Former Attorney-General of Singapore and the Honourable Judge of Appeal Justice Sundaresh Menon has been appointed as the Chief Justice (“Justice Sundaresh Menon“) of Singapore with effect from 6 November 2012.

Justice Sundaresh Menon takes over the office from the current Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong who is retiring after having served 6 years as Chief Justice. The Honourable Chief Justice was also previously the Attorney-General of Singapore, having served in that office for 14 years.

Justice Sundaresh Menon was first elevated to the bench in 2006, where he served a one year term as a Judicial Commissioner. Subsequently, he rejoined a local Big 4 law firm as its senior partner and was appointed as a Senior Counsel in 2008. Prior to serving as Attorney-General of Singapore on 1 October 2010, he was already recognised as an experienced arbitration practitioner and arbitrator. The 2004/2005 edition of the Asia Pacific Legal 500 described him as “unquestionably Singapore’s leading arbitrator”, the 2006 edition of the Chambers Global Guide named him among the leading international arbitration practitioners in the world and the 2009/2010 edition of Asia Pacific Legal 500 confirmed his “reputation as a leading arbitration figure“. As a result, we are likely to see a continuation of robust and strong pro-arbitration judiciary in Singapore.

Our post on then Attorney-General Sundaresh Menon’s keynote address at the 21^st International Council for Commercial Arbitration held in Singapore in June earlier this year ranks as one of our blog’s most popular posts to date.