Ms Irene E. Tan is a Senior Partner of the Firm.
Ms Irene graduated with an LL.B (Honours) from the University of Aberystwyth, United Kingdom in 2004 and excelled as a top honours Calcott Pryce Award recipient. She thereafter pursued her postgraduate law studies at the West of England, Bristol University in 2005 where she passed with flying colours in the first sitting. She was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 2006 and is a Barrister of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, London. Prior to returning to Malaysia, Ms Irene has worked in a government-linked agency in England, including in a legal and real estate corporation. She was Called to the High Court of Malaya as an Advocate & Solicitor and admitted to the Malaysian Bar in February 2008. She was subsequently retained as a corporate and commercial lawyer in a top corporate city firm focusing in high end corporate transactions.
Ms Irene is a highly seasoned Senior Partner with nearly 20 years of distinguished legal practice. A recognized specialist in real estate, housing project developments, strata advisory and banking law, she is a trusted advisor for many of Malaysia’s most reputable public-listed property developers, multinational corporations, and Tier-1 financial institutions. Under her leadership, the firm has explicitly acted for numerous property developers in Malaysia, managing large-scale housing, commercial and mixed development projects and joint ventures.
Ms. Irene possesses comprehensive project expertise, steering developers through the entire lifecycle of multi-million and multi-billion ringgit developments. She is involved in project initiation by formulating joint venture agreements, land acquisitions, collaborations, and cross-border commercial frameworks. Under her belt, Ms Irene is able to competently navigate the intricacies of under-construction and post construction matters. Her track record spans massive townships, mixed-use commercial hubs, and residential projects across Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Pantai Timur (Kelantan & Terengganu), Northern States (Penang & Kedah), and Johor.
Certified in Islamic Finance, Ms. Irene leads the firm to act as panel solicitors in both conventional and islamic financing documentation for virtually all major local and foreign financial institutions in Malaysia. She advises on complex, multi-tiered project financing, bridging loans, sme loan, corporate banking facilities, housing and retail end-financing. The firm’s panel bank coverage includes Maybank, Houzkey, CIMB, RHB, Public Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Ambank, Affin Bank, LPPSA, Bank Islam, HSBC, UOB (including formerly Citibank), OCBC, Alliance Bank, Standard Chartered, Bank Muamalat, Bank Simpanan Nasional, Bank of China and Bank Rakyat. She is experienced in comprehensive portfolios in structuring conventional and Syariah-compliant facilities for housing, retail, SME, corporate, and developer bridging loans.
Ms Irene is also a recognized leader in the local legal community where she has actively participated in the Malaysia Bar Council Committee and Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee. She serves on specialized task forces like the Corporate & Conveyancing Practice Committee, representing the Bar in official meetings with government bodies like the Kuala Lumpur Lands and Mines Office (PPTG WPKL), Islamic Finance Committee, holding dialogues with banks and AMLA Committee, where together with her committee Council Members, delve into compliance, implementation of new policies and discussions with Bank Negara. She currently sits on board of several local and foreign organizations, corporations and associations as legal counsel. She is actively serving as the current Chairman of Solaris Dutamas Management Corporation, demonstrating real-world operations, executive leadership in master mixed development township management and community dispute resolution.
Her authority extends beyond private practice into regulatory governance. Ms. Irene has been directly invited by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) to shape national housing policies, including the discourse, study, and amendments to the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act (HDA) and MATRADE for cross border trade delegation missions. Armed with a formidable corporate legal background from a top-tier city firm and international exposure within the ASEAN and Asia-Pacific region, she seamlessly bridges complex regulatory compliance with high-value commercial execution.
Due to her corporate background with exposure to high end corporate transactions and national projects, she is adept in structuring and drafting of corporate and commercial agreements such as joint ventures, collaborations, investments and start ups. Her long standing clients include corporations, private listed companies, public listed companies, MNCs, government listed companies, financial institutions and individual clients. She is also a favourite lawyer to consult or to go to for her individual clients’ families for being knowledgeable, reliable and empathetic.
While her commercial acumen and institutional authority are undisputed, Ms. Irene is well known and is equally reputable for being approachable, compassionate and deeply reliable. It is this rare blend of deep technical competency and genuine empathy that has earned her the unyielding loyalty of corporate clients and multigenerational individual families alike, many of whom have relied exclusively on her counsel for nearly two decades.
