Francis is Regional Head, Disputes Practices of Rajah & Tann and was appointed Senior Counsel in January 2009. He practises in the areas of international and treaty arbitration and cross-border commercial litigation. He specialises in corporate and commercial disputes, especially in the areas of corporate, banking, property, and financial and investment-related claims. He also specialises in aviation law and advised in the class-action suit resulting from the crash of the SilkAir flight in Indonesia in 1997 and the Taiwan SIA crash.
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Francis is currently sitting as a party-nominated arbitrator of a Mauritius entity in a bilateral investment treaty (ICSID) dispute with the Government of India. He has also been appointed as counsel for an ASEAN government in an ICSID arbitration involving a European state investor. Recently, he has been appointed as Chairman of the Listings Appeals Committee, an independent committee set up by the Singapore Exchange, to which parties can appeal against disciplinary actions taken.
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Francis is a Chartered Arbitrator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK. He is the current Chairman, Singapore Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is also a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, Singapore Academy of Law, and the Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators. He is on the Panel of Arbitrators at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre; Singapore Institute of Arbitrators; Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration; Kigali International Arbitration Centre, Rwanda; Japan Commercial Arbitration Association; and the Indian Council of Arbitrators.