• B.A (Hons) in Law from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, 1989

• Certificate of Legal Practice, Malaysia, 1990

• Admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya, 1992

• Awarded the Master of Laws (LLM), University of Malaya, 1999

• Admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Brunei, 2002

• Awarded Diploma in Corporate Governance and Compliance, Basel Institute of Governance, Switzerland and Malaysian Institute of Management, 2023

Nava commenced his professional career in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1992. He worked for Jeyaratnam & Chong and subsequently, Nair and Nava before arriving at Brunei Darussalam shores. Nava joined the firm in July 2002, and became a partner in 2009. He is currently the head of the litigation department in the firm.

He specializes in civil litigation. His area of expertise is banking, contract, corporate, insolvency, land and professional negligence. He has conducted numerous interlocutory applications, trials and appeals both in Bruneian and West Malaysian (Peninsular) courts and continues to represent Banks and multinationals in litigation matters. Nava has also had the privilege of being one of the solicitors acting for companies that are listed in Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange when based in Malaysia and in Brunei he continues to be involved in high-profile cases.

A number of cases that Nava has been involved in as an advocate have been reported in the Brunei Law Reports. In one of the cases that he handled, Nava had the privilege of submitting for a change in procedural laws in Brunei – which was eventually accepted and the law was changed.

Nava was invited by the Authorities to be a member of the working committee for drafting of the Winding-Up Rules and Insolvency Practitioners Rules which have been made into law. He is the author of the Brunei jurisdiction chapter in Corporate Restructuring and Insolvency in Asia 2020, a joint publication by Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) and the International Insolvency Institute (III). Nava was also a consultation group expert for the guide on Business Restructuring of Micro and Small Enterprises in Asia released by ABLI and III in May 2022. From time to time, he continues to conduct seminars and workshops on legal and good governance matters for various institutional clients.