YAP YEONG HUI

Prior to joining Chooi & Company, Yeong Hui was a Partner at another large firm in Malaysia. Before that he practised law in the Singapore office of a global law firm and prior to that he was with one of Singapore’s largest law firms.

Some of his notable experience includes:

Employment

Employee management

• Assisting with review of employment contracts, handbooks and policies of a multinational electronics manufacturing services company.
• Reviewing operations of Malaysian subsidiary of multinational for compliance with all employment related laws and recommending remediation steps.
• Advising a multinational on mutual separation with its long serving employees who is alleged to have committed serious misconduct.
• Advising on termination of employment of a poor performing employee and drafting related documents for a major multinational.

Dispute resolution (employment)

• Representing a multinational food & beverage company in an unfair dismissal claim after termination of the claimant for poor performance.
• Representing a global travel services company in defending suits commenced by former employees after their dismissal due to gross misconduct.
• Representing a company to bring a claim for breach of confidentiality against its former employee who disclosed its confidential information to his new employer.

Takeovers, mergers & acquisitions and market entry

• Guiding international telecommunications company on employments aspects of mergers and acquisitions and harmonisation of employee benefits.
• Assisting with the employment aspects of a due diligence exercise for the proposed joint venture between two major Malaysian entities.

Retrenchment, right sizing and closure exercises

• Advising a multinational in the hospitality industry in relation to retrenchment of its employees pursuant to a restructuring exercise.
• Providing guidance on all employment aspects of a right sizing exercise to a global telecommunication company after it was purchased by another company, including in relation to all aspects of retrenching its employees.
• Advising a Japanese conglomerate on retrenchment of its employees in light of closure of operations.

Tax

• Advising multinational company on first hires in Malaysia, in particular on employment-related tax (permanent establishment) issues and local presence requirements.

Fraud, Investigations & Compliance

• Representing a multinational to secure a Mareva injunction against its former employee who committed fraud and pursuing a civil suit against them.
• Assisting in an investigation into suspected corruption committed by an employee of a Japanese conglomerate; assisted with devising internal procedures to reduce the risk of future incidents and advised on internal disciplinary proceedings involving the employee suspected of committing corruption.
• Reviewing the anti-corruption system of a major oil company and assisted with the company’s corruption risks assessment.

Maritime & International Trade

In the field of Maritime and International Trade, Yeong Hui has been involved in arbitrations under the auspices of the KLRCA, SIAC, LMAA and CIETAC among others. Some of his notable experience in this area includes:

• acting for an international bank to pursue a claim pursuant to bills of lading pledged as security for loans granted by the bank;
• represented ship owners and insurers of a vessel involved in a collision with another vessel in Malaysian waters which led to proceedings in both Singapore and Malaysia;
• assisted in a London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA) arbitration in relation to a charter party dispute involving an underperformance and overconsumption of fuel claim; and
• acted for a Malaysian national commodities company in a complex claim under the KLRCA Fast Track Arbitration Rules for defective goods supplied by a foreign supplier.

Yeong Hui was named as a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation Asia-Pacific 2018 to 2026.  Yeong Hui is also a ranked practitioner by Chambers Asia Pacific. He is a contributor to several practitioner guides, including the Admiralty chapter of the Reissue of Halsbury’s Laws of Malaysia, Vol 1(1).  Yeong Hui also speaks regularly at local and foreign legal conferences.