure the introductions landed.

What this established We'd rather refer a matter well than take one we can't win cheaply. This is the model; we put it first for a reason.

IV — Fees

How we bill — in one page.

Transparency on fees is the differentiator. If you'd rather read this first, call us afterwards: it will shorten the intake conversation and make the quote easier for both of us.

We quote. Hourly is a last resort — and when it's honest, we say so up front.

For every matter with a readable scope, we quote a fixed or capped fee before we begin. Hourly billing exists because some matters genuinely can't be scoped at the outset — litigation, cross-border disputes, matters where the counterparty is the unpredictable variable. When we bill hourly, we disclose the rate in the engagement letter and send a running total weekly, not only at month-end.

A 30-minute intake call is no charge — we use it to run a conflict check and assess whether we're the right firm. If we're not, we'll tell you who might be.

Matter type	Fixed	Capped	Hourly	Typical range (SGD)
Incorporation & corporate housekeeping		—	—	From $1,800 per Pte Ltd; from $400 per resolution package.
SME commercial contracts		—	—	$1,500–$6,000 per document, depending on novelty and negotiation.
Family-business succession (documents)		—		$12,000–$35,000 for document package; hourly for family conversations.
Shareholder & founder disputes	—			$6,000–$18,000 capped for early-stage advice; hourly once escalated.
Small M&A (under S$10m deal value)		—		$25,000–$90,000 fixed for clear scope; phased for complex deals.
Commercial disputes (mediation / litigation)	—	—		Hourly, disclosed weekly. Budgets revised in writing at each phase.
Monthly retainer (ongoing SME counsel)		—	—	Capped at $4,500–$9,500 monthly depending on expected volume.

● Primary basis — the usual way we bill this work. ◐ Secondary basis — used for the part of the matter that can't be honestly scoped.

V — Intake

Book a 30-minute intake call.

Linda triages new matters manually within one business day. She runs a conflict check against our current and recent client list before putting the call on a partner's calendar.

Request received. Linda will reply within one business day.

If we can act and there's no conflict, she'll propose two call slots. If we can't act, she'll tell you why and — where we can — suggest a firm that can.

Until we confirm engagement in writing, please don't send documents or treat correspondence as privileged.