Philip Jeyaretnam

Singaporean judge, lawyer and writer

Philip Antony Jeyaretnam (born 1964) is a Singaporean judge, lawyer and author who has been serving as a Judge of the High Court of Singapore since 1 November 2021, having been first appointed to the Bench as a Judicial Commissioner on 4 January 2021. He has served as President of the Singapore International Commercial Court since 2 January 2023. Prior to his appointment to the Bench, he served as ASEAN chief executive officer and global vice chair at Dentons. He also served as president of the Law Society of Singapore between 2004 and 2007. Jeyaretnam was also one of the youngest lawyers to be appointed Senior Counsel in 2003 at the age of 38. Growing up, he was "inspired by both [his] parents who were lawyers". He found his father's court work "exciting" due to "the probing, the cut and thrust, the interplay between two opponents" which "appealed to [his] competitive streak". Jeyaretnam also said that his "best days are spent right in the thrust of battle in court" where he gets to "uncover things, to get to the truth". His older brother, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, is the leader of the opposition Reform Party, which was founded by their father shortly before his death in 2008. Jeyaretnam received his early education at Raeburn Park School and the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore, and at the Charterhouse School in Surrey, England. He then went on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read law and graduated with first class honours in 1986. He was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1987 and was conferred the title of Senior Counsel in 2003, when he was only 38. In 2016, he led the firm's combination with Dentons, forming Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP. Described by Legal500 as a 'star' and 'master tactician' in 2014, Jeyaretnam's recent and significant cases include representing The Wall Street Journal on issues arising from its coverage of the 1MDB affair and defending the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Programme against a suit by the Government of Papua New Guinea. Jeyaretnam received the C. C. Tan Award from the Law Society of Singapore in December 2020. This annual award is given to those who best exemplify the Bar's traditions of integrity, fairness and gentlemanly conduct. On 4 January 2021, Jeyaretnam was appointed as a judicial commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore. He was appointed as a Judge on 1 November 2021 and is currently President of the Singapore International Commercial Court. He is also concurrently a member of the Judicial Service Commission and the Presidential Council for Minority Rights.

Jeyaretnam served an 11 year term as a member of the Public Service Commission and currently serves as a member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights. He served as the Chairman of Maxwell Chambers from 2010 to 2020, Prior to becoming a judge, he was a member of the SIAC Regional Panel of Arbitrators. In July 2005, Jeyaretnam was appointed as a board member of the Singapore National Kidney Foundation by the Minister for Health to help restore proper governance and public trust. He is a former president of the Law Society of Singapore, and was Founding Chairman of the Society of Construction Law from 2002 to 2004. Jeyaretnam used to chair the board of trustees for the nonprofit arts group the Practice Performing Arts School founded by Kuo Pao Kun. In his view, the arts are as important as any other elements in the growth of a society. Writers, artists, composers, directors – whom he terms "ideas people" – are needed for a lively arts scene and that more should be done to encourage new ideas from artists. He also called for greater support from the private sector for "the serious arts", since the popular arts are commonly "funded by the market and community organisations".

Jeyaretnam is the son of J. B. Jeyaretnam, who was a prominent opposition politician in Singapore. His older brother, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, is the secretary general of the opposition Reform Party. Jeyaretnam married Cindy Sim in 1988 but divorced in 2013. They have three children together.

Jeyaretnam's collection of short stories, First Loves, published in Singapore in 1987, claimed record sales on Singapore's Sunday Times best seller book list. It won him the compliment as Singapore's "home grown Maugham". First Loves and his debut novel Raffles Place Ragtime (1988) were both nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize (South east Asia and the South Pacific). His second novel, Abraham's Promise (1995) won a highly commended book award from the National Book Development Council of Singapore. He was presented with the 'Young Artist of the Year' award in 1993, the Montblanc NUS Centre for the Arts Literary Award in 1997, and a S. E. A. Write Award in 2003. In 1990, he was a Fulbright Fellowship visitor to the University of Iowa International Writing Program and to the Harvard Law School. He was also an adjunct professor with the Department of Building at the National University of Singapore from 2005 to 2013. In 2015, Abraham's Promise was selected by The Business Times as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965 to 2015, alongside titles by Arthur Yap and Daren Shiau.