Clement Yap

Clement is a Partner in our Family and Divorce Practice Group. He specialises in contested matrimonial litigation regarding custody/care & control, relocation, division of matrimonial assets, maintenance, and conflicts of law. He has acted as lead counsel in the Family Justice Court, Supreme Court and Syariah Court.

Clement holds the concurrent appointment of Assistant Professor (Adjunct) at the National University of Singapore's ('NUS') Faculty of Law. Clement designs and teaches the Specialised Topics in Family Law module. This module covers cutting-edge family law issues such as international child abduction and cross-border divorces. He is also in charge of adoption matters in the firm's Family and Divorce Practice Group.

• WQP v WQQ [2024] SGHC(A) 34
  Clement successfully acted for a Husband in an appeal on the division of matrimonial assets. The Appellate Division increased the Husband’s share of the assets from 55% to 65%, resulting in the Husband obtaining about SGD 1.3 million more.This case involved a novel point of law regarding the accounting of pre-marital assets in the absence of sufficient evidence.
• VIG v VIH [2020] SGHCF 16
  Clement successfully acted for the Husband in this case which involved matrimonial assets exceeding SGD 35 million in value. The High Court found for the Husband and divided the matrimonial assets 70% (Husband): 30% (Wife) even though the Wife had sought 50%. This case involved a novel point of law regarding the treatment of performance bonuses as matrimonial assets.
• UTL v UTM [2019] SGHCF 10
  Clement successfully acted for the Husband in this case involving the division of matrimonial assets exceeding SGD 10 million in value. This case was unique in that the Wife claimed she lost large sums of monies through bad investments and/or loans. The Court subsequently reinstated some of the ‘lost’ sums back into the pool for division.
• BZD v BZE [2020] SGCA 1
  Clement successfully resisted an ex-wife’s appeal to increase the spousal maintenance payable by her ex-spouse almost a decade after the end of the marriage.
• UQN v UQO [2018] SGFC 107
  Clement successfully acted for a Wife who sought to relocate from Singapore to the USA with her three young children, against the Husband’s objections. The Court's permission was obtained and the Wife was able to leave Singapore with the children.
• UGH v UQO [2020] SGFC 86
  Clement successfully argued a novel point of law regarding the jurisdiction of the Family Justice Court and the interaction with foreign Courts that have concurrent jurisdiction.