Launch of the Express Track in the General Division of the High Court

The Honourable Justice Kannan Ramesh

Judge of the Appellate Division, Supreme Court

Justice Kannan Ramesh was appointed Judge of the Appellate Division on 1 November 2022. He was appointed Judicial Commissioner in May 2015, and Judge of the High Court in April 2017. He was also appointed as a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Brunei Darussalam SCBD on a part-time basis from 2019 to 2023 where he heard both commercial and civil cases.

He received his Bachelor of Laws with Honours from the National University of Singapore in 1990. He was then admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor in Singapore in 1991, and appointed Senior Counsel in 2012.

Before his appointment as a Judicial Commissioner, Justice Ramesh was Managing Partner of Messrs Tan Kok Quan Partnership from 2008, where he specialised in dispute resolution, insolvency and restructuring, and international arbitration.

He was also appointed as Board Member of Singapore Aerospace Manufacturing Pte Ltd and M1 Limited. In the former, he had an added role as Executive Committee Member, while in the latter, he was Chairman of M1’s Risk Committee, as well as Member of their Nominating and Audit Committees.

He is a member of the Singapore Academy of Law’s Law Reform Committee, and President of New York’s International Insolvency Institute and part of its Arbitration and Conciliation working group. He was instrumental in establishing the Judicial Insolvency Network (JIN) which issued in October 2016, guidelines for court-to-court communications and cooperation in cross-border insolvencies.

In June 2022, he was appointed by the Chief Justice as the co-chair of the Commercial Practice Panel of the Supreme Court, to develop best practices for the management of commercial cases. On 24 June 2023, he was formally inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy (ACB) in Washington, D.C., the first Singaporean Judge recognised as an International Fellow of the ACB.

Justice Ramesh authored Getting the Deal Through – Restructuring and Insolvency in 51 Jurisdictions Worldwide in 2010. He also authored the Singapore Chapter in Doing Business – Closing a Business Survey, a World Bank publication, published in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The Honourable Justice Philip Jeyaretnam

Judge, Supreme Court

Justice Philip Jeyaretnam is the President of the Singapore International Commercial Court. He was appointed Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court on 4 January 2021 and High Court Judge on 1 November 2021. His focus on the Bench has been in complex commercial cases, arbitration law, building and construction, company and trust law. He is also a member of the Judicial Service Commission, and the Presidential Council for Minority Rights.   In June 2022, he was appointed by the Chief Justice as the co-chair of the Commercial Practice Panel of the Supreme Court, to develop best practices for the management of commercial cases.

Justice Jeyaretnam read Law at Cambridge and graduated with First Class Honours in 1986. He was called to the English Bar in 1987 and to the Singapore Bar in 1988 and was conferred the title of Senior Counsel in 2003 at the age of 38, one of the youngest lawyers to be appointed Senior Counsel. In 1988, he received the Airey Neave Award for research on the rule of law. In 1990, he was given a Fulbright Fellowship, which took him to the University of Iowa International Writers’ Program and to Harvard Law School.

While in practice, he was recognised as an expert in commercial litigation, arbitration and construction law in all major legal publications. In 2020, the Law Society conferred on him the CC Tan Award. He was managing partner of Rodyk & Davidson LLP from 2011, and, following its combination with Dentons, ASEAN CEO.

He was the founding chairperson of the Society of Construction Law (Singapore), from 2002 to 2004, and served as the President of the Law Society during the years 2004 to 2007. From 2009 to 2020, he was a member of the Public Service Commission. A novelist and short story writer, he received the Young Artist of the Year Award for his literary work in 1993 and a SEA Write Award in 2003.

Senior Assistant Registrar David Lee

Senior Assistant Registrar, Supreme Court

David graduated from the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore with First Class Honours and was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal as well as the Adrian Clark Memorial Medal. Thereafter, he was appointed a Justices’ Law Clerk before being posted to the Supreme Court Registry as an Assistant Registrar.

In 2008, David graduated with an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. Between 2014 and 2019, David was posted to the Civil Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers. In March 2019, he was reposted to the Supreme Court Registry and on 6 March 2020, he was designated as a Senior Assistant Registrar. In December 2022, he was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Silver) (COVID-19).

Assistant Registrar Elaine Liew

Assistant Registrar, Supreme Court

Elaine graduated from King’s College London with First Class Honours and was awarded, among others, the Judges and Silk Award for highest honours in LLB. She joined the Singapore Legal Service as a Justices’ Law Clerk and then as an Assistant Registrar. Thereafter, she was posted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers, and worked at the then State Prosecution Division and Civil Division. She was reposted to the Supreme Court Registry in September 2020. She is currently a deputy divisional registrar of the Court of Appeal and Appellate Division of the High Court.