April Cheah

About April

April is a Partner in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Department. She graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2012, where she was the recipient of the Roger Fisher Prize in Negotiation in 2011 and was awarded the best oralist in the Asia Pacific rounds of the 2012 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. She joined Lee & Lee as a Trainee in 2014 after a fruitful year in church ministry, and was called to the Singapore Bar in the same year.

Case Highlights

Civil and Commercial Litigation

• Acting for Chinese entities in a US$107 million High Court claim against an online payment company in 2024

• Acting for the buyers of a conservation shophouse against the seller for breach of contract: Straits Times report on 20 July 2024

• Acting for a creditor in successfully resisting a judicial management application by an insolvent online grocery and food delivery service company, and obtaining a winding-up order against the company: Straits Times report on 27 August 2019.

• Acting for a country club in a $37 million High Court suit against multiple defendants in respect of possible fraud: see Straits Times report on 8 November 2016

• Acting for a property developer in a successful appeal to the Court of Appeal against an institutional trustee to include extrinsic evidence of prior negotiations to interpret a written contract with monetary ramifications in the region of S$40 million: see Lucky Realty Co Pte Ltd v HSBC Trustee (Singapore) Ltd [2015] SGCA 68

• Acting for an off-shore company in the liquidation of a joint-venture entity in the oil industry involving complex cross-jurisdictional disputes: related to Canadian proceedings in Re CanaSea PetroGas Group Holdings Limited 2014 ONCA 824

• Acting for corporations, directors, and shareholders in commercial disputes involving issues of contract, minority oppression and breach of directors’ and fiduciary duties;

• Acting for corporations and individuals in corporate insolvency proceedings

• Acting for corporations and individuals in employment disputes

Medical malpractice litigation

April regularly acts for medical practitioners in professional liability claims, complaints to the Singapore Medical Council, and Coroner’s Inquiries.

• Acting for a specialist psychiatrist in a medical negligence suit commenced by the patient’s parents claiming damages over the death of their son: see Straits Times report on 14 January 2023

• Acting for various medical practitioners in the defence of claims in the Supreme Court and State Courts

• Acting for various medical practitioners in regulatory investigations and disciplinary hearings by the Singapore Medical Council

• Acting for various medical practitioners in Coroner’s Inquiries in the State Courts

Criminal litigation

• Acting for a former general manager charged with offences of conspiring with others to cheat his employer and its customer in excess of $1.5 million: Public Prosecutor v Ang Beng Ho [2015] SGDC 112

• Acting for an individual charged with export of controlled drugs and successfully having the charges reduced to possession and consumption.

Memberships & Directorships

• Member, Law Society of Singapore

• Member, Singapore Academy of Law