Bernard Tan

Practice Areas

Bernard is the Managing Partner of the Firm. He heads the Firm’s Corporate & Commercial and Securities & Funds Department.

His practice areas are in corporate, commercial, securities, banking, and property practice areas with transactional experience in mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, corporate finance, securities, and corporate and debt restructuring schemes.

Bernard handles the Firm’s international clients and advises them on their acquisitions, divestments, and businesses in Brunei as well as their joint ventures with local partners. These include regulatory matters relating to banking, insurance, funds, ICT, securities, franchise, payment systems, corporate governance, and employment.

Bernard has been involved in several significant transactions and projects in Brunei including the setting up of a statutory authority to manage an industrial park, the acquisition of a major operating interest in a Brunei offshore oilfield, a bank merger between 2 local banks, and the sale and acquisition loan and auto-finance loan portfolios.

In Brunei, his experience in banking and securities includes setting up Islamic private equity funds, issuance of Islamic bills and sukuks, and several domestic and cross-border syndicated financings for several high-value commercial, residential, and industrial projects.

Bernard has been in practice for over 30 years in Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam. He is ranked as an elite practitioner in Brunei in Asialaw, in Band I in Chambers and Partners, and as a market-leading lawyer in IFLR1000. He was voted Brunei’s Lawyer of the Year in Asialaw’s 2021 Client Service Excellence Awards.

Professional Memberships

Barrister-at-Law, Inner Temple.

Admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore, the High Court of Malaya, and the Supreme Court of Brunei Darussalam.