President of The Law Society of Singapore, 3 others named senior counsel

PRESIDENT of Singapore's Law Society Gregory Vijayendran and three others were appointed senior counsel on Monday.

Mr Vijayendran, 50, and fellow litigator Siraj Omar, 46, as well as two former judicial commissioners of the Supreme Court Foo Chee Hock, 58, and Foo Tuat Yien, 65, joined the ranks of senior counsel. Their appointments were announced by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon on Monday at the opening of the Legal Year 2019.The additions bring the total number of Singapore's equivalent to Britain's Queen's Counsel to 85.

Mr Vijayendran, a veteran lawyer who has practised for 26 years and whose areas of specialisation include banking disputes and corporate insolvency, is also the present president of the Law Society.

He has been commended by the Supreme Court in reported judgements for his meticulous professionalism, demonstrating what it is like to practise the law in its best tradition and being valiant.

Like Mr Vijayendran, Mr Omar with 20 years of experience under his belt, focuses on banking and financial disputes litigation. The co-founder of the firm Premier Law also appears regularly in international arbitrations, both as arbitrator and lawyer. He has been described by the global legal rankings publication Legal 500 as a "senior counsel in waiting" - and this has proved prescient.

Mr Foo and Ms Foo were appointed honorary senior counsel for their outstanding contribution to the development of the law.

Mr Foo is the dean of the Singapore Judicial College. Previously, he had held various judicial appointments including senior deputy registrar and district judge in the then Subordinate Courts (now State Courts). His last judicial appointment was a judicial commissioner of the Supreme Court between 2015 and 2018.

His former fellow judicial commissioner Ms Foo joined the legal service in 1976 and had served in the Subordinate Courts including as a district judge from 2000-2005. She was on the Supreme Court Bench as a judicial commissioner for three years till 2018.