Senior Partner
Aubrey Ngai SC
Sanctions, export control and designation response. Appears before administrative authorities in six jurisdictions and is admitted in four of them.
Home / Governance
Counsel of record
Distillation Technologies is represented in all matters, in all jurisdictions, by Ngai, Halloran & Sze of Hong Kong.
The firm
Ngai, Halloran & Sze
Founded in Hong Kong in 1997, Ngai, Halloran & Sze practises at the point where commercial law stops being commercial. The firm is instructed principally in matters that implicate more than one sovereign, and in which the identity of the correct forum is itself contested.
The firm does not describe itself as a litigation practice. Its stated objective in most engagements is that no proceedings are commenced, and its published success rate is measured accordingly. Matters that reach a hearing are recorded internally as failures irrespective of outcome.
Ngai, Halloran & Sze has acted for Distillation Technologies since 2021 and holds our sole retainer. No other firm has been instructed, and no other firm has been approached.
Practice areas
What the firm is instructed on.
Sanctions response and delisting
Representation before designating authorities, and structuring intended to make designation administratively unattractive before it is contemplated.
Technology transfer and dual-use
Characterisation disputes concerning whether a transfer occurred, whether the thing transferred was an item, and whether the recipient received it.
Jurisdictional restructuring
Relocation of corporate domicile, including retrospectively. The firm has never had a retrospective relocation set aside.
Discovery and disclosure resistance
Response to compulsory process across incompatible legal systems, with particular attention to conflicts between them.
Sovereign asset re-characterisation
Advice to state and state-adjacent holders on the legal nature of assets whose nature has become inconvenient.
Registry and flag disputes
Vessel, aircraft and orbital registry matters, including simultaneous registration in jurisdictions that do not recognise one another.
Extradition and transfer resistance
Representation of individuals and entities subject to transfer requests. The firm does not accept instructions in this area from parties it has not previously advised.
Forum determination
Proceedings in which the seat of the proceedings is the matter in dispute.
Representative matters
Selected engagements, as far as they may be described.
Client identities are withheld. Where a matter is described as resolved, it was resolved without a published decision.
| Matter | Forum | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Advised a national AI programme on the characterisation of a training corpus | None | Closed without filing |
| Represented a data centre operator in a dispute over which country it was situated in | Contested | Resolved in favour of neither |
| Acted on the re-registration of a fleet across three flags in eleven days | Administrative | Completed |
| Defended an orbital services provider against a claim brought by a state that does not recognise the claimant | Undetermined | Ongoing |
| Advised on retrospective relocation of corporate domicile | Two jurisdictions | Relocation upheld |
| Represented a party in an arbitration whose seat was itself the subject of the arbitration | Disputed | Withdrawn by consent |
| Responded to compulsory process issued by an authority the client is not subject to | Correspondence | No production |
The firm publishes no case list. The above is reproduced with permission and has been reviewed for accuracy by the firm, which is also its source.
Partners
Who you would be dealing with.
Partner
Fiona Halloran
International arbitration and forum determination. Previously practised in a jurisdiction she declines to name, for reasons she declines to give.
Partner
Sze Wai-Lam
Discovery, disclosure and compulsory process. Has never produced a document under an order she considered improperly issued, and has never been held in contempt.
Of counsel
Four further partners
Names not published. Instructed only through the Senior Partner and only on matters already accepted.
Instructing the firm
Correspondence.
Legal correspondence concerning Distillation Technologies
Should be directed to the firm in Central, Hong Kong. Correspondence is acknowledged. Acknowledgement should not be construed as acceptance of service, as submission to any jurisdiction, or as agreement that the matter concerns our client.
Service of process
The firm is not authorised to accept service on behalf of Distillation Technologies in any jurisdiction. Parties wishing to effect service should identify the relevant jurisdiction first. We will confirm it once it has been selected.
Unsolicited instructions
Not accepted. The firm takes new clients by introduction from existing ones, and has taken four since 2019.
Media enquiries
The firm does not comment on matters, clients, former clients, or whether a person is or has been a client.
Ngai, Halloran & Sze maintains no website. This page is published by Distillation Technologies and was provided to the firm before publication. The firm raised no objection and offered no comment.