Conversation with Sir Bernard Eder and Minister Edwin Tong SC

Mr Edwin Tong SC is Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and Second Minister for Law. He is also Chairman of the Chinese Community Liaison Group, and Deputy Chairman of the People’s Association. At the Ministry of Law, he focuses on the development and promotion of Singapore’s legal and dispute resolution sector. He also handles wide-ranging aspects of law reform, such as intellectual property, corporate restructuring and insolvency, and legal aid.

Before taking office, Mr Tong spent his entire working life at Allen & Gledhill LLP. In that time, he was concurrently Head of the Restructuring and Corporate Insolvency Department, Co-Head of the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Department, and a member of the Exco. He was widely acknowledged to be a leading lawyer of the Singapore Bar, and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2015. Mr Tong was educated at St Joseph’s Institution, Raffles Junior College and later read law at the National University of Singapore.

Bernard Eder is an international arbitrator based at 24 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. He previously practised as a barrister (KC 1990) specialising in commercial litigation and international arbitration. In 2011, he was appointed a Judge of the High Court of England and Wales. He resigned from the Bench in April 2015. During that time, he sat mainly in the Commercial Court in London. Since 2015, he has been an International Judge at the Singapore International Commercial Court (part-time).

He was formerly Senior Editor of Scrutton on Charterparties and Chair of ARIAS(UK). Over the years, he has been appointed as arbitrator in over 400 international arbitrations. He is ranked Band 1 (International Arbitrators, UK) in both Chambers and Legal 500; and was awarded Lawyer of the Year (United Kingdom) – International Arbitration (Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2022). A full CV appears at www.bernardeder.com.