wayangcounseles
wayangcounseles was founded with a specific intent — to provide focused, considered legal counsel to those navigating insolvency and corporate restructuring in Singapore. The name draws on a tradition of craft and performance under pressure, and it reflects our belief that good legal work requires both technical mastery and an attentive reading of the audience: the courts, the creditors, the regulators and the directors who must live with the outcome.
Our practice concentrates exclusively on insolvency-adjacent work. This means that when you engage wayangcounseles, you are working with practitioners whose day-to-day focus is precisely the area in which you need assistance. We do not treat restructuring as a peripheral offering within a general commercial practice.
We advise companies that are weighing restructuring options, creditors assessing their recovery positions, and directors who are trying to understand and discharge their obligations under difficult circumstances. Each of these clients has different needs, different pressures and different risk profiles, and we approach each engagement accordingly.
Our work is conducted with a particular awareness of the personal dimensions of financial distress. Behind every corporate matter, there are people making consequential decisions under significant strain. We try to provide advice that is clear, precise and calibrated to what our clients actually need to know — not advice that complicates or obscures.
Our Mission
To provide disciplined, practical legal counsel to companies, creditors and directors managing complex insolvency and restructuring situations — with honesty about what is achievable and care for the human dimensions of every engagement.
Core Values
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Clarity over complexity. We communicate in plain language. Legal advice should reduce confusion, not add to it.
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Steadiness under pressure. Our counsel does not waver with the mood of the moment. We give the same considered advice in a crisis as in a calm.
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Honest assessment. We will tell you what we see, including when the picture is not what you hoped for.
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Absolute discretion. Every matter we handle is treated with strict confidentiality, consistent with our professional obligations.
Practitioners You Will Work With
Each member of our team has focused their practice on insolvency and restructuring work. You will deal directly with the lawyer handling your matter.
Tan Li Wei
Managing Director
Called to the Singapore Bar with over fourteen years at the intersection of insolvency law and corporate advisory. Tan Li Wei has acted for judicial managers, scheme supervisors, secured creditors and distressed companies in matters spanning manufacturing, shipping and financial services.
Ravi Nair
Senior Associate
Ravi's practice centres on creditor-side advisory, including debt recovery, security enforcement and participation in creditor committees. He advises both financial institutions and trade creditors on the practical realities of insolvency distributions and restructuring proposals.
Siti Hanim
Associate
Siti advises directors on personal liability exposures arising in the zone of insolvency, including wrongful trading risk and the documentation of board decision-making. She also supports corporate restructuring engagements with research and drafting on scheme and compromise arrangements.
How We Conduct Our Practice
Our professional obligations are the floor, not the ceiling. We hold ourselves to standards that reflect the sensitivity of the work we do.
Practising Certificate
All legal advisors at wayangcounseles hold current practising certificates issued by the Law Society of Singapore and are subject to its professional rules and disciplinary framework.
Professional Indemnity
We maintain professional indemnity insurance as required under Law Society rules, providing appropriate coverage for the legal services we deliver to clients.
Data Protection
Client data is handled in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act 2012. We have clear internal protocols for data collection, storage, access and retention.
Anti-Money Laundering
We comply with the requirements of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act and conduct appropriate client due diligence.
Conflict Checking
Before accepting any engagement, we conduct a thorough conflict-of-interest check to ensure we can act independently and without compromise to any existing client relationship.
Continuing Development
Our team participates in the Continuing Professional Development programme mandated by the Law Society of Singapore, with a focus on insolvency law developments, legislative amendments and judicial guidance.
Deliberate Practice in a Specialised Field
Insolvency law in Singapore has undergone substantial development in recent years. The Companies (Amendment) Act brought Singapore's restructuring framework closer to international standards, introducing pre-packaged schemes, automatic moratoria and new super-priority rescue financing provisions. The Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act subsequently consolidated the personal and corporate insolvency regimes into a single framework. Keeping current with these developments is a requirement, not an option, for practitioners working in this area.
wayangcounseles tracks legislative amendments, court decisions from the Singapore courts and comparative developments from key jurisdictions — including the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States — that are relevant to restructuring practice here. This ongoing attention to the law informs the advice we give and the positions we take on behalf of clients.
We also recognise that many of our clients are not legal specialists. Directors, in particular, often find themselves navigating questions about corporate insolvency for the first time, under circumstances that are stressful and consequential. We take particular care to explain the legal framework in terms that are accessible, to set out clearly what is and is not within our clients' control, and to present options rather than prescriptions wherever the situation permits.
The quality of legal advice is measured not only by its technical accuracy but by its usefulness. We try to give advice that is both technically sound and genuinely actionable — counsel that helps clients move forward, not advice that simply recites the law and leaves them uncertain about what to do next.
Find Out Whether We Are the Right Counsel for Your Situation
A brief initial conversation costs you nothing but time. We will tell you honestly whether your situation falls within our scope, and if so, what you can expect from working with us.