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 business law specialist with extensive experience as legal advisor, entrepreneur, operator, and investor within the entertainment, hospitality, and lifestyle spaces.

Eu-Yen’s experience spans across a wide and varied spectrum of work in relation to different entertainment, hospitality, and lifestyle businesses. These range broadly from nightlife, F&B, events, leisure, travel, luxury, retail, and films to online content and technological applications. Her work covers exciting innovative spaces like food and beverage automation, food science, virtual entertainment, legal technology, 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, business planning, regulatory advice, commercial dispute resolution and business crimes.

In the area of contracts, Eu-Yen specializes in advising on business transactions such as investments and funding, franchises and joint ventures, shareholder structures, business-to-business and business-to-consumer agreements, and other commercial arrangements.

With regards to business planning, Eu-Yen advises on shareholders’ structures and legal risks associated with climate change. To complement her business law expertise, Eu-Yen 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 further advises on regulatory frameworks that are relevant to businesses. Her expertise is in regulation affecting businesses dealing with public entertainment, virtual entertainment, and F&B. On that front, she annotated the Remote Gambling Act and the Public Entertainments Act for the Lexis Nexis Annotated Statutes of Singapore.

She is a strong proponent of helping the entertainment, hospitality and lifestyle sectors grow. She is a legal advisor to various associations, and is on the recommended panel of lawyers for both trade associations, as well as for Singapore Tenants United for Fairness Society (SGTUFF). 

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

Eu-Yen has worked on a wide range of business-related matters. Below is a snapshot of the spectrum of work that she handles:

  • 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 Company and SMRT Corporation, respectively.
  • Advised on and prepared complex buy and sell agreements for a luxury goods investment business, Watch Fund, involving separate negotiations with multiple parties.
  • Managed all agreements required for the successfully franchise and establishment of The Butter Factory KL, including preparation of all franchise manuals for operations, service standards, branding guidelines, and legal forms.
  • Acted for the former CEO of an SGX listed company, AEM-Evertech, in a landmark whistleblower case involving corruption charges.
  • Acted for independent director of an SGX listed company, Airocean, in a landmark case involving corporate disclosure obligations under listing rules and securities law.
  • Advised franchisee of a Taiwanese bubble tea chain, Don’t Yell at Me, on shareholder terms for subscribers of minority shares in the franchise entity based in Singapore.
  • Advised a home-grown F&B group, Soup Spoon, with approximately 30 outlets island-wide on the terms of its commercial lease with a large property developer.
  • Managed all agreements required for locally produced short film titled Sex Violence Family Values that won multiple international film festival awards, including contracts for actors, film crew, theatre release and streaming on iTunes and other platforms.
  • Advised a global game machine wholesaler on its business plans to grow a virtual entertainment website globally, coordinating with foreign counsel to achieve a global overview of regulatory frameworks. 
  • Advised and acted for Siloso Beach Resort in seeking clarification from authorities on permissible sound levels and negotiating with Sentosa Development Corporation in relation to noise control at certain Sentosa nightlife establishments. 

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
  • Legal advisor, Singapore Nightlife Business Association
  • Advisory board member, Asia Law Network
  • Advisory board member and start-up mentor, Innovate 360
  • Women-in-Practice Committee member, Law Society of Singapore
  • Public and International Law Committee member, Law Society of Singapore
  • Member, Law Society of Singapore
  • Member, Singapore Academy of Law
  • Assessor, Panel of Assessors under Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act
  • “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