Priscilla Chia
谢雯琪
Counsel
Priscilla is a Counsel of the firm. She is regularly involved in contentious front-line civil and commercial disputes and criminal defence. Priscilla has significant experience in handling commercial disputes, corporate malfeasance, shareholder disputes, and white-collar crime involving fraud and corruption. She regularly advises and represents multi-national corporations and high net-worth individuals in complex disputes involving local and multi-jurisdictional elements.
Prior to joining Providence Law Asia, Priscilla practised at a well-known disputes boutique firm in Singapore and was part of a team involved in landmark cases in criminal defence, civil litigation, employment disputes, and public interest litigation including a constitutional challenge of S 377A of the Penal Code.
Priscilla graduated from the Singapore Management University School of Law. While in university, Priscilla was involved in setting up the School of Law’s Criminal Law Club. During this time, she also won the Singapore Law Gazette’s Best Feature Award in 2013 for an article she co-authored titled “The Death Penalty and the Desirability of Judicial Discretion”.
Outside of legal practice, Priscilla invests her time in non-profit and public interest work. She is a long-time volunteer with the Association of Women for Action & Research (AWARE), a gender equality non-profit organisation. She also regularly advises international and local non-profit organisations.
Priscilla is fluent in English and Mandarin.
Admissions
- Advocate and Solicitor, Supreme Court of Singapore.
Professional Experience
- Represented a Singapore subsidiary of an international private-equity firm against a director for breaches of duties and account of profits.
- Acted for a well-known local engineering company and its directors in a high-value shareholder dispute.
- Acted for two C-Suite executives of a fintech investment company against an investor claim in conspiracy in respect of their involvement in an alleged Ponzi Scheme. See Oh Bernard v Six Capital Investments Ltd (in liquidation) and others [2020] SGHC 42.
- Acted for a senior employee of an investment firm in respect of a global crude oil-related investment claim. See Hoo Su Hen v Sim Mao Sheng Desmond and another [2019] SGHC 189.
- Acted in a landmark case where the Court of Appeal held that the Prosecution is under a duty to disclose to the Defence the statement of a witness who can be expected to confirm or, conversely, contradict the accused person’s defence in material respects. See Muhammad Nabill bin Mohd Fuad v Public Prosecutor [2020] 1 SLR 984.
- Advised companies and executives in respect of criminal investigations under the Prevention of Corruption Act on matters involving seizure of documents and responding to production orders.
- Advised a prominent politician in Maldives charged with corruption.
- Acted for a Vietnamese tycoon in an application for an injunction against the Commissioner of the Immigration & Checkpoints.
- Assisted with a constitutional challenge of s 377A of the Penal Code, which criminalises acts of gross indecency between two men. See Tan Seng Kee v Attorney-General [2022] 1 SLR 1347.
- Acted for a socio-political activist involved in the first prosecution under the Administration of Justice (Protection) Act 2016. See Wham Kwok Han Jolovan v Attorney-General [2020] 1 SLR 804.
- Acted for a member of the Singapore Democratic Party in an application to compel the Prime Minister to call a by-election for Marsiling Yew-Tee GRC. See Wong Souk Yee v Attorney-General [2019] 1 SLR 1223.
- Acted for a Dubai-based cryptocurrency company in a SIAC arbitration commenced against them by a Chinese multinational company listed on the New York Stock Exchange for infringement of copyright and injunctive reliefs.
- Acted for a well-known F&B local conglomerate in an SIAC arbitration in respect of a shareholder dispute.