Delta Law upstages industry giants in insolvency and restructuring law

Three lawyers got together to start Delta Law Corporation in June 2025, but their roots go back to their undergraduate days in the same cohort at the Singapore Management University.

As their careers unfolded across several law firms, Cephas Yee, Joshua Tan and Sean Lee’s paths crossed repeatedly in the legal work trenches, enabling them to personally understand one another’s work ethics and capabilities.

Between them, they cultivated a range of core specialties: Tan focused on corporate and commercial foundations, fund raising, and mergers and acquisitions; Lee navigated debt distress and insolvency; and Yee spearheaded commercial litigation and arbitration.

Together, they covered the full cycle of corporate life, from creation and raising capital to restructuring and courtroom battles.

The trio also developed, early on, a clearly aligned vision towards effective legal practice.

“There was a clear emphasis on having strong commercial instincts, and the importance of giving clear advice and solutions that work. There was consistent validation from client feedback, which strengthened our confidence in each other.

“The mantra we would use in the firm is ‘making it clear, making it work’, and that is how we try to approach every brief,” said Lee, a partner at Delta alongside Yee and Tan.

That philosophy has paid dividends. The boutique firm snagged top spot in the insolvency and restructuring law field in The Straits Times/Statista Singapore’s Best Law Firms 2027 survey, upstaging the industry’s “Big Five” and other firms by placing a premium on agility, focus and deep specialisation. 

“The benefits have been concrete. We have been able to build a highly curated team of lawyers, growing in one year to 12 lawyers. Decisions for the firm are made quickly, thanks to our aligned vision and approach. We chose to take a more modern approach of empowering our lawyers with autonomy and agency to develop themselves in a way that works for them, and have found that this has kept morale strong,” said Lee.

In an August 2026 judgment, Delta – acting alongside RCLT Law Corporation for the Indonesian bankruptcy administrators of Sritex Group – secured a landmark Singapore International Commercial Court judgment regarding US$725 million (S$928 million) in Singapore Exchange-listed notes.

The ruling had three significant legal outcomes: It formally recognised an Indonesian corporate bankruptcy in Singapore for the first time, affirmed the court’s power to restrain secured creditors in liquidations when security is potentially tainted or assets depleted, and established that foreign office-holders seeking general investigative powers need not meet the stricter standard required for compelling named individuals.

Lee said this third outcome has important practical value in empowering office-holders against resistance from banks and auditors.

“The significance of the case for us is simpler. Clients and counsel do not typically send work like that to a new letterhead. They send it to the lawyers they already trust,” he added. 

That underlying trust is also why Delta’s recognition in the ST/Statista 2027 rankings felt particularly meaningful, said Lee. “It means a good deal, though perhaps not quite in the way one might expect. The ranking is built on recommendations from people in the profession and from clients. Given that we are a brand-new boutique firm, whatever recommendations were given to us were given to the lawyers in the firm. This is invaluable to us.” 

Delta’s pragmatic philosophy extends to how it handles emerging legal tech. In an era where law firms adopt generative artificial intelligence, Delta’s approach is deliberate and unhurried. It views AI strictly as an enabler rather than a crutch – a tool to accelerate research and draft preparation, never a substitute for legal analysis.

“Technology makes a well-prepared lawyer faster. It does not make an unprepared one ready,” said Lee.