Overview  

Preetha Pillai joined Skrine in 1998 after completing a Masters’ degree in International Business Law at King’s College, University of London as a Chevening - British High Commission scholar.  She was made partner in 2007. 

Preetha’s expertise is in commercial disputes. She is a litigator with considerable experience where she has acted for a broad range of clients in various industries.  She is a constant presence at the High Court and Appellate Courts and perhaps in recognition of this fact, she was listed as one of AsiaLaw’s Leading Lawyers (Dispute Resolution) for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011.   

Her other main area of interest and expertise is administrative law, where she has acted both for and against the decision making tribunal.  This area of law is a natural fit for Preetha who has a strong interest in rights based disputes. 

Preetha also has a budding Tax and Customs practice in which she has acted for a number of multinational clients in resolving their tax and customs issues.

  Further Details  

Areas of Practice
Commercial Litigation, Public and Administrative Law, Land Law, Tax & Customs, Banking

Qualifications
Advocate & Solicitor, High Court of Malaya

LLB (Hons) University of London

LLM, International Business Law, King’s College, University of London

  Experience  

Commercial Litigation

• Acted for a multinational Korean company involved in a dispute with its local director.  This dispute required the obtaining of urgent injunctive orders to prevent disruption and interference at the company’s project site and the hijacking of its local company by the rogue director.
• Acting as counsel in a matter involving a dispute on the non-renewal of a multi –million ringgit joint venture agreement entered into with a local transportation company.
• Acted as counsel in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Federal Court in a matter involving the recovery of a multi-million ringgit share financing facility secured by back to back put option agreements.  The issue in contention was whether a resolution of the put option agreement by the issuance of Irredeemable Convertible Preference Shares at a par value equal to the option price operated to fully extinguish the principal debt.
• Acted for two German parties in recovering their investments from a local joint venture partner.
• Represented leading stock broking firms in recovering share trading losses.  The prosecution of some of these suits required extensive evidence gathering and analysis of the laws of agency, contract, companies and securities on issues relating to the use of nominees, market manipulation and fraud.
• Represented a multinational logistics company in recovering monies owed to it which involved having to file a Mareva Injunction to prevent the dissipation of assets prior to judgment.
• Acted for a public listed company in relation to the termination of its subsidiary’s distributorship agreement by the principal and the setting up of a rival company by the principal with the subsidiary’s employees.  This litigation required the obtaining of Anton Piller and injunctive orders to preserve evidence, prevent the use of the subsidiary’s confidential information and damages for the interference of the subsidiary’s business.
• Acted for a Korean video gaming company in resisting a worldwide injunction sought against it for purported breach of intellectual property rights by its local joint venture partner.

Public and Administrative Law

• Acting as counsel for billboard operators challenging the decision of local councils in imposing private contracts in place of the licensing scheme under present bye laws.
• Acts for the Malaysian Stock Exchange in a number of judicial review proceedings filed by public listed companies and their directors challenging the decision of the Stock Exchange in finding them guilty of breaches of the Listing Requirements.

Land Law

• Acted as counsel at the Court of Appeal in a suit involving the assertion of fraud to overcome the indefeasibility of title under the National Land Code.
• Acted as co-counsel in a trespass suit involving the assertion of rights of a temporary occupation licensee under the National Land Code against that of a contract given by a concessionaire.

Tax & Customs

• Advised client in relation to its rights under the Malaysia- Japan Economic Partnership Agreement in the event of a breach by the importer on customs’ duties.
• Advised clients in relation to tax disputes arising from tax investigations and raids conducted by the tax authorities.
• Advised clients on the imposition of tax on income of foreign employees’/ expatriates.

Banking

• Acts for a number of banks in recovery of its loans from borrowers and guarantors. Has also seen through a number of foreclosure actions