Partners

Tay Eu-Yen

Director, Business Advisory & Dispute Resolution

Key Practices

Qualifications

  • Master of Studies in Legal Research (Distinction) University of Oxford
  • LL.B. (Hons), University of Bristol
  • Advocate & Solicitor, Supreme Court of Singapore

Eu-Yen is a consumer markets specialist with extensive experience as legal advisor, entrepreneur, operator, and investor within the entertainment, food, and lifestyle spaces.

Eu-Yen’s work spans across a wide and varied spectrum of businesses. These range broadly from nightlife, F&B, events, travel, luxury, retail, films, and concerts to online content and digital services. Her work covers exciting innovative spaces like service automation, food science, online media, virtual entertainment, legal technology, waste upcycling, and alternative investments.

She has first-hand business management experience, which places her in a unique position when advising businesses. She understands the intricacies of business operations and the myriad of concerns from the client’s perspective. She works hard to learn about each client’s business before providing practical legal solutions. Her practice covers contracts, corporate structuring, regulatory advice, and commercial dispute resolution.

In the area of contracts, Eu-Yen specialises in commercial transactions such as early-stage funding, joint ventures, franchises, sale and purchase, and management and representation. She also assists clients with legal due diligence and disclosures for buy and sell, and investment transactions.

With regards to corporate structuring, Eu-Yen advises on shareholder and investment structures, and private financing instruments. Eu-Yen also advises on regulatory frameworks in relation to climate sustainability, employment and termination, fair tenancy terms, F&B services, food retail safety and labelling, gaming services and advertising, music copyright licensing, and public entertainment. As an expert in these areas of regulation, she annotated the Remote Gambling Act (now repealed and replaced by the Gambling Control Act) and the Public Entertainments Act for the Lexis Nexis Annotated Statutes of Singapore. Eu-Yen also has an Advanced Certificate in Sustainability and Sustainable Businesses as well as a Certificate in Sustainability Reporting in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards.

Eu-Yen is a strong advocate for businesses in the entertainment, food and lifestyle sectors. As such, she is legal advisor to, and sits on the management committee of, the Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS). She is also a founding member of and legal advisor to the Singapore Nightlife Business Association (SNBA). She is on the recommended panel of lawyers for both trade associations, as well as for Singapore Tenants United for Fairness Society (SGTUFF).

She is a published book author and writes articles regularly on topics that intersect law and enterprise.

Eu-Yen’s work is focussed on helping businesses start up, grow and resolve challenges. Here are some notable examples of her experience:

  • Advised on and prepared contracts for a coffee robotics company, Crown Technologies, to negotiate and close a pre-Series A funding with two significant strategic investors, subsidiaries of East Japan Railway Companyand SMRT Corporation, respectively.
  • Advised on and prepared contracts for a multi-award winning biotechnology company, N&E Innovations, to negotiate and close a significant pre-Series A funding round with private and government-funded venture capital companies.
  • Advised on and prepared SAFE notes for an online media publication, Jom, raising seed funds.
  • Advised on and prepared agreements for the Asia-wide collaboration between Restaurant Association of Singaporeand IEG Asia on the renowned annual F&B conference and exhibition known as Restaurant Asia.
  • Advised on agreements relating to the sale of Bedrock Trust, a fund management and advisory services firm, to Chainup Financial.
  • Prepared agreements required for an F&B holding company, Three Eats, to enter into a joint venture and franchise agreement with listed company subsidiary Minor Food Group for the establishment of Small Tables, Asian café.
  • Advised Laifabar, well-known for its wanton noodles, on a franchise agreement with Michelin-starred restaurant group, Les Amis.
  • Advised franchisee of a Taiwanese bubble tea chain, Don’t Yell at Me, on the issue of issuing minority shares in the franchise entity based in Singapore.
  • Prepared agreements required for the franchise and establishment of The Butter Factory KL, and all franchise manuals for operations, service standards, branding guidelines, and legal forms.
  • Advised on agreements required for an F&B group to successfully purchase worldwide ownership of a recipe from famous hawker stall Sun Heng in Ipoh.

The Peak Magazine's Power List (2021) 

  • Eu-Yen won The Peak Magazine’s Power List 2021 award for her work in the hospitality sector, being one of only ten “next generation” women to be invited to accept this prestigious award.
  • Legal advisor and management committee member, Restaurant Association of Singapore (current)
  • Legal advisor, Singapore Nightlife Business Association (current)
  • Advisory board member, Asia Law Network (current)
  • Advisory board member and start-up mentor, Innovate 360 (current)
  • Chairperson, Public and International Law Committee, Law Society of Singapore (2023)
  • Events Sub-Committee Lead, Women-in-Practice Committee, Law Society of Singapore (2022)
  • Member, Law Society of Singapore (current)
  • Member, Singapore Academy of Law (current)
  • Assessor, Panel of Assessors under Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act (2021)
  • “Novel Foods: Updates on Safety Assessments”, published 4 October 2022, Client Update
  • “The Fair Tenancy Code of Conduct: Key Terms for New Leases”, published 10 August 2022, Client Update
  • “The Nutri-Grade Regulations”, published 22 July 2022, Client Update
  • “The New Gambling Regulatory Regime”, published 9 March 2022, Client Update
  • “Unvaccinated employees: guidelines for dismissing them”, published 15 January 2022, Two Bars Blog
  • “Music copyright: the new right and how businesses can savvy-up”, published 15 October 2021, Two Bars Blog
  • “Dathena v Justco: a glimpse of hope for pandemic frustration of leases”, published 12 October 2021, Two Bars Blog
  • “Home-based food businesses: are they Covid safe?”, published 11 September 2021, Two Bars Blog
  • “Fair tenancy: what retail tenants should know”, published 3 September 2021, Two Bars Blog
  • “Food delivery platforms: is it time to face commission caps?”, published 27 August 2021, Two Bars Blog
  • “The need for regulation of home-based business”, published 16 August 2021, The Business Times
  • “Lexis Nexis Annotated Laws of Singapore: Remote Gambling Act, Public Entertainments Act”, published October 2021, Lexis Advance
  • “Weathering unprecedented times”, published 22 August 2020, The Birthday Book, republished by The Straits Times and Mothership.SG
  • “Collective management of musical copyright in a self-regulated regime: Singapore’s copyright review and the hope for transparency”, published 23 June 2020, Singapore Academy of Law Journal
  • “Frustration, not fortitude, the restaurant business”, published 9 June 2020, The Business Times
  • “Frustration, not fortitude: the case for applying the doctrine of frustration to leases affected by Covid-19”, published 8 June 2020, Social Sciences Research Network, Legal Scholarship Network
  • “Business law for the night entertainment entrepreneur”, book 1st edition published 2012, Thomas Reuters’ Sweet & Maxwell
  • “The new International Arbitration Bill – A broader framework for interim relief or just a tune up?”, published March 2010, Singapore Academy of Law Journal
  • “Murder beyond reasonable doubt?”, published October 2008, Singapore Law Gazette
  •  “Legitimacy and effectiveness of Security Council peace enforcement”, published July 2004, University of Oxford, Bodleian Library Thesis Collection