Sundaresh Menon

The Honourable
Sundaresh Menon
The Honourable Sundaresh Menon
സുന്ദരേഷ് മേനോൻ
	Menon speaking at the SMU School of Law in 2019
4th Chief Justice of Singapore
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 6 November 2012
President	Tony Tan ; Halimah Yacob ; Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Preceded by	Chan Sek Keong
Justice of the Court of Appeal of Singapore
	In office; 1 August 2012 – 5 November 2012
Appointed by	Tony Tan
6th Attorney-General of Singapore
	In office; 1 October 2010 – 25 June 2012
Appointed by	S. R. Nathan
Preceded by	Walter Woon; Koh Juat Jong (acting)
Succeeded by	Steven Chong
Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore
	In office; 3 April 2006 – 2 April 2007
Appointed by	S. R. Nathan
Personal details
Born	26 February 1962 (age 62); State of Singapore
Alma mater	National University of Singapore (LLB); Harvard University (LLM);

Sundaresh Menon (born 26 February 1962) is a Singaporean lawyer who has been serving as Chief Justice of Singapore since 2012.

Prior to his appointment as Chief Justice, Menon was a Judicial Commissioner between 2006 and 2007, Attorney-General between 2010 and 2012, and a Justice of the Court of Appeal.

Menon studied law at the National University of Singapore and Harvard Law School. He was a founding partner of law firm WongPartnership, and was also a partner at Shook Lin & Bok, Rajah & Tann, and Jones Day.

He was appointed as Chief Justice of Singapore by former president Tony Tan.

Education

Menon graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1986 with a Bachelor of Laws degree with first-class honours. He subsequently completed a Master of Laws degree at Harvard Law School in 1991.^[1]^[2]

Career

Menon started his career at Shook Lin & Bok as a legal assistant in 1987, and became a partner in 1990. In 1992, together with Wong Meng Meng and Alvin Yeo, Menon co-founded WongPartnership,^[3] one of the largest law firms in Singapore, and remained a partner in the law firm until 1995. He then joined Rajah & Tann as a partner and served as its Head of Projects & Infrastructure Group until 2003, and thereafter joined Jones Day as a partner until 2006.

Menon served a one-year term as a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court between 2006 and 2007. Returning to legal practice with Rajah & Tann after, he was appointed Senior Counsel on 5 January 2008,^[4] and became its managing partner in August 2009.^[2] Menon was appointed Attorney-General on 1 October 2010, where he served until 25 June 2012.^[5] He was subsequently appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeal on 1 August 2012.^[6] On 6 November 2012, he was appointed as the fourth Chief Justice of Singapore by then-president Tony Tan.^[7] He is the first Chief Justice to be born in Singapore.

He has served as Deputy Chairman of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, a member of the Senate of the Singapore Academy of Law, and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Singapore Management University School of Law.^[1]^[8]

Notable judgments

As a Judicial Commissioner, Judge of Appeal, and Chief Justice, Menon has delivered the following notable judgments:

Public Prosecutor v Lew Syn Pau [2006] 4 SLR(R) 210, [2006] SGHC 146 (as a JC)
Re Shankar Alan s/o Anant Kulkarni [2007] 1 SLR(R) 85, [2006] SGHC 194 (as a JC)
Tan Chui Lian v Neo Liew Eng [2007] 1 SLR(R) 265, [2006] SGHC 203 (as a JC)[1]
- Affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Ong Chai Soon v Ong Chai Koon [2022] 2 SLR 457, [2022] SGCA 36
Goh Nellie v Goh Lian Teck [2007] 1 SLR(R) 453, [2006] SGHC 211 (as a JC)
Hong Leong Singapore Finance Ltd v United Overseas Bank Ltd [2007] 1 SLR(R) 292, [2006] SGHC 205 (as a JC)
Lee Hsien Loong v Review Publishing Co Ltd [2007] 2 SLR(R) 453, [2007] SGHC 24 (as a JC)
L W Infrastructure Pte Ltd v Lim Chin San Contractors Pte Ltd [2013] 1 SLR 125, [2012] SGCA 57 (as a JA)
Yong Kheng Leong v Panweld Trading Pte Ltd [2013] 1 SLR 173, [2012] SGCA 59 (as a JA)
Dorsey James Michael v World Sport Group Pte Ltd [2013] 3 SLR 354, [2013] SGCA 31 (as CJ)
Wee Kim San Lawrence Bernard v Robinson & Co (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2014] 4 SLR 357, [2014] SGCA 43 (as CJ)
Zoom Communications Ltd v Broadcast Solutions Pte Ltd [2014] 4 SLR 500, [2014] SGCA 44 (as CJ)
Citiwall Safety Glass Pte Ltd v Mansource Interior Pte Ltd [2015] 1 SLR 797, [2014] SGCA 61 (as CJ)
SGB Starkstrom Pte Ltd v Commissioner for Labour [2016] 3 SLR 598, [2016] SGCA 27 (as CJ)
- Which effectively departed from Chiu Teng @ Kallang Pte Ltd v Singapore Land Authority [2014] 1 SLR 1047, [2013] SGHC 262
Nam Hong Construction & Engineering Pte Ltd v Kori Construction (S) Pte Ltd [2016] 4 SLR 604, [2016] SGCA 42 (as CJ)
Attorney-General v Ting Choon Meng [2017] 1 SLR 373, [2017] SGCA 6 (as CJ)
Law Society of Singapore v Udeh Kumar s/o Sethuraju [2017] 4 SLR 1369, [2017] SGHC 141 (as CJ)
Nagaenthran a/l K Dharmalingam v Public Prosecutor [2019] 2 SLR 216, [2019] SGCA 37 (as CJ)
Asia Development Pte Ltd v Attorney-General [2020] 1 SLR 886, [2020] SGCA 22 (as CJ)
Tan Seng Kee v Attorney-General [2022] 1 SLR 1347, [2022] SGCA 16 (as CJ)
- A decision which was criticised by the previous Chief Justice, Chan Sek Keong SC in an extra-judicial article: "Equal Justice and the Prosecutorial Power" (2022) 34 SAcLJ 256
Roszaidi bin Osman v Public Prosecutor [2023] 1 SLR 222, [2022] SGCA 75 (as CJ)
Law Society of Singapore v Ravi s/o Madasamy [2023] SGHC 112 (as CJ)

References

^ ^a ^b NUS Faculty of Law Congratulates our Alumni Sundaresh Menon, SC '86 on His Appointment as Attorney-General of Singapore, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, 4 March 2010, archived from the original on 27 July 2010.
^ ^a ^b Advisory Board Member: Mr Sundaresh MENON, SC, School of Law, Singapore Management University, 18 October 2010, archived from the original on 2 April 2011.
^ Arbitration pioneer Alvin Yeo offers tip to young lawyers, The Straits Times, 27 March 2017.
^ Senior Counsel Directory, Singapore Academy of Law, archived from the original on 30 March 2010, retrieved 30 March 2010.
^ Attorneys-General of Singapore, Attorney-General's Chambers, 26 November 2015, archived from the original on 9 November 2015.
^ K.C. Vijayan (1 June 2012), "Changes in Appeal Court, A-G Chambers", The Straits Times, p. A1; Teo Xuanwei (1 June 2012), "A-G to be appointed appeal judge: As Justice Steven Chong succeeds Mr Sundaresh Menon, lawyers are divided over implications of shorter tenures", Today, p. 2, archived from the original on 2 June 2012; Appointment of Mr Sundaresh Menon, S.C. as Judge of Appeal: Fact Sheet (PDF), Attorney-General's Chambers, 31 May 2012, archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2012; Sundaresh Menon to be Judge of Appeal, Channel NewsAsia, archived from the original on 5 July 2012, retrieved 29 August 2012.
^ Tham Yuen-C (30 August 2012), "Sundaresh Menon to be new Chief Justice", The Straits Times, p. 1; Teo Xuanwei (30 August 2012), "Sundaresh Menon is new Chief Justice", Today, pp. 1 & 4, archived from the original on 31 August 2012; Sundaresh Menon sworn in as new Chief Justice, Channel NewsAsia, 7 November 2012, archived from the original on 9 November 2012, retrieved 9 November 2012.
^ Management Details: Mr Sundaresh Menon, S.C. Attorney-General, Attorney-General's Chambers, 24 January 2011, archived from the original on 17 February 2012.

Legal offices
Preceded by Chan Sek Keong	Chief Justice of Singapore 2012	Incumbent

[NUS-1] NUS Faculty of Law Congratulates our Alumni Sundaresh Menon, SC '86 on His Appointment as Attorney-General of Singapore, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, 4 March 2010, archived from the original on 27 July 2010.

[SMU-2] Advisory Board Member: Mr Sundaresh MENON, SC, School of Law, Singapore Management University, 18 October 2010, archived from the original on 2 April 2011.

[3] Arbitration pioneer Alvin Yeo offers tip to young lawyers, The Straits Times, 27 March 2017.

[4] Senior Counsel Directory, Singapore Academy of Law, archived from the original on 30 March 2010, retrieved 30 March 2010.

[5] Attorneys-General of Singapore, Attorney-General's Chambers, 26 November 2015, archived from the original on 9 November 2015.

[6] K.C. Vijayan (1 June 2012), "Changes in Appeal Court, A-G Chambers", The Straits Times, p. A1; Teo Xuanwei (1 June 2012), "A-G to be appointed appeal judge: As Justice Steven Chong succeeds Mr Sundaresh Menon, lawyers are divided over implications of shorter tenures", Today, p. 2, archived from the original on 2 June 2012; Appointment of Mr Sundaresh Menon, S.C. as Judge of Appeal: Fact Sheet (PDF), Attorney-General's Chambers, 31 May 2012, archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2012; Sundaresh Menon to be Judge of Appeal, Channel NewsAsia, archived from the original on 5 July 2012, retrieved 29 August 2012.

[7] Tham Yuen-C (30 August 2012), "Sundaresh Menon to be new Chief Justice", The Straits Times, p. 1; Teo Xuanwei (30 August 2012), "Sundaresh Menon is new Chief Justice", Today, pp. 1 & 4, archived from the original on 31 August 2012; Sundaresh Menon sworn in as new Chief Justice, Channel NewsAsia, 7 November 2012, archived from the original on 9 November 2012, retrieved 9 November 2012.

[8] Management Details: Mr Sundaresh Menon, S.C. Attorney-General, Attorney-General's Chambers, 24 January 2011, archived from the original on 17 February 2012.

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