Christopher Leong Sau Foo

On the court record

Christopher Leong Sau Foo appears in the corpus in high-value commercial and cross-border disputes, particularly in the energy sector and in international arbitration, argued in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan). One High Court matter, appearing for the plaintiff, arose from the contest over natural gas supply in Sarawak: an interpleader and mandatory injunction application by Shell MDS (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd caught between competing payment claims from Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros), against the backdrop of a federal-state jurisdictional dispute under the Petroleum Development Act 1974 and the Distribution of Gas Ordinance 2016; the injunction was granted to preserve the status quo and ensure continued supply with protected payments pending resolution of the underlying conflict. A second High Court matter, appearing for the defendant, concerned jurisdiction over a foreign firm: whether the Malaysian court had jurisdiction over White & Case LLP under section 23(1) of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 and Order 11 of the Rules of Court in 1Malaysia Development Berhad's claims for dishonest assistance and conspiracy to injure by unlawful means. The third matter, in the Court of Appeal and appearing for the respondent, was an arbitration enforcement dispute between offshore petroleum entities, testing enforcement of an award under section 39 of the Arbitration Act 2005 against an application to set it aside under section 37, with reference to the grounds in sections 37(1)(a)(iv) and (v) and to Articles 34.2 and 34.3 of the model law. A common feature of the three matters is that each engages the machinery by which the courts allocate or decline jurisdiction and preserve competing rights while a larger dispute is resolved elsewhere — a mandatory injunction to hold the ring in the gas-supply contest, a challenge to service and jurisdiction over a foreign defendant, and the enforcement or setting aside of an award that a tribunal, not the court, had made. Taken together the appearances mark a practice at the apex of commercial litigation — oil and gas regulation, the jurisdictional reach of the Malaysian courts over foreign parties, and the enforcement and setting aside of arbitral awards.