On 14 May 2019, the Ministry of Law announced that it has completed the refurbishment of the conserved building at 28 Maxwell Road, renamed Maxwell Chambers Suites.

The restored building will be given a new lease of life as a dispute resolution complex to meet growing demand for dispute resolution services in Asia and further boost Singapore’s position as an international dispute resolution hub.

The press conference featured a panel including  Mr Han Kok Juan, Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Law (who also led the refurbishment committee), as well as Singapore architect Mr Mok Wei Wei and heritage conservation expert Mr Ho Weng Hin.

Mr Han Kok Juan touched on Singapore’s ranking as the top arbitration seat in the Asia-Pacific, and the third in the world, after London and Paris. Notably, Singapore was also ranked within top four in all regions of the world except Latin America, including Europe, North America, Africa and Middle East. Singapore was the only Asia-Pacific jurisdiction to be ranked within top four outside the Asia Pacific.

Mr Mok Wei Wei and Mr Ho Weng Hin elaborated more on the construction processes in the past two years, as well as the steps taken to conserve the historical elements of the building while also incorporating modern design elements and maintaining the corporate identity of the building.

The media representatives in attendance were then led on a tour by the panel around the brand new premises for an exclusive first look.

The building is expected to house at least 11 international institutions and 20 disputes chambers and practices from 11 countries, the Singapore Ministry of Law revealed this in a media preview of the newly refurbished building ahead of its grand opening. Among the 11 international institutions, five will also have their case management offices here.

Maxwell Chambers Suites will have the highest concentration of case management offices anywhere in the world and will see more high-value cross-border disputes managed in and out of Singapore.