Professor Leslie Chew, SC

Professor Chew’s main practice area is at the Commercial Bar and he has occasionally represented clients in commercial crime or white collar cases. He has also acted as counsel for major banks in Singapore and a number of private banks as well as acting in medical cases on behalf of the restructured hospitals and private hospitals.

Having graduated from the law school of the University of Singapore, Professor Chew was admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 1981.

Professor Chew is an accomplished commercial arbitrator and has practised as an arbitrator and arbitration counsel since 1993. He is also active in the area of Insolvency where he was counsel for both financial institutions and liquidators. He has also actively advised HNWI in estate planning and family business disputes. He is also an esteemed author with several published titles.

• Graduated from the law school of the University of Singapore (the predecessor of the present National University of Singapore)
• Admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 1981
• Admitted as a Solicitor of England & Wales.

• Appointed Senior Counsel by the Supreme Court in 2000
• In 2007 he was appointed a District Judge and subsequently held office as a Senior District Judge heading the Civil Justice Division of the State Courts (then the Subordinate Courts) where he led 23 Judges and took charge of the civil cases.
• Was also a key member of the Senior Management of the Subordinate Courts (now known as the State Courts) where the organization was awarded the prestigious Singapore Quality Award (Special Commendation), the highest Business Excellence award in Singapore.
• He is also admitted as a Solicitor of England & Wales.

In 2002, he was awarded the Public Service Medal by the President of the Republic of Singapore for his contributions to the Military Court of Appeal.

• Sat as presiding arbitrator and co-arbitrator in SIAC, ICC and UNCITRAL arbitrations in various jurisdictions including India, Nepal and South Korea. He was a former president of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
• Founding and current Dean of Singapore’s third law school, the School of Law at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (formerly known as SIM University) and has regularly taught professional arbitration courses organised by the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and the NUS Faculty of Law (the Graduate Certificate in International Arbitration).
• Visiting professor at the Ateneo de Manila Law School, Philippines where he taught international arbitration.
• Director, MY World Preschool Ltd
• Director, Metropolitan YMCA
• Board Member, Singapore Institute of Legal Education
• Fellow, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators
• Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators

• An accomplished author with multiple esteemed titles to his name such as:
• Wong, Lok & Coomaraswamy, Gen Ed, Modern Advocacy, Perspectives from Singapore, Academy Publishing (2008)
• Leslie Chew, Introduction to the Law and Practice of Arbitration in Singapore, Lexis Nexis (2010)
• Daniel Koh, Gen Ed, Law and Practice of Injunctions, Interim Measures and Search Orders in Singapore, June 2017, Sweet & Maxwell
• Leong Thin Yin, Ed, Commemorative Book, Sep 2017, Singapore University of Social Sciences (Training future lawyers: The Multi-disciplinary and Applied Skills Approach)
• Contributor, Singapore Civil Procedure, Sweet & Maxwell, 2020
• Contributor, Law and Technology in Singapore, Editors Chesterman, Goh and Phang, Academy Publishing (October 2021)