Darius Tay

DARIUS is a director and co-founder of BlackOak LLC in Singapore, and his work focuses on special situations, including both contentious and noncontentious aspects of corporate restructuring and insolvency, banking and finance, and mergers and acquisitions for special situations. A key component of his practice is advising various fund managers on both compliance and regulatory matters, as well as on issues arising from their investments and portfolio companies and working with various debtor companies. As a separate component of his practice, he works closely with various start-ups, especially those in the logistics field, advising them on all aspects of their business including regulatory and business contracts, and assisting them with corporate governance and fundraising. He was appointed to the Singapore Supreme Court’s Young Amicus Curiae Scheme in 2014. He acted as amicus curiae in the only reported Singapore judgment on the issue of testamentary capacity regarding the disposal of one’s Central Provident Fund (Singapore’s national retirement savings plan) monies and was also part of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore’s working committee on their amicus brief in Kao Chai Chau Linda v Fong Wai Lyn Carolyn and Others [2016] 1 SLR 21, a landmark Singapore decision on insolvency practitioners’ remuneration.

A recognized rising star of the local corporate restructuring and insolvency scene, Darius has been ranked in such leading publications as Asia Law, Chambers Asia Pacific, The Legal 500 Asia Pacific, The Best Lawyers in America and IFLR 1000. He also was recognized as Asia Law “Profile’s Rising Star” in 2022, IFLR “Futures Leader” in 2021, and a Euromoney Expert’s Guide “Rising Star” in 2021. He served as co-chair of the Young Insolvency Practitioner Committee of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore from 2020-22, is a founding member of the Turnaround Management Association NextGen Singapore, and is an International Insolvency Institute NextGen Programme member. In addition, he was co-chair of the Singapore Insolvency Conference from 2021-23, and he was named a Top 40 under 40 by Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific and listed in The Best Lawyers in Singapore for Insolvency and Reorganisation Law from 2023-25.

Darius came from a financially average household, and since an overseas education was out of the question for his family, the only way to get to law school was if he qualified for a highly competitive law school program in Singapore, of which there was only one at the time. Although he was not admitted, while he was in his second year of school his university opened another law school in Singapore; this time, he was admitted to the new school. His accounting knowledge acquired plus his legal studies undertaken have shaped his career path, and he sees it as his duty to help those who come after him. To that end, he teaches at his alma mater on the subjects of equity and trust, company law and corporate law. He also has tutored students who were studying for their bar exams in corporate insolvency. Through the firm, which he co-founded in 2016, he has participated and organized various programs for law students and young legal professions on a yearly basis, including an annual negotiation competition and a training workshop.