NUS Law alumna and Advisory Council member win global awards

Mr Cavinder Bull, S.C., the chief executive officer of Drew & Napier, and the firm’s director, Ms Blossom Hing ’96, won awards at the worldwide Lexology Index awards, which was held at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London.

Mr Bull won the global award for commercial litigation lawyer of the year, while Ms Hing was named restructuring and insolvency lawyer of the year.

Lexology Index, a legal research service formerly known as Who’s Who Legal, presents awards to individuals and firms that have performed exceptionally based on its research.

For Mr Bull, the recognition came on the back of successes in cases such as the claim for more than US$1 billion (S$1.34 billion) brought by former Georgian prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili against a unit of international bank Credit Suisse, according to a Straits Times report on 17 November 2024. He also represented the liquidators of collapsed oil trading firm Hin Leong in getting a judgment for US$3.5 billion against former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin and his two children.

Crediting his spirit of determination to his mother, Mr Bull revealed that as a child, he saw how his widowed mother had to work hard to raise three young children. “You can’t succeed as a litigator without grit and determination. I think that’s where I got it from,” he said, while acknowledging that being a litigator is intellectually demanding, time-consuming and emotionally taxing at times.

As for Ms Hing, she said that practising law has given her the opportunity to study people and different industries and businesses. According to the same Straits Times report, she is currently advising on a confidential US$2 billion case involving cross-border corporate restructuring. She also acted for Mr Cheong Jun Yoong of DeFiance Capital, winning a bid for his claim against collapsed cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital to be heard in Singapore, rather than in the British Virgin Islands.

“At the heart of it, being a lawyer is about telling your clients’ stories as best as you can from their perspective without judgment,” said Ms Hing, who has acted for alleged pirates, tycoons in industries such as pulp and paper, timber, shipping and healthcare, as well as commodity traders.