Gopal Sreenevasan

On the court record

A senior company and commercial litigation practice centred on shareholders' disputes and the oppression remedy, up to the Federal Court.

Gopal Sreenevasan practises in corporate and commercial litigation, appearing across the Federal Court (Mahkamah Persekutuan), the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi) and the Court of Appeal (Mahkamah Rayuan), and the reported decisions describe a senior company-disputes practice weighted toward the respondent and defendant side. Company law is central: the reported matters engage breaches of a shareholders' agreement, the member's oppression remedy under "section 181" of the companies legislation, and schemes of arrangement and the statutory provisions governing them.

The reported work also reaches tort and misrepresentation — including whether a party was induced to enter a transaction by any misrepresentation — and contract disputes resolved by judgment after trial. Appearing largely as respondent and defendant, the practice is instructed in resisting corporate and commercial claims, testing whether the elements of an oppression, misrepresentation or breach-of-contract claim are made out. The matters that reach the Federal Court turn on questions of law of general importance in company and commercial practice.

The work turns on the interpretation of the Companies Act and of shareholders' agreements and on the principles of tort and contract. In the oppression matters the argument concerns whether the affairs of the company were conducted unfairly toward a member; in the shareholders'-agreement matters the construction of the agreement and the consequences of breach; in the misrepresentation matters whether a party was induced to contract; and in the scheme matters the statutory requirements for a scheme of arrangement. The reported reasons frequently address the balance of rights between shareholders and the company.

The overall profile is that of senior counsel handling substantial company and commercial disputes at every tier up to the Federal Court. The matters turn on the Companies Act, the oppression remedy, and the principles of contract and misrepresentation, rather than on any criminal or public-law dimension, marking a practice concentrated on high-value corporate litigation.