Expanding its international disputes resolution group, Nelson Goh has joined Pallas Partners LLP as Partner, the firm announced today. An experienced international arbitration specialist, Goh joins from Debevoise & Plimpton LLP where he was a Senior Associate in the International Dispute Resolution Group.
Nelson has an established practice focusing on international arbitration, investor-state disputes, public international law and complex multijurisdictional litigation. He has extensive experience in high-stakes litigation in a number of significant representations, including Apple v. Qualcomm, climate-related lawsuits in various jurisdictions, a billion dollar claim between a UK-listed mining company and an African state, and a €500m LCIA arbitration between a New York-listed European Gaming company and an EU state and helped an Asian state-owned oil company in a joint-venture dispute concerning a high-profile energy project in Africa. He has particular experience in energy, joint-venture, and general commercial disputes, including those with an Asian nexus.
Goh is active on the thought leadership front and has published extensively in legal journals and publications. His forthcoming treatise ‘A Commentary to the Singapore International Arbitration Act’, a project he spearheaded, which will be co-written with fellow arbitration specialists Paul Tan and Jonathan Lim, will be published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) later this year. He is on the editorial board of the European Investment Law and Arbitration Review and a fellow of the Centre for Banking and Finance and at the National University of Singapore, amongst other appointments.
Goh is also active on the pro bono front. He has worked with the Clooney Foundation for Justice in a matter before the UN Working Group for Arbitrary Detention, and assisted Chab Dai UK, an anti-human trafficking NGO, in setting up its collaboration agreement with partner NGOs in a global network. For his work on the latter, he was nominated TrustLaw Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year 2022.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Goh served in the Singapore Navy and was awarded the Sword of Honour (Valedictorian) by the President of the Republic of Singapore after completing his training as an officer cadet. His legal career commenced at Rajah & Tann LLP in Singapore, where he trained under a Senior Counsel, before spending two and a half years at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP’s London office and then joining Debevoise in 2018.
Nelson achieved his LLB from the National University of Singapore, and completed his first LL.M. at New York University, where he read public international law and was a Transitional Justice Scholar. He read his second LL.M. at the University of Cambridge and graduated with First Class Honours, scoring a first in all subjects. He read the Cambridge LL.M. as a Cambridge Trust Scholar. He is admitted to practice in England and Wales as well as Singapore and speaks fluent Mandarin.
