William Lye OAM QC

Year of first admission:

1987

Degrees:

M Ent Inn (Swin), LLM (Mon), BSc (Computers).

Jurisdictions:

Australia

Career:

William has been a member of the Victorian Bar since 1988, and is one of Her Majesty’s Counsel.  His areas of legal practice include general commercial law, corporations and securities, property law, intellectual property (trademarks and copyright), technology, computer and internet-related matters, domain name disputes, cross-border disputes, and alternative dispute resolution.

William is on the Council of Swinburne University of Technology, and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business and Law of Swinburne University.  He is also Patron of the North American Australian Lawyers Alliance.

Awards:

At the 2017 Australian Law Awards, William won the Barrister of the Year award and the Excellence Award. William is also the holder of the Order of Australia Medal for his service to the law, to business, and to the promotion of cultural diversity.

Alternative Dispute Resolution:

William completed his training as a mediator with LEADR (now the Resolution Institute) in 1995, and is also a Nationally Accredited Mediator. Since 1995, he has conducted numerous mediations, both as Counsel and as Mediator, in a broad range of commercial and family disputes.

William is also on the following arbitration bodies as a foreign arbitrator or panelist:

• Arbitration Association of Brunei Darussalam.
• Czech Arbitration Court for resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy.
• Shanghai International Arbitration Centre for disputes involving Technology and Manufacture (Computer and Electronic), Trademark, Contract, and Cross-border disputes.

In August 2019, William had the honour of attending the signing ceremony for the Singapore Convention on Mediation as a guest of the Singapore Government.

Asia

William was born in Penang and has both Malaysian and Singaporean heritage.

He has been on the Executive Committee of the Commercial Bar Association of Victoria, (Commbar) and since 2010 is the Chair of the Asia Practice section of CommBar. He is also a founding member and former national Vice President of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association, the premier association representing Asian Australian lawyers.  He was the founder and convenor of two significant conferences for CommBar with the theme ‘Engaging the Asian Economies – Law and Practice.’

William has been retained by clients to assist lawyers in the following jurisdictions:

• Malaysia for commercial litigation in the High Court of Malaya in the State of Perak.
• Singapore for commercial litigation in the High Court of Singapore, including the provision of expert opinion on the choice of law.
• China for commercial litigation in the Intermediate People’s Court in Shanghai and Hainan.

He has also been retained as Counsel to act for clients from London, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, and China with litigation matters in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

William is also involved in the teaching of advocacy and mooting competitions in Australia and overseas in public international law.  He coaches the Nuremberg moot and Jessup moot competitions for Monash University.