Augustine Liew

Augustine is a Consultant with Incisive Law LLC and Head of the Admiralty practice.

Since the commencement of his legal practice in 1986, Augustine has specialised in maritime matters. He handled a substantial amount of work from 2 leading international law firms in the formative years of his practice, before spending many years practising as one of the main equity partners in one of Singapore’s most well-known specialist admiralty firms until he joined Incisive Law LLC in early 2024.

Augustine’s work is predominantly focused on all aspects of dry shipping and wet admiralty matters. The nature of work he is engaged in includes advisory work, court action, meditation and arbitration, disputes involving charterparty claims, ship collisions, tug and tow incidents, oil pollution, ship sinking, ship constructive total loss/actual total loss, groundings, containers overboard, shipboard fires, cargo damage/loss, general average, salvage, charterparty issues, ship sale and purchase disputes, bunker claims, shipyard work, ship-management claims, oil shortage and contamination claims, mortgage enforcements, crew injury and fatal accident claims, limitation actions, as well as ship arrests.

Augustine is regularly instructed by many P&I clubs, marine insurance brokers and leading shipowners (in Asia and some from Europe) on these matters and also by some Hull & Machinery underwriters. He is often noted by clients to possess an impressive level of commercial acumen, providing straightforward, precise, practical and innovative solutions, without any unnecessary complexity.

Augustine is one of a rare breed of legal practitioners, possessing both a pragmatic approach towards litigation and case handling as well as a decorated academic curriculum vitae. This duality in his capabilities puts him well on the cutting edge of new developments in Admiralty law. Augustine has contributed to the IBA Maritime Law Handbook (2005 to current), “Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims” by Griggs, Williams and Farr (LLP, 4th Edition 2005), “Singapore Precedents of Pleadings” (Sweet & Maxwell Asia, 2006), and to the editing of Halsbury’s Laws of Singapore Vol. 3 (Carriers – Current).

Augustine also holds the following academic positions: Examiner and Lecturer for the Singapore Academy of Law’s Maritime & Shipping Specialist Accreditation Course; tutor for the Admiralty subject on the Singapore Institute of Legal Education’s course for future lawyers to qualify for legal practice; Guest Lecturer on the Nanyang Technological University’s postgraduate Admiralty courses; and Trainer for a maritime academy founded by Singapore’s largest national workers’ union. Augustine also assisted in introducing the Admiralty subject for Temasek Polytechnic’s Diploma in Legal Executive Studies, where he was a Lecturer, Tutor, and Examiner of the subject for some years.