The managing partner of Singapore firm Rajah & Tann will leave the post after only a year to become the city-state’s new Attorney-General.
Sundaresh Menon SC will leave the position he assumed in August 2009 to serve a two-year post as the government’s chief legal advisor. The firm’s deputy managing partner Lee Eng Beng SC will assume the managerial role once Menon leaves in October.
Rajah & Tann has a history of its lawyers taking up public postings – Menon’s predecessor in the MP role Steven Chong left last year to serve in the judiciary.
Current Attorney-General Walter Woon’s term will expire in April. Woon said he will return to a career in academia at the Law Faculty of the National University of Singapore. He will also serve as the first dean of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education.
Menon’s 20 years in arbitration and litigation makes his appointment timely given the government’s recent push to promote Singapore as a regional arbitration hub. In an exclusive interview with ALB earlier this month, Menon outlined his vision to promote Rajah & Tann’s position in the arbitration and litigation field after being appointed as managing partner. “[Returning to Rajah & Tann] I felt that the opportunities were going to be very exciting. I saw that the likelihood of Singapore emerging as a real centre for arbitration in Asia was a very real one and I saw a role for a strong local firm like Rajah & Tann to build on that and establish itself as a very strong regional arbitration player.”
The six-month period before his appointment will give Menon time to wrap up his work at the firm.
See ALB’s March issue for a profile of Menon.
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