Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Arts’ 2^nd Class Upper Honours Degree in law and upon being called to the English Bar at Gray’s Inn, Danny returned to Singapore where he commenced practice with Messrs Godwin & Co, then the leading Shipping & Maritime law firm in Singapore before joining Messrs Khattar Wong & Partners in 1989 where he was a partner and Head of the Shipping Department.

Danny joined Joseph Tan Jude Benny in September 1999 and is a Senior Partner in the firm.  He was named by Chambers Global Directory 2000 and 2001 Editions as one of the “Leaders in their Field” of Shipping Law and was also listed in the Euromoney Legal Group Guide to the World’s Leading Shipping & Maritime Lawyers. Most recently, Danny was ranked as a Leading Individual in both The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2017/2018 Edition and Chambers Asia-Pacific Guide 2017/2018.

Practice Areas:

Danny specialises in Shipping & Admiralty Law and his areas of work include shipping disputes on charterparties, Offshore Oil & Gas, casualties at sea, bunker disputes and contamination of liquid cargo, as well as shipping transactional work such as shipbuilding, ship financing, sale & purchase and registration of vessels.

Notable Experience:

Cases that have become leading authorities are:

• Court of Appeal decision on Sheriff’s Expenses (The “Euroexpress”[1988] SLR 67);
• Court of Appeal decision on Forum Non Conveniens (Oriental Insurance Co Ltd v. Bhavani Stores Pte Ltd[1998] 1 SLR 253);
• Shiprepairers’ Liability as Bailee (The “Wilson Ruby”[1998] 3 SLR 45);
• Scope of the wording of a letter of undertaking (The “ICL Raja Mahendra”[1999] 1 SLR 329);
• Court of Appeal decision on Limitation of Liability under a freight-forwarder’s Airway Bill (“Powermatic-Apcom Systems Pte Ltd v. Concord Express (S) Pte Ltd”[1999] 3 SLR 513);
• Court of Appeal decision on Exclusive Jurisdiction Clause (The “Jian He”[2000] 1 SLR 8);
• Court of Appeal decision on Effect of an “unless order” and its impact on subsequent orders in the same proceedings (The “Bonito”[2001] 3 SLR 32);
• Mareva injunction and risk of dissipation of assets (Transfield Shipping Inc. Panama v. Sino-Add (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2001] SGHC 239);
• Effect of an “in principle” agreement to settle, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal (ATS Specialized Inc t/a ATS Wind Energy Services v. LAP Projects (Asia) Pte Ltd) [2012] SGHC 173);
• Interpleader relief and the effect of a retention of title clause (Precious Shipping Public Co Ltd and others v. OW Bunker Far East (Singapore) Pte Ltd and others and other matters [2015] 4 SLR 1229); and
• Beneficial ownership of a vessel pending de-registration from her former registry (The “Min Rui” [2016] 5 SLR 667).

He has also successfully conducted a trial, which was affirmed by the Court of Appeal, on a dispute relating to the installation and design of a three dimensional metal ceiling system at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (Gema Metal Ceilings (Far East) Pte Ltd v. Iwatani Techno Construction (M) Sdn Bhd [2000] SGHC 37).

He was previously appointed by BP Shipping Ltd as Counsel before a Committee of Inquiry investigating into the cause of a flash fire which occurred on board the vessel “British Adventure”.

Other appointments:

Danny has served in the International Bunker Industry Association (Asia) Executive Committee since its establishment in Singapore in 2005 and latterly has been appointed as a director of IBIA (Asia).

Publications:

Danny has also published the following articles on Corporate Securities Law:

1. The Common Law Approach To Insider Trading [1983] 1 MLJ cxliv;
2. Statutory Approach to the Control of Insider Trading [1983] 1 MLJ cxliv;

In 2007, Danny also co-authored the inaugural edition of the Admiralty Practice, Chapter XL VII, Atkin’s Court Forms, Singapore Issue 3, 2007.