Oon & Bazul ranked as top 100 Restructuring & Insolvency law firms by Global Restructuring Review

Published On: June 28, 20191.9 min read

Global Restructuring Review (GRR) annual benchmarking survey, GRR 100, is the product of eight months of extensive research giving a detailed insight into the work that listed firms have been involved in recently, the size of their network, and who typically uses their services. The survey allows law firms to see how they fare against competitors.

Oon & Bazul’s Restructuring & Insolvency Practice, headed by Meiyen Tan, has been ranked as one of the top 100 law firms globally for being able to handle cross-border restructurings and insolvencies, and related matters such as banking and sovereign debt crises.

GRR 100 commentary on the Practice includes the following:

Oon & Bazul has been around since 2002, when it was founded by Bazul Ashhab and Oon Thian Seng. But until recently it was known more as a broad commercial practice than one making strides in the restructuring space. That changed in 2017 when the firm decided to ride the wave of Singapore’s newly-burgeoning restructuring sector, hiring Tan Meiyen from WongPartnership to lead the newly-formed distinct practice.
Meiyen brought with her experience on major cases including the Pacific Andes bankruptcy and the US$1 billion Goodwood Park Hotel restructuring. Bazul, the firm’s managing partner, also acts in the insolvency space.
The firm has strong links to Malaysia – Meiyen Tan is Malaysian-qualified, as is Oon Thian Seng who heads its associate firm, TS Oon & Partners, in Kuala Lumpur. Its lawyers are fluent in many of Asia’s languages including Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Tamil.
The firm’s highest-profile case has been for the US Trustee of insolvent airline Zetta Jet, a complex bankruptcy involving Chapter 11 and then Chapter 7 proceedings in California for both the Singapore parent and the US subsidiary – which continued even after the Singapore court issued an injunction against their continuance. The Singapore court finally recognised the US proceedings in March 2019, after having previously refused recognition because the company flouted the injunction. This was the first time the Singapore court had considered the Model Law’s public policy exception.
Oon & Bazul caught attention in April 2019 when it obtained the first-ever super priority order under Singapore’s new restructuring regime – nearly two years after the provisions were enacted – on behalf of online travel platform Asiatravel.com Holdings.