Singapore’s Duxton Hill Chambers launches in London

Leading Singaporean practice Duxton Hill Chambers is launching Duxton Hill Chambers London, marking the first time a Singapore-origin group practice has established a presence at the Bar of England and Wales.

Duxton Hill London, which will not employ barristers’ clerks, brings together 7 Bedford Row’s Jern-Fei Ng KC with his former Essex Court alumnus Toby Landau KC and former Fountain Court arbitrator and barrister Matthew Gearing KC.

The new set will be regulated by the Bar Standards Board as a barristers’ chambers, providing a platform for its members to conduct litigation and international arbitration work within and from England and Wales.

The launch was announced as part of Singapore Convention Week.

Duxton Hill Chambers was founded in 2021 as a Singapore-based group of independent advocates, all called to the Singapore Bar (among other bars), practising under a traditional chambers model.

Unlike other English sets currently with Singapore annexes, Duxton Hill Chambers remains the only practice comprising entirely of Singapore-qualified advocates and solicitors, whose members include barristers, arbitrators and former senior judges with expertise across commercial, investment and public law disputes.

Gearing said: “Duxton Hill Chambers London represents a milestone in our evolution as a set of chambers, which we hope will help further Singapore’s expansion as a legal hub to other jurisdictions. It is the first time that a Singapore brand is establishing a presence at the English Bar and will serve as a catalyst to help further grow Singapore’s expanding footprint in the global legal services market.”

The move enhances Duxton Hill’s cross-border capabilities and provides both Asian and UK clients with a broader range of dispute counsel. It stated that its goal is to strengthen connections between law firms in the UK and Singapore and to support the long-term growth of both Singapore and London as centres of international legal excellence, both of which are arguably competitors.

All three members are called to the Singapore and London Bars and are well-known in international dispute circles, with Landau being the first silk to be admitted to practise in Singapore, later followed by Ng in 2023 and Gearing in 2024.

Landau, a Bencher at Middle Temple, will utilise the expertise of former Essex Court Chambers senior clerk David Grief to support him, as he did when previously practising independently. Meanwhile, both Ng and Gearing will manage their own clerking, with the set’s management in Singapore headed by Calvin Liang and Tham Lijing, both respected advocates.

Grief previously assisted in administering Duxton Hill Chambers’ early years in Singapore, with Ng and Landau also having practised at Essex Court Chambers Duxton, as well as being members of Essex Court Chambers itself.

They left after China sanctioned Essex Court in 2021, while Gearing changed his planned move to that set to Fountain Court Chambers instead following his retirement from Allen & Overy, where he was co-head of international arbitration and a former chair of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.

He later left Fountain Court to join Duxton Hill in Singapore and practice independently in London, while maintaining his connection to Quayside Chambers in Western Australia. All three silks are also arbitrator members of Temple Chambers in Hong Kong.

The founding of the set also marks the end of Ng’s tenure at 7 Bedford Row, following his relocation to Singapore, among other appointments.

Ng regularly appears in courts in Singapore, Malaysia, England, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, having recently appeared with 7 King’s Bench Walk’s James Bailey in the Supreme Court of Bermuda in a commercial case in which the Singapore Take-over Code was the subject of a first judicial ruling outside of Singapore.

Recently appointed as a part-time deputy High Court judge in Hong Kong, Ng is also a board member of Maxwell Chambers in Singapore.  

Joining the London-based members as associate members – or door tenants as they are colloquially known – are the other members in Singapore, including former Singaporean Attorney-General and arbitrator V. K. Rajah SC; the former global head of arbitration at Baker McKenzie, Chan Leng Sun SC; and Quentin Lohn SC, a retired Supreme Court judge; as well as Liang and Lijing.

The set’s founding member Colin Liew left in February to join Providence Law Asia.