Aaron Lee

Partner

Aaron is a commercial litigator with a particular expertise on employment, white-collar, regulatory and compliance and corporate governance matters.

Aaron is the Co-Head of the Firm’s White Collar & Investigations Practice, and has an active practice in matters involving fraud, insider trading, money-laundering, corruption, securities, market misconduct, sanctions, import/export and mutual legal assistance matters. He also regularly advises on corporate investigations and inquiries relating to employee misconduct, fraud and corporate governance-related issues.

He also regularly acts in major corporate and commercial disputes for private and public listed companies as well as major financial institutions. 

For employment-related matters, Aaron often advises on and acts in contentious employment cases and investigations by the authorities involving misconduct and fraud. Being a criminal and civil litigator, Aaron has handled a wide range of contentious employment matters. These include advising on internal disciplinary proceedings and actions, defending unfair dismissal claims, pursuing criminal recourse against errant employees and commencing legal proceedings to obtain injunctive remedies or compensation against former employees. Aaron also regularly advises on internal policies and procedures to detect, mitigate and address employee misconduct.

Aaron has been recognised and ranked in leading publications. In The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, he is noted as a key individual in financial regulatory and employment matters. Chambers Asia-Pacific also notes that he “is a very active practitioner who specializes in regulatory matters, as well as white-collar criminal compliance”. Who’s Who Legal describes him as “a very smart, pragmatic and solution-oriented individual" who "always achieves the best results for his clients” and “a well-known name among peers in the region thanks to his in-depth experience in fraud, money laundering and corruption matters”. He is also praised by clients for being “incredibly responsive and pragmatic, giving advice on complex matters that is clear and concise”.

Prior to joining private practice, Aaron was a Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel in the Attorney-General’s Chambers, where he advised on and prosecuted serious and white-collar crimes.

Work Highlights

• Acted in the major and high-profile fraud and corporate governance-related disputes over the past few decades, including: (1) the claim by the National Kidney Foundation against its former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Directors for breaches of fiduciary duties and conspiracy; (2) the inquiry into Ren Ci Hospital & Medicare under the Charities Act concerning misconduct on the part of Venerable Shi Ming Yi; (3) the high-profile prosecution against several members of City Harvest Church.
• Acted for a number of international and local financial institutions in relation to the 1Malysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal which involved investigations by various regulators.