JLP - Cross-Examination and Experts

The Honourable Justice Valerie Thean
Judge of the High Court, Supreme Court of Singapore 

Justice Valerie Thean was first appointed a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court on 30 September 2014 (and was concurrently Presiding Judge of the Family Justice Courts from 1 October 2014 until 29 September 2017). She has been a judge of the High Court, General Division, Supreme Court since 30 September 2017.

She was awarded the President’s Scholarship in 1988 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) from Downing College, Cambridge University, in 1991. She subsequently obtained her Master of Laws from Harvard Law School, in 1995. Justice Thean joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1992. After her first posting as a Justices’ Law Clerk, she held various appointments within the public service, including Assistant Registrar at the Supreme Court, District Judge at the then Subordinate Courts, Senior State Counsel at the Attorney General’s Chambers, Director-General (Legal) and Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Law and Senior District Judge of the Family and Juvenile Justice Division of the State Courts.

The Honourable Justice Aidan Xu
Judge of the High Court, Supreme Court of Singapore

Justice Aidan Xu @ Aedit Abdullah was appointed Judicial Commissioner in 2014 and High Court Judge on 30 September 2017.

Justice Xu obtained a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1994, as well as a Bachelor of Civil Law (First Class) from the University of Oxford in 1998 and a Master in Public Management from NUS in 2007.

He joined the Singapore Legal Service in 1995 and began his career as a Justices’ Law Clerk. He then taught at the Faculty of Law, NUS, before re-joining the Singapore Legal Service. He has held various appointments, such as Deputy Public Prosecutor, Deputy Senior State Counsel and District Judge of the Subordinate Courts (renamed as State Courts in 2014). He was appointed Chief Prosecutor (Economic Crimes and Governance Division), and subsequently Chief Prosecutor (Criminal Justice Division) at the Attorney-General’s Chambers in 2011 and served as special counsel at the Monetary Authority of Singapore from January 2008 to June 2009. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2012.

He is the Judge in charge of Transformation and Innovation in the Judiciary, and is also Chair of the Promotion of Legal Technology Innovation Committee of the Singapore Academy of Law.

The Honourable Hri Kumar Nair 
Judge of the High Court, Supreme Court of Singapore 

Justice Hri Kumar Nair was appointed Judge of the High Court on 2 January 2023.

He graduated from the National University of Singapore with Second Class Honours (Upper) in Law in 1991 and was called to the bar in 1992. In 2008, he was appointed Senior Counsel.

Prior to his appointment to the Bench, Justice Hri Kumar was Deputy Attorney-General where he broke ground in key criminal cases which clarified the prosecution’s duty of disclosure, and the prosecution’s right to assert litigation privilege. Previously, Justice Hri Kumar was a director at Drew and Napier LLC where he accumulated more than 25 years of experience as a litigator.

Justice Hri Kumar Nair’s areas of specialisation include banking and finance, fraud and complex commercial disputes company, insolvency and trusts, arbitration, and tort matters.

The Honourable Judicial Commissioner Mohamed Faizal Mohamed Abdul Kadir

Judicial Commissioner of the High Court, Supreme Court of Singapore 

Judicial Commissioner Mohamed Faizal Mohamed Abdul Kadir was appointed Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court on 2 May 2024.

He obtained a Bachelor of Laws (1st Class Honours) from the National University of Singapore in 2005, and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 2009.

In his 18 years in the Singapore Legal Service, Judicial Commissioner Faizal has served in numerous capacities, including as a Justices’ Law Clerk and Assistant Registrar in the Supreme Court of Singapore, Deputy Public Prosecutor in the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), General Counsel and Director (Legal) in the Singapore Medical Coun-cil. He was Second Chief Prosecutor of the Crime Division at the AGC prior to his ap-pointment to the Bench.

Judicial Commissioner Faizal was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2016, and has received the Berita Harian Anugerah Jauhari (the Achiever of the Year Award), the President’s Volunteerism and Philanthropy Award and the Associa-tion of Conflict Resolution’s International Outstanding Leadership Award.

Judicial Commissioner Faizal, who was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2014, was appointed Senior Counsel in 2020.

Lai Siu Chiu
Former Senior Judge, Supreme Court of Singapore

Gan Kam Yuin

Assistant Registrar, Supreme Court

District Judge

Kam Yuin graduated from the National University of Singapore and maintained an active practice for more than 27 years before entering the Judicial Service in 2019. Her strong background as a practitioner has enriched her time at the Supreme Court.

During her years at the Bar, Kam Yuin practised mainly in commercial litigation and civil dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration. She was lead counsel in a wide range of matters at all levels of the Singapore judicial system, including the Court of Appeal and the Singapore International Commercial Court. In addition, she undertook advisory and drafting work for clients from diverse industries and backgrounds.

Believing that a great deal of learning takes place in the spaces between us, Kam Yuin welcomes opportunities to engage with young lawyers and encourage them in the acquisition of the good foundational skills needed for a long and rewarding career at the Bar.

Jason Chan, SC
Partner, Allen & Gledhill

Marina Chin, SC
Joint Managing Partner, TKQP

Ms. Marina Chin, S.C., is a Joint Managing Partner of Tan Kok Quan Partnership, a well-regarded boutique dispute resolution law practice. As a dispute resolution lawyer with more than 35 years of experience, she is widely recognised for her expertise in complex commercial cases, including
those with cross-border angles.

Awards, accolades and rankings secured over the years, as well as Marina’s appointment as Senior Counsel, reflect her standing in the legal profession.

Marina enjoys the cut and thrust of litigation, be it in the Courts or arbitral forums. She has acted in a broad range of high-value and high-profile matters involving novel issues before arbitral tribunals and the Singapore courts, including the Singapore International Commercial Court.

She is also a member of the Specialist Mediator Panel of the Singapore International Mediation Centre, and wearing the hat of mediator, she has applied her legal knowledge and experience to assist parties (both local and foreign) to mediate and resolve their disputes.

Beyond legal practice, Marina holds various appointments. Among others, she serves as a Deputy Commissioner of the Government Procurement Adjudication Tribunal, a Member of the Appeal Advisory Panel of the Monetary Authority of
Singapore, a Senate member of the Singapore Academy of Law as well as a director of a public listed company and a private company that is fully owned by a statutory board.

Her participation in the Junior Lawyers Professional Certification Programme reflects her commitment to training and mentorship to nurture the next generation of senior lawyers.

Wendy Lin
Deputy Head of Commercial & Corporate Disputes Practice, WongPartnership LLP

Wendy Lin is the Deputy Head of the Commercial & Corporate Disputes Practice, and a Partner in the International Arbitration and Asset Recovery & International Enforcement Practices.

Wendy has an active practice in high-value, multi-jurisdictional, and complex disputes spanning a wide array of commercial and corporate, cross-border trade and investment, fraud, and asset recovery matters. She regularly appears as counsel in the Singapore Courts, as well as in arbitrations conducted under various arbitral rules.

Wendy earned the rare distinction of being selected in 2020 and 2021 as a Global Leader by Who’s Who Legal in 3 practice areas: Litigation, Arbitration and Asset Recovery. This built on her achievement in 2018, where her peers selected her as one of the four most highly-regarded litigation partners in Asia-Pacific under the age of 45 in the inaugural edition of Who's Who Legal: Litigation – Future Leaders. Wendy was also the exclusive winner of the Arbitration & Alternative Dispute Resolution category for Singapore at the Client Choice Awards 2019. Her clients noted that she “has a razor-sharp mind", “presents arguments in a calm, eloquent and persuasive manner”, “understands the bigger picture”, “can think outside of the box and is always a few steps ahead.”

In addition, Wendy has been consistently recommended for her dispute resolution work in various legal publications. She is variously complimented as “a first-class advocate, one who has the unparalleled ability to cut through numerous complex facts and legal arguments, extract the winning arguments, and to convey them effectively, with absolute charm and ease”, “a highly distinguished litigator who fully understands and is able to manoeuvre comfortably in commercial aspects that are highly technical and complex”; “an extremely knowledgeable and a highly-strategic thinker unfazed by the pressures of high stakes litigation”; “highly impressive, tough, tenacious and rigorous”; “a very good strategist who always thinks several steps ahead”; and a “fantastic all-round lawyer”.

Leow Jiamin 
Deputy Director (Legal Faculty), Singapore Academy of Law

Leow Jiamin is a Deputy Director (Legal Faculty) in the Learning and Professional Development Cluster of the Singapore Academy of Law. 

Prior to joining SAL, Jiamin was a disputes resolution Partner at WongPartnership LLP and handled a wide range of Court and arbitration matters ranging from commercial and corporate disputes, cross border disputes, fraud, asset recovery, to intellectual property disputes. Being fluent in business and legal Mandarin, she also regularly acted for Mandarin-speaking and Chinese clients.

As a junior lawyer, Jiamin spent a number of years at Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP, handling both contentious (from intellectual property to general disputes before both the High Court and Court of Appeal) and non-contentious matters, and was mentioned in Legal 500 (Asia Pacific) in 2019 as well as IAM Patent 1000 (Singapore) in 2020.

She also regularly speaks at conferences, teaches at universities, and contributes to various industry publications in respect of emerging issues in Singapore law, all of which contributes to the development of Singapore law. These include the Asian Business Law Institute’s ABLI-SAL Cryptoasset Series - Cryptoassets and Civil Procedure Law (Singapore edition) and moderated the panel on Resolving A.I. and Technology Disputes at the TechLaw.Fest 2024.

Jiamin joined SAL in April 2025 and gained her qualifications in adult education from the Institute of Adult Learning (IAL) in May 2025.

Simran Toor
Consultant, Singapore Academy of Law

Simran Toor is a consultant at the Singapore Academy of Law. With a career spanning over two decades, she has established herself as an experienced and impactful advocate for her clients, and a thought leader for gender equality.

Simran began her legal journey as a criminal prosecutor at the Attorney-General’s Chambers of Singapore. Thereafter, as a disputes partner at WongPartnership LLP, Simran specialised in white-collar and financial crime, regulatory investigations, and prosecution work for government bodies. She played a pivotal role in the in numerous complex litigation cases, and provided strategic advice in many high-profile matters, and co-authored  several chapters in prominent legal publications, including the Chambers White-Collar Crime 2021 guide and the Chambers Anti-Corruption Law and Practice guide.

Simran’s commitment to fostering a supportive and inclusive legal community is evident in her numerous roles and contributions.

She served as an elected member of the Council of the Law Society of Singapore for 12 years, where she championed access to justice issues and equitable treatment for women lawyers. In 2019, she co-founded the Women in Practice Committee. As Co-Chairperson, she spearheaded initiatives to support women in law, and to combat bullying and harassment within the legal profession.

In 2022, Simran was appointed the first CEO of SG Her Empowerment (SHE), a non-profit organisation dedicated to tackling gender inequality and empowering women in the digital age. Under her leadership, SHE launched initiatives to support victims of online harm, harassment, and non-consensual image sharing, and undertook crucial research to advocate for policy change.

Simran sits on the boards of KidStart Singapore Limited, a Government organisation that provides help and support to help underprivileged children under the age of 6 thrive, and I Love Children, an charity that advocates for better fertility awareness in Singapore. She has also contributed to the Birthday Book, a collection of essays by Singaporean thought leaders, on the topic of unconscious gender bias.  

Gopalan K

Consultant, Ethics & Professional Development, Singapore Academy of Law

• Formerly Director and Head of Department, Regulatory Department, Law Society of Singapore (2013 to 2023)

• Duties included leading a team of 5 lawyers and 2 paralegals, overseeing compliance with Part VII of the Legal Profession Act, Disciplinary Proceedings against Advocates & Solicitors, compliance with Solicitors Accounts Rules, managing Compensation Fund claims, managing the Professional Indemnity Insurance Scheme for legal practitioners, overseeing inadequate professional service complaints against practitioners, generally conduct and discipline of lawyers.

• Also conducted courses, seminars and talks  for practitioners on Professional Responsibility and Compliance with the Solicitors Accounts Rules

• Facilitator, Ethics & Professional Responsibility, SILE (2015 to 2024)

• Private Legal Practice (1980 to 2013) principally in Civil Litigation. Real Estate Law, Family Law & Probate Practice and Insurance Law

• IRAS officer from 1978 to 1980

Ronald JJ Wong

Deputy Managing Director, Covenant Chambers LLC

Ronald JJ Wong is the Deputy Managing Director of Covenant Chambers LLC. He is an Advocate, Counsel, Strategist, and Technologist. His legal practice is in both disputes and transactional work, with a special interest in technology, finance, intellectual property (IP), and employment.

In litigation and arbitration, he has represented institutional and individual clients at all levels of the Singapore courts and various arbitration institutions and in a range of disputes, including multi-million dollar investment claims, patent infringements, insolvency-related claims, director-shareholder disputes, and cryptocurrency claims.

Ronald has been recognised for Asian Legal Business, Super 50 TMT Lawyer 2024, Asian Legal Business Rising Stars Singapore 2023, AsiaLaw (2023) TMT, Dispute Resolution, The Legal 500 (2022) TMT, and serves on the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) Sub-Committee on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics. He previously taught trial advocacy in NUS.

SILE Attendance Policy

Participants who wish to obtain CPD Points must comply strictly with the Attendance Policy set out in the CPD Guidelines. For this activity, participants are reminded to sign in on arrival and sign out at the conclusion of each day of the event in the manner required by the organiser. Participants must not be absent from each day of the event for more than 15 minutes. Participants who attend and comply strictly with the Attendance Policy on that day may obtain Public CPD Points. Participants who do not comply with the Attendance Policy on any particular day of the event will not be able to obtain CPD Points for that day. Please refer to http://www.sileCPDcentre.sg for more information.

Category of Individuals

Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents

Employer-sponsored and self-sponsored Singapore Citizens aged 40 years old and above

SME-sponsored local employees (i.e. Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents)

Funding Source

SkillsFuture Funding (Baseline)

SkillsFuture Mid-career Enhanced Subsidy

SkillsFuture Enhanced Training Support for SMEs

Course Fee

$1,200

$1,200

SkillsFuture Funding 

$600

$840

Total Nett Fee

$600 

$360

GST of Course Fee (9% x $1,200)

$108

$108 

Total Fee Payable to SAL

(including 9% GST)

$708

$468