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Professor Walter WOON, SC

Senior Consultant

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Professor Walter Woon is a Senior Consultant and Non-Executive Chairman of RHTLaw Asia.

Throughout his career, Professor Woon has held several prestigious positions and has had experience in legal practice, diplomacy and academia both locally and internationally.

Professor Woon has appeared in the High Court and Court of Appeal on many occasions, representing the President as co-counsel in Constitutional Reference No. 1 of 1995, which is the only case heard by the Constitutional Tribunal to date.

He is author of several law books, including The ASEAN Charter: A Commentary (2015); Walter Woon on Company Law (now in its third edition, edited by Professor Tan Cheng Han), a standard text on company law used in law and business schools in Singapore. In addition, he is also the author of reference works such as The Companies Act of Singapore: An Annotation (originally co-written with Andrew Hicks, now forming the basis of Woon’s Corporations Law); and Towards a Rules-Based Community: An ASEAN Legal Service (with Jean-Claude Piris).

Professor Woon has also published articles in the Malayan Law Journal, the Malaya Law Review, the Securities Industry Review, the Law Society Journal, the Singapore Academy of Law Journal, the Australian Journal of Corporate Law, the Pacific Rim Law and Policy Journal, the Korean Society of International Law Journal, and the Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs.

Table of Contents

Practice Areas

  • Commercial Litigation
  • Corporate
  • Financial Crime
  • Financial Disputes
  • Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Qualifications

  • Read law at the National University of Singapore on a Development Bank of Singapore Scholarship, graduating with First Class Honours in 1981
  • Awarded the Law Society of Singapore Book Prize thrice (1978, 1979 and 1980), the Adrian Clark Memorial Gold Medal as top student (1981), the Leow Chia Heng Prize (1981) and the External Examiners’ Special Cash Prize (1981)
  • Attended the Postgraduate Practice Law Course in 1981 and was awarded the Aw Boon Haw & Aw Boon Par Memorial Prize 1981 as top student, as well as the Tan Ah Tah Book Prize for professional ethics 
  • Attended Cambridge University on a Commonwealth Scholarship, graduating with an LL.M (First Class Honours) in 1983
  • Awarded the Whytehead Scholarship (1983) and the Wright Prize (1983) by St John’s College Cambridge  
  • Called to the Bar in 1984 and appointed Senior Counsel in 2007

Career Highlights

  • Currently Lee Kong Chian Visiting Professor, Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University
  • Professor Emeritus, National University of Singapore
  • Honorary Fellow, St John’s College Cambridge
  • Chairman of the Market Surveillance and Compliance Panel (part of the oversight mechanism for the National Electricity Market) since January 2022 (having been a member since January 2016)
  • Former David Marshall Professor, Law Faculty, National University of Singapore 2010-2022
  • Former Dean, Singapore Institute of Legal Education 2008-2010
  • Served as Attorney-General from 2008 to 2010, having previously been Solicitor-General from 2006 to 2008
  • Formerly Judge Advocate-General and a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights and the board of directors of the Monetary Authority of Singapore
  • Former Chairman, Board of Legal Education
  • In 2007 he was an alternate member with Ambassadorial rank of the High Level Task Force on Drafting of the ASEAN Charter (serving as Singapore delegation leader during the later half of the process) and presented the completed Charter to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers for signing by the Heads of Government at the Thirteenth ASEAN Summit in November of that year
  • From 1998 to 2006 he was Singapore’s ambassador to Germany, Greece, the European Communities, the European Union, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Holy See
  • Nominated Member of Parliament (1992 to 1996), during which time he was instrumental in the passage of the Maintenance of Parents Act, which he introduced as a private member’s bill
  • From 1995 to 1997 he was Legal Adviser to the President and Council of Presidential Advisers
  • Former member of the board of directors of Intraco Ltd (serving as Chairman of the Audit Committee) and NatSteel Ltd, both companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore
  • Director of St John’s Cambridge (Singapore), a charitable public company set up by St John’s College Cambridge  in October 2014
  • Member of the Market Surveillance and Compliance Panel (part of the oversight mechanism for the National Electricity Market) since January 2016
  • Chairman of the Steering Committee for Review of the Companies Act, which submitted its final report in April 2011

Awards & Accolades

  • Awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great by the Holy See in 2006
  • Inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Directors
  • Herbert Smith Visiting Fellow, St John’s College, Cambridge in 2012
  • Policy Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in 2013
  • Beaufort Fellow, St John’s College Cambridge in 2019

Memberships

  • Patron, Gunong Sayang Association (formed 1910 to promote Baba/Nonya culture)
  • Patron, China-ASEAN Business Association
  • Chairman, Society of International Law Singapore (SILS)
  • Former Chairman, Goethe Institute (Singapore Branch)

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