Koo Yin Soon

Hailing from Sabah, Yin Soon graduated from the University of London in 2007 with a Second-Class Upper degree and the awards through university resulted in his first stint with the Firm as an intern. After being called to the English Bar in 2008 Yin Soon returned to the Firm as a pupil in chambers and was admitted to the Malaysian Bar in 2010.

Starting in the firm’s banking practice he managed both recovery and foreclosure portfolios for financial institutions (“FIs”). This recovery portfolio has expanded to cover both local and foreign entities including shopping malls, F&B suppliers, O&G suppliers and utility companies (including for electricity theft) and well as advising FIs on the highly regulated sales of NPL Assets (both Conventional and Islamic).

Yin Soon frequently acts in both corporate (ranging from family run companies to entities in the manufacturing, freight forwarding, FMCG and chemical production industries) and commercial disputes and he regularly appears in the Courts at all levels.

As a member of the firm’s highly sought after Banking and Insolvency Practice, Yin Soon works in a team of specialists on call to assist FIs in responding to both potential and active adverse claims (including negligence claims, SIDREC proceedings, structured product litigation with particular areas of expertise on challenges to securities in land under Section 340 of the National Land Code), regulatory compliance and providing on demand support in managing high exposure assets in an insolvency environment (including enforcement of loan or security instruments and instruments of payments; receiverships; foreclosures; as well as liquidation, restructuring, rescue mechanisms and schemes of arrangement). In recent times, this expertise extends to advising clients on both ends of the debt spectrum from FIs, creditors and also debtors. Notable engagements in this area include acting for an international FI in the realization of a number of maritime assets with an aggregate value of over RM200 million and acting for a local FI with an exposure of over RM100 million in navigating various consecutive restructuring attempts by the debtor and creditors.

Yin Soon was made a Principal Associate with the Firm in 2019 and admitted into partnership in 2021.