TITO ISAAC & CO LLP
COVID-19: COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROTOCOL

We live in challenging times.

With each passing day, more measures are implemented to contain this Pandemic. Every day, more measures are taken to assist us as a nation.

As a law firm we would like to help. We want to do what we can, with what we have, where we are.

What we have is legal knowledge. Whilst we can provide very many written articles on everyday legal problems, we believe that there is no substitute for a listening ear.

Where we are? We are segregated. In this time of social segregation and isolation it may be connection that is the key. Novel means of connection such as Zoom must be embraced.

What we can do is to set aside 1 hour, every Wednesday of every week from 5.00 pm to 6.00 pm. to answer legal questions from the general public.

Slots will be made available by registration through the interface below. The consult will be conducted via telephone conference or Zoom. After registration, the phone no. to dial or the personal link name will be sent to as many of you as we can via email.

Sometimes all that is required is a short chat.

In the meantime we wish you and your families well. Stay safe.

TITO ISAAC & CO LLP
COVID-19: CLIENT SUPPORT PROTOCOL

During these trying times we remain committed to maintain full-service scope utilizing a hybrid system of team rotation, office segregation and remote operation. We have already received instruction on various legal issues which arise from Covid-19.

To our existing clients, you remain valued and appreciated. We anticipate wide ranging effects of this pandemic. Substantial business interruption will happen. There are DAILY changes to the legal landscape, creating uncertainty and anxiety to corporate and individual litigants.

In this world of social segregation, a listening ear may be the best form of connection. We anticipate that you will have pressing questions regarding the following areas of law:-

• Employment: wage cuts, termination, withdrawal of bonuses, breach of contract
• Debt Collection and recovery: delayed payment, difficulties in collection of invoices, Government restrictions on litigation in relation to specific contracts
• Construction: Delayed projects, supply chain, critical path, extension of time
• Landlord and Tenant: Evictions, breach of warranty, diplomatic clauses, re-entry
• Credit and Banking: extension of credit terms, recovery issues, collection of personal data.
• Family Law: difficulties with enforcement of maintenance, increased domestic tension caused by stay home orders, access rights.
• Criminal matters: possible effects on sentencing, hearing dates, mitigation pleas.
• Mediation: effective resolution via video conferencing

We find that a simple chat often alleviates your concerns. Even knowing the nature of the legal problem and understanding your options going forward gives comfort.

Do not hesitate to call us.

Thank you for your phone call! We may need a few moments to connect you.

Every phone call is important to us. We make every effort to connect clients who telephone our office with the lawyer or staff member they wish to speak with as soon as possible. With the current COVID-19 situation, a number of our people are currently working from home. For this reason, it may now take a few moments longer than usual to redirect your call and connect you to the them. We very much appreciate your patience and understanding.

Changes in office hours

Litigation & ADR Department
10.30 am – 7.30 pm
(Unless Court hearings otherwise mandate.)

Property Law Department
9.00 am – 6.00 pm

Administration Department
10.00 am – 7.00 pm

Dear Clients, Friends & Fellow Practitioners,

In this time of uncertainty, the COVID-19 situation changes on a daily basis. As a firm we have implemented a hybrid system of: team rotation, office segregation and remote operation. These safety measures are calculated to ensure uninterrupted service to you whilst maintaining a safe working environment for you and our teams. The measures that we have continually taken to ensure your and our staff’s safety and well-being are:

• Travel declaration forms for both our clients and our staff;
• Temperature checks on visitors;
• Twice-a-day temperature checks for our staff
• Daily rigorous cleaning of our premises and common areas;
• Implementing work from home for our lawyers and staff individually and in teams;
• Moving our meetings and court attendances online;
• Ensuring that our staff has continuous access to documents in the office; and
• Limiting the staff in our office with the requisite social distancing.

Besides the measures set out above, we have been advising members of our firm to monitor their health regularly and seek immediate medical aid should they feel unwell.

We seek your cooperation should we have to make changes to our schedules in accordance with any changes due to COVID-19.

We thank you for your continuous support in these times and by implementing our very own Business Continuity Plan, we wish to bring you a sense of ease and confidence as we continue providing you with the same level of service in spite of the challenges faced by COVID-19.

Should you have any queries, please do contact any of our firm’s members.

Thank you.

Dear Clients

We live in uncertain times. With COVID-19, various challenges have surfaced which our firm is ready to adapt to and overcome.

WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS

We remain open for business and we are ready to respond to all our clients’ needs.

CHECKS & PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES

I would like to personally assure you that our firm’s COVID-19 Response Team has implemented various safety checks and precautionary measures, as advised by the Government of Singapore. As we follow the developments of this unfortunate situation, these checks and measures will be under constant review and, if necessary, will be updated as and when advised by the authorities. The safety and well-being of our clients and the personnel in our firm have and will always be our top priority.

TWO LAYERS OF SCREENING

There are two layers for temperature screening when visiting our office. The first takes place at all entrances into the building on level 1. The second takes place at our front desk on level 30.

INTERNAL MEASURES

We regularly remind our staff to monitor their health and to immediately seek medical assistance should they feel unwell and / or show symptoms of the virus. Above and beyond the temperature screening taken by the building security on level 1, every member of our firm is subject to temperature screening twice a day. Further, every member of the firm has to declare if they have travelled overseas within the last 14 days. Should there be anyone who has travelled within this period, we ensure that that person works from home for at least 14 days. We have also commissioned our house-keeping team to increase the frequency of cleaning our premises. Further, we have made hand sanitizers and disinfecting wipes available for all members of our firm.

BUSINESS CONTINUNITY PLAN

We have a Business Continuity Plan. A plan which we regularly update and improve to prepare ourselves for various scenarios. We have split-up our entire firm into several teams. Some teams work from home, while those working in office have been positioned to work some distance away from each other. We have, over the years, invested in technology and IT infrastructure to aid us in delivering our services efficiently. In short, our Business Continuity Plan is robust and enables us to ensure that we maintain the highest quality of service to our clients.

BUSINESS CONTINUNITY PLAN

We have a Business Continuity Plan. A plan which we regularly update and improve to prepare ourselves for various scenarios. We have split-up our entire firm into several teams. Some teams work from home, while those working in office have been positioned to work some distance away from each other. We have, over the years, invested in technology and IT infrastructure to aid us in delivering our services efficiently. In short, our Business Continuity Plan is robust and enables us to ensure that we maintain the highest quality of service to our clients.

OPTIONS FOR CLIENTS

With all these measures in place, our clients have the option of either personally visiting us at our office for consultations and meetings or choosing to communicate with us via telephone, teleconferencing, video call, e-mail or texting. Should our clients decide to visit us, they will be subject to a series of questions to ascertain whether there might be any risk infection.

SOME POSITIVE NEWS FROM CHINA

We realise that this is a serious and unprecedented issue of global proportions. The firm has clients and friends, not just in Singapore, but around the world. We are deeply concerned for their safety and well-being. And while the situation in Europe and The United States is continuing to evolve, one ray of hope is the stabilising situation in China, which has started to re-open their factories and businesses.

ADAPTING TO A NEW NORMAL

Amidst the travel restrictions, quarantines orders and lock-downs (which are necessary and must be taken seriously) there seems to be a determination among people everywhere to adapt to this new normal and to find new ways, with limited person to person contact, to continue going about their daily business. Our firm is also making every effort to do just that.

HOW CAN WE SERVE YOU?

If you have any concerns or questions that we may be able to assist with, please do contact me or any of the firm’s lawyers or members.

Sincerely

Tito Isaac
Managing Partner
Tito Isaac & Co LLP

27 March 2020

Is your company collecting personal data for contact tracing? Are you complying with the PDPA?

With the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many organisations have opted to collect the personal data of visitors to their premises for the purposes of contact tracing. This has led to some concern as to whether such actions are permissible under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (No. 26 of 2012) (“PDPA”).

Contact tracing purposes

On 13 February 2020, the Personal Data Protection Committee released an advisory stating that organisations may collect personal data of visitors to premises for purposes of contact tracing and other response measures in the event of an emergency. In order to accurately verify the identity of individuals, organisations may collect visitors’ NRIC, FIN or passport numbers.

Verify before disclosing personal data

In addition, organisations may collect, use and disclose relevant personal data without consent to carry out contact tracing and other response measures in the event of a COVID-19 case, as this is in the public interest – being necessary to protect and safeguard the life, health or safety of other individuals. For example, organisations may receive calls from the Ministry of Health and/or the Singapore Police Force as part of their contact tracing efforts of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases. Whilst such organisations are permitted to disclose relevant personal data, they should take reasonable steps to verify the caller’s identity (e.g. requesting for the name, position and station of the caller). Taking such steps would minimize the risk of the organisation disclosing personal data to scam or phishing callers.

Have you made security arrangements for storing the data and avoiding misuse?

Nevertheless, organisations that collect such personal data must comply with the Data Protection Provisions of the PDPA. This includes making reasonable security arrangements to protect the personal data in their possession from unauthorised access or disclosure, and ensuring that the personal data is not used for other purposes without consent or authorisation under the law. For example, if the data is stored online, an organisation must take steps to conduct relevant tests of it’s IT environment to ensure that personal data is protected. Further, by way of example, information collected for the purpose of contact tracing or response measures cannot be used to promote services.

Are you prepared for disposal and inspection of the data?

Further, organisations should also cease to retain such personal data as soon as it is reasonable to assume that the purpose for which that personal data was collected is no longer being served and retention is no longer necessary for legal or business purposes. Individuals are also entitled to inspect the personal data collected and to know how it has been used in the previous one year. An organisation must therefore have in place a standard “access request” procedure allowing an individual to inspect his or her personal data.

Our partner, Mr Gokul Haridas wil be one of the speakers (web-based) at the upcoming Personal Injury Compensation Act.

For more information and to register, please click the link below:

[WEBINAR] The PIPD 2020 Seminar

Should I Stay or Should I Go: A case study of Rex International Holding Ltd and another v Gulf Hibiscus Ltd

The case of Rex International Holding Ltd and another v Gulf Hibiscus Ltd [2019] SGCA 59 was an appeal by the appellants against the decision of the High Court judge (the “Judge”) to lift a stay of proceedings previously granted on case management grounds.

The respondents were successfully represented by the team of Tito Isaac & Co LLP consisting of Tito Isaac, Managing Partner, and Hariz Lee. This decision is the latest saga of the Suit which had resulted in two earlier judgments.

Click here to read the full article

Aviation Law

Our team of lawyers has experience in the aviation industry, with Clients based in Singapore and the South East Asia region. With an aviation practice that spans across several aspects of the industry, including liaising with regulatory authorities, aircraft sale and purchase, aircraft leasing, airline alliances, mergers & acquisitions and litigation, our Clients can rely on us to provide precise advice and solutions for both transactional and contentious work.

Corporate and Financing Transactions

Advising airlines, lessors, aircraft charter companies and financiers on transactions such as aircraft sale and purchase, wet and dry leasing arrangements, financing arrangements, air transport, maintenance and other service agreements.

Disputes

We have also advised on aviation disputes including aviation accidents and insurance issues, airline passenger claims, delivery disputes, defaults on leases and repossessions, disputes relating to aircraft parts, maintenance and repairs.

NEW rules for notarising documents take effect on 1 October 2019

Step 1: Notarise
Document to be signed by Notary Public. Notary’s seal to be affixed to document.

Step 2: Authentication (NEW)
Document to be sent to Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) for authentication.
A NEW QR code and authentication receipt will be issued with the notarised document.

With the authentication receipt, counterparties may verify the authenticity of the notarised document via the SAL website https://legalisation.sal.sg

Thank you for your patience and kind understanding

As this is a substantial change in procedure, the turnaround time needed for the notarization of documents may increase to cater for this process.

• SAL – Notice to Law Firms

• Mandatory Authentication Information

Should you require clarification, please contact us at
TEL: +65 6533 0288
EMAIlL: [email protected]

Or visit the SAL website
https://www.sal.org.sg/Newsroom/News-Releases/NewsDetails/id/1122

We have turned 20!

It was the 2nd of August 1999. Tito Isaac was standing in the middle of Circular Road, in the heart of Singapore’s business and financial district. He was looking up at the attic window of a pre-war shophouse. He was only 29 years old and had started his legal career as a military prosecutor. His wife Angela stood next to him, it was her 29th birthday. But she was about to spend it helping him move boxes and second-hand furniture up an impossibly long flight of stairs to the tiny shophouse attic he had rented for his new office.

Tito was branching out on his own.

He hired one secretary, bought two computers and placed three client files on his desk. Then he got down to work — in a profession he truly loved. 

Today is the 2nd of August 2019 and it has been 20 years since Tito started climbing those long stairs.  

With his wife still by his side; with the encouragement of his brother; with the support and trust of the many clients whom Tito and the firm have served over the years; and with the outstanding efforts of the many lawyers and secretaries who still are, or were once, part of the firm — the team has now grown to a staff strength of over 65. 

The firm now occupies the penthouse floor at 1 North Bridge Road. The building has excellent elevators but, sometimes, Tito still takes the stairs.

For our latest TIC Talks we were pleased to have welcomed Thomas J Cooper to speak to us about entrepreneurship.

Tom is Senior Vice-President of Sales and Business Development at Nextivity Inc (https://www.cel-fi.com).  Nextivity is a developer and manufacturer of residential and enterprise 3G/4G/5G/LTE wireless systems, software, mobile APPs focussed on mobile indoor performance and coverage issues. After spending the early part of his career with computer giant Hewlett-Packard (https://www.hp.com), Tom went on to start up his own computer-related businesses. His career spans four decades and various sectors of the US infotech industry. Tom who modestly describes himself as “just a guy” spoke about his “accidental journey to Silicon Valley — and beyond”. 

Justin Chan promoted to Senior Partner

From 1 September 2019, Mr Justin Chan will be elevated to the position of Senior Partner. Justin is among the firm’s longest-serving lawyers. He joined Tito Isaac & Co LLP in 2004 and has practiced with the firm for 15 years. Justin will also hold the title of Head, Dispute Resolution Practice and will be responsible for mentoring the firm’s junior lawyers and practice trainees. Justin is only the second lawyer in the firm’s 20-year history to have been made a Senior Partner. The first was Mr M Mohan who has since retired from the firm. The firm’s founder Mr Tito Isaac continues in his role as Managing Partner.

Newly-minted partner Kawal Pal Singh shares his inspiring story in an interview with Amanda Chai of The Sunday Times (Singapore Press Holdings) 7 July 2019.

“That played on my mind — feeling that I’m not good enough — and I don’t think I recovered from that till much later in life.” — Kawal Pal Singh, Partner

“So I was told by my mum, while I was preparing for exams in the library, ‘Congratulations, you’re a father now.’ “ — Kawal Pal Singh, Partner

“Kawal is not an ordinary lawyer from the perspective of work experience — he’s been through enough adversity to understand and possibly empathise with people who are facing the kind of cases we deal with. He already has parties trusting him with significant matters very early in his practice. You can give me the most competent person in the world, but if he lacks integrity and the fundamental parts of being a good lawyer, it doesn’t matter how many years he has.” — Tito Isaac, Managing Partner

Photo/Image/Screenshot from The Sunday Times (SPH)
https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/ite-graduate-takes-the-road-less-travelled-to-become-law-firm-partner