The Singapore High Court has ordered limited production of material concerning information barriers and legal-team composition in support of an application to restrain an international law firm from acting in a Singapore-seated SIAC arbitration. The decision confirms that the key question is not a conflict of interest in the abstract, but whether confidential information may reach and be misused by the team acting for the opposing party.
In <span class="news-text_italic-underline">Samsung E&A (Thailand) Co Ltd v Linklaters LLP [2026] SGHCR 31</span>, the claimants, members of a consortium together with two Petrofac entities, commenced a Singapore-seated SIAC arbitration against Thai Oil in February 2025. The arbitration arose from a dispute concerning a Thai refinery project.
Linklaters acted for Thai Oil in the arbitration and concurrently for Petrofac entities in their restructuring, in which Thai Oil was the largest creditor. Petrofac had been a client of the firm from late 2023. Information barriers were not put in place until March 2024.
The claimants sought to disqualify Linklaters from representing Thai Oil. The issue was put before the Tribunal, which considered the Court to be the more appropriate forum because resolving it would require consideration of privileged material the Tribunal should not receive.
The defendants submitted that Article 5 of the <span class="news-text_italic-underline">UNCITRAL Model Law 1985</span> (“<span class="news-text_medium">Model Law</span>”), which applies in Singapore through the <span class="news-text_italic-underline">International Arbitration Act 1994</span> (“<span class="news-text_medium">IAA 1994</span>”), prevented the Court from intervening. The Assistant Registrar rejected that submission. Article 5 does not exclude the Court’s supervisory jurisdiction in relation to matters which are not governed by the Model Law. Neither the Model Law nor the IAA 1994 establishes rules governing the removal of solicitors or counsel. The Court could therefore, in principle, restrain counsel from acting in a Singapore-seated arbitration.
The Court held that an alleged conflict of interest was not determinative in itself. Applying <span class="news-text_italic-underline">LVM Law Chambers LLC v Wan Hoe Keet [2020] 1 SLR 1083</span>, the operative questions were whether confidential information could reach the Thai Oil team and whether that information could be misused.
Accordingly, characterising the matter as a “conflict” did not resolve the issue. The focus had to be on the effectiveness of the firm’s arrangements for preventing the flow of confidential information.
The Court rejected most of the claimants’ document-production categories, finding them immaterial, overly broad or subject to privilege held by Petrofac rather than Linklaters. The firm could not waive that privilege.
However, the Assistant Registrar ordered narrowly defined production of documents evidencing:
The Assistant Registrar treated the application as a “special case” under Order 11, rule 5(2) of the <span class="news-text_italic-underline">Rules of Court 2021</span>. The firm’s information barriers were a “central plank” of its defence to the disqualification application and the targeted material was therefore properly subject to production.
The decision provides useful guidance for parties and counsel in Singapore-seated arbitrations. A counsel-disqualification application turns on the practical risk that confidential information may be disclosed to and misused by the team acting for the opposing party, not merely on whether an abstract conflict exists.
It also illustrates a tribunal may appropriately defer to the supervisory court where resolution requires examination of privileged material. Where information barriers are central to the defence, parties should expect focused disclosure concerning their timing, operation and personnel coverage.
<span class="news-text_medium">Case:</span> <span class="news-text_italic-underline">Samsung E&A (Thailand) Co Ltd v Linklaters LLP [2026] SGHCR 31</span>, Singapore High Court, 4 August 2026 (Assistant Registrar Chong Fu Shan).
