Rabindra S Nathan

Practice Areas

Dispute Resolution

Restructuring & Insolvency

Arbitration & Mediation

Career

Rabindra graduated LL.B (Hons) from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand in 1985. At university he was:

• Joint winner, Sir John MacArthur University Prize in Company and Commercial Law.

• Junior and Senior University Moot competitions champion.

• Runner-up, New Zealand Inter-Universities Moot.

Rabindra clerked in Wynn Williams & Co., Christchurch, New Zealand prior to his admission in New Zealand (1986) and chambered in Shearn Delamore prior to his admission in Malaya (1987).

In 1987, he was awarded the Even-Lewis Thomas Law Studentship and the British High Commissioner’s Chevening Award to study at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. He won the Cambridge University Law Society Moot Competition for the Stanley de Smith trophy at the final presided by Lord Brightman (1988).

Rabindra resumed practice in Shearn Delamore in September 1988 and became partner in 1997.

He is one of the most experienced insolvency practitioners in Malaysia. He has acted in the three largest insolvencies in Malaysian history. He has also been:

• Consultant to the Companies Commission of Malaysia – Winding up provisions of the Companies Bill 2015.

• Country Consultant for Malaysia to the Asian Development Bank (Insolvency TA) (1999-2000).

• Member for Malaysia, Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) Working Group (2019-2020).

• A founding member, Insolvency Practitioners’ Association of Malaysia (IPAM) in 2010 and Council member.

• The sole Malaysian member of the International Insolvency Institute (III).

• Member, III delegation to the UNCITRAL Working Group VI sessions, UNCITRAL headquarters in Vienna (2013-2017).

Rabindra also has an extensive dispute resolution practice in the West Malaysian courts and ad hoc admissions as counsel in the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak in specialised cases in arbitration and energy and power. He has numerous reported cases to his name. He regularly acts in domestic and international commercial arbitrations under the ICC, AIAC, SIAC and UNITRAL Rules. He has given expert testimony on Malaysian law in the High Court in Singapore and in international arbitrations. He is a member of the ICC Panel of Arbitrators, Malaysia.

Professional Memberships

• One of the founding members and a Council Member, Insolvency Practitioners’ Association of Malaysia

• Member, Malaysian Bar

• Member, International Bar Association (IBA)

• Member, Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA)

• Member, American Society of International Law (ASIL)

• Member, British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL)

• Member, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

• Member, International Insolvency Institute (III)

Publications

• Co-authored the Malaysian Chapters on Law & Practice and Trends & Developments in Chambers Global Practice Guide: Litigation (2022)

• Co-authored the Chapter on Law & Practice (Malaysia) in Chambers Global Practice Guide on International Arbitration (2019 – 2022)

• The Restructuring Review – Malaysia: Overview – Law Business Research, 7th Edition (2014)

• International Insolvency – Jurisdictional Comparisons – The European Lawyer Reference Series (2015 and 2016)

• Getting the Deal Through: Dispute Resolution – Law Business Research (2015)

• Practical Law’s Arbitration Global Guide – Malaysia Chapter, Thomson Reuters, 10th edition (2016)

• The Asia-Pacific Restructuring Review – Malaysia: Overview – Law Business Research (2017 – 2020 and 2022 )

• Corporate Rescue Mechanisms in Malaysia, INSOL World (2017)

• Does Juducial Management in Malaysia Sufficiently Embody a Rescue Culture? (2020) 32 Singapore Academy of Law Journal 518

• Rabindra Nathan (ed.), Law and Practice of Corporate Insolvency Law in Malaysia (Sweet & Maxwell) (2019)(General Editor, and author specifically of Chapters 1, 10 and 11)