Cherie Tan
Dual-Qualified Lawyer (Singapore & Western Australia) | Family Law, Estate Planning, Probate

I am a dual-qualified lawyer with a primary focus on estate planning and family law. I bring empathy, patience, and a client-first approach to matters such as divorce, custody, and maintenance, helping clients navigate emotionally complex situations with insight and compassion.

My broader areas of practice include:

• Mental Capacity Act matters
• Grants of Probate & Letters of Administration
• Wills
• Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA)

I regularly act for clients in contentious family and probate disputes, including high net worth matters involving substantial asset portfolios, and have successfully negotiated favourable settlements at mediation which avoided protracted litigation while preserving significant asset value.

I am driven by a strong belief in fairness and equal access to justice, and am committed to delivering thoughtful, practical, and effective legal support regardless of a client’s background or circumstances.

Outside of practice, I am passionate about community work, animal welfare, and travel — with aspirations of one day backpacking across the world with my two pomskies.

Notable Work

• Acted for high-net-worth individuals with asset portfolios exceeding S$100 million in complex family disputes, including matters involving corporate structures, investment holdings, trusts, and overseas assets.
• Acted in contentious probate and estate disputes involving claims for accounts and inquiries, including applications for accounts of profits arising from breaches of fiduciary duties and improper dealings with estate assets.
• Represented a husband/father in highly contentious divorce proceedings spanning over 2 years and involving more than 3,000 pages of court documents, financial records, and expert accounting reports. Successfully obtained a divorce on the husband’s counterclaim, care and control of two children, and 80% of the matrimonial assets.
• Represented a husband/father in an acrimonious cross-border access dispute involving children based in Indonesia. Successfully secured daily telecommunication access and overseas access rights after the father had been alienated from the children for more than 4 years.
• Represented a wife/mother and successfully obtained sole care and control of the children, together with the transfer of the matrimonial flat into her sole name without any CPF refunds or cash consideration payable to the husband/father.
• Second chair in a High Court appeal involving the division of matrimonial assets and maintenance. Successfully obtained an increase of 10% in the overall division of matrimonial assets for the wife/mother as well as enhanced maintenance orders for both mother and child.
• Second chair in a complex cross-jurisdictional dispute concerning an alleged fraud perpetrated by staff of a renowned casino. The matter involved a Myanmar tycoon, claims exceeding HK$20 million, and events occurring in Philippine waters.
• Second chair representing Singapore’s leading company in the business of water leakage detection and rectification services in a dispute against a former employee involving claims for breach of confidential information, breach of fiduciary duties, and breach of restraint of trade obligations.