Fátima Dermawan

Fátima joined MdME in 2015, and her practice covers both advisory and advocacy work in civil and criminal law. She acts and advises in disputes in various fields, including general commercial and contractual disputes, white-collar crimes, securities and regulatory matters, probate, property, and construction. She also acts in public and administrative law cases, with an emphasis on land resumption litigation.

Apart from advocacy work at the various court levels, Fátima has handled a range of commercial arbitration cases. She also has a particular interest in multi-jurisdictional disputes and matters with a cross-border element and has advised on a number of such cases involving novel and complex legal issues, in both contentious and non-contentious settings.

Prior to joining MdME, Fátima worked with the litigation and arbitration team at a Tier 1 Portuguese law firm, where she focused mainly on the areas of criminal and misdemeanor litigation, as well as international arbitration.

Fátima is triple-qualified in both common law and civil law jurisdictions (admitted in Macau, New York and Portugal). She completed her LL.B. degree at Nova Law School, ranking top of her year and receiving prize for best overall performance. She subsequently obtained her LL.M. degree at Católica Global School of Law, as well as an LL.M. degree at Harvard Law School.

During her LL.M. at Harvard Law School, she actively engaged with mediation and alternative dispute resolutions. As part of the Harvard Mediation Program, she became a trained mediator under Massachusetts law and participated in mediations at the small claims court.