Biography: Competition

Lim Chong Kin is a director with Drew & Napier LLC. He heads the firm's competition and regulatory (corporate) practice and the telecommunications, media and technology practice (TMT).

Chong Kin is highly regarded by his peers as well as clients. He is widely acknowledged as a leading competition lawyer in Singapore by major ranking publications; recent ones include: Practical Law Company's Which Lawyer? (2010-2012), the Guide to the World's Leading Competition & Antitrust Lawyers/Economists 2010, and Asia Pacific Legal 500 which also recognises Chong Kin as a competition and regulatory expert.

His plaudits from Chambers Asia 2009, 2010 and 2011 include: "incredibly hard-working and always comes up with a quick response and a good answer, which really helps minimise extra work – a real bonus in these cost-conscious times"; "the go-to lawyer for anything competition-related in Singapore"; and "incredibly astute legal and business judgement".

Chong Kin is known for his expertise in drafting 'first-of-its-kind' competition legislation, and he has been involved in competition and regulatory matters for more than ten years. He regularly acts for competition regulators on liberalisation, market access, merger reviews, appeals and enforcement issues. Chong Kin was appointed lead Singapore counsel for the drafting of the Telecom Competition Code in 2000, 2004 and 2010; he also drafted the first Media Market Conduct Code in 2002 and the Postal Competition Code in 2008. He also advised the Minister of Trade and Industry on an appeal involving competition, among other matters, in the energy sector.

Chong Kin has worked on several market studies commissioned by the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) and the sectoral competition regulators. Among others, he led the CCS's first ever competition study on price recommendations by trade and professional associations, as well as a subsequent study on the medical services sector that led to the CCS's negative decision on the Singapore Medical Association's widely used recommended price lists for doctors.

Chong Kin also regularly advises a broad range of multinational companies and local corporations on competition matters, including merger filings, transaction reviews, compliance programmes and investigations. Most recently, he obtained clearance from the CCS for the proposed alliance agreement between Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia, as well as for the trans-Pacific joint venture agreement between All Nippon Airways, Continental and United Airlines. Chong Kin and his team also obtained Phase II merger approval from the CCS for Seagate's proposed acquisition of Samsung's hard disk drive business.

In tandem with the development of competition law in ASEAN, Chong Kin is also actively involved with assisting clients to comply with competition law requirements in the region. In 2008, Chong Kin led an international consortium that was awarded a prestigious project to study and recommend competition policy and law for implementation in the ASEAN economies. He is also regularly invited as a speaker at conferences on ASEAN competition law.

Chong Kin is co-editor of Singapore's first comprehensive competition law textbook, Bull, Lim and Whish, Competition Law and Policy in Singapore, published by the Singapore Academy of Law (2009). He also authored the competition chapter in Law Relating to Specific Contracts in Singapore published by Thomson, Sweet & Maxwell (2008).

Biography: Regulatory Communications

Under Chong Kin's leadership, Drew & Napier's telecoms, media and technology practice has consistently been ranked as the leading practice. His client includes the telecoms and media regulators, global carriers, technology market leaders, global broadcasters and content providers.

He played a key role in the liberalisation of Singapore's telecoms, media and postal sectors where he drafted the competition frameworks. His recent work includes setting up of Singapore's Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network, Singapore's first neutral internet exchange, Singapore's National Authentication Framework and data centres.

His plaudits include: "incredibly hard-working and always comes up with a quick response and a good answer, which really helps minimise extra work - a real bonus in these cost-conscious times", "the go-to lawyer for anything competition-related in Singapore" and "incredibly astute legal and business judgement" (Chambers Asia 2009 to 2011); other top-tier citations include Asia Pacific Legal 500 (2010/2011, 2009/2010); Practical Law Company's Which Lawyer? Survey (2010/2011); The International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists lists Chong Kin as a leading individual in the fields of regulatory communications and competition law (2008 to 2011); and Asialaw Profiles 2011 succinctly cites a client: '[he] has put together the team and remains closely involved in all key aspects of its work. He also has most of the personal connections as well as institutional knowledge as he has been working on all the key issues for the firm over the past decade. In any situation, crisis or otherwise, he quickly sees his way to the solution and can map out a response that inevitably proves to be the right one.'

Detailed profile: www.drewnapier.com/partners/limchongkin-body.htm