A Bi-Monthly Legal Update by HHQ’s Dispute Resolution Practice Group
Senior Partner & Head of Dispute Resolution
Welcome to the inaugural issue of DISPUTES DECODED by HHQ, our new bi-monthly legal update by HHQ’s Dispute Resolution team.
I am new to Halim Hong & Quek, having joined in January 2026. While the HHQ family have been very welcoming, I have personally found HHQ to be a firm with a lot of ambition and drive to aim to be the best in every aspect of legal practice. It currently has more than 60 lawyers with offices in Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Penang.
In so far as the Dispute Resolution team is concerned, my colleagues and I have been working together to implement measures and strategies to take it to the next level as we grow and streamline our practice areas to best serve our clients and market needs. DISPUTES DECODED is part of our effort to not only give more visibility to our Dispute Resolution team, but to share timely, practical and commercially relevant legal commentary with our clients and contacts.
HHQ’s Dispute Resolution team is a full-service practice with experience across a broad range of areas. Our specialist practice areas include civil and commercial litigation and arbitration; shipping; fraud, asset recovery and investigations; employment; construction; restructuring and insolvency; shareholder disputes; land acquisition; regulatory compliance and real estate disputes.
Our strength lies in our multidisciplinary expertise, commercial perspective, and ability to develop strategic and effective solutions to disputes and issues faced by businesses. DISPUTES DECODED BY HHQ reflects that same philosophy. In an increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscape, we seek to provide clear and practical analysis that translates legal developments into commercial insight. Each issue will feature concise, client-friendly articles on recent cases, legislative and regulatory developments, market trends, and practical dispute-related topics.
We hope this regular legal update will become a useful resource for our clients and friends of the firm, and I wish you an enjoyable read.
Thank you.
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Senior Associate & Editor of Disputes Decoded by HHQ
As editor of DISPUTES DECODED BY HHQ, I am pleased to introduce the inaugural issue of our bi-monthly legal update, which is designed to provide concise and helpful insights into the legal developments that matter most to businesses and industry players. Our aim is to decode complex legal developments and issues into clear and practical takeaways
In this debut issue, we feature five articles spanning a broad range of our practice areas
Real Estate: We examine the Court of Appeal’s decision in Chia Seong Pow, where the Court confirmed that a land sale may be binding even without a signed sale and purchase agreement, with particular emphasis on the legal significance of written communications such as WhatsApp messages.
Restructuring and Insolvency: We consider the Federal Court’s decision in London Biscuits Berhad, which reaffirms creditor democracy, clarifies the scope of liquidators’ powers, and provides important guidance on the priority of post-liquidation employee costs
Shipping and Maritime: Introducing HHQ’s Sea You In Court Series, we launch the first of a three-part series on maritime pollution liability in Malaysia, focusing on the legal and regulatory framework governing pollution risks in one of the world’s busiest shipping regions
Real Estate & Construction: We discuss a recent Court of Appeal decision involving luxury housing, which makes clear that a developer’s liability for latent defects may extend beyond the usual 24-month defect liability period, and that statutory protections under the housing law cannot be diluted through creative contractual drafting favourable to the developer.
Employment: We provide an employer’s guide to workplace harassment and safety, including the duty to inquire into complaints under the Employment Act 1955 and the risks of non-compliance, including exposure to constructive dismissal claims and potential criminal consequences.
We invite you to subscribe to our bi-monthly legal update (email) and to follow our updates on the HHQ website, LinkedIn, Lexology and Chambers. We look forward to sharing future editions of DISPUTES DECODED BY HHQ with you.
