Appointment of Mr Lucien Wong as Attorney-General and Member of Presidential Council for Minority Rights

1          The President has appointed Mr Lucien Wong as the 9th Attorney-General of Singapore with effect from 14 January 2017 and as a Member of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights for a term of 3 years with effect from 14 January 2017.

About Mr Lucien Wong

2          Mr Wong graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree from the University of Singapore in 1978 and was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1979. He started legal practice as a legal assistant at Drew & Napier in the following year, and rose to become a partner of the firm in 1982. From 1987 to 1998, Mr Wong was a partner at Allen & Gledhill. He was managing partner of the firm from 1998 to 2012, when he became chairman and senior partner.

3          Mr Wong has more than 30 years of experience in legal practice, specialising in banking, corporate and financial services work. He has been involved in some of the largest and most high profile corporate and commercial transactions undertaken in recent years in Singapore. He has also established a considerable reputation for his involvement in international transactions. Over the years, Mr Wong has sat on several law review committees that reviewed amendments to Singapore Company and Securities Law.

4          He was regularly cited as a leading lawyer in banking, finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance in publications including Chambers Global, Chambers Asia, The Asia Pacific Legal 500, IFLR 1000 and Asialaw Leading Lawyers. Mr Wong is the only Singapore lawyer to be named as one of Asia’s top 25 M&A lawyers in Asia Legal Business in 2009.  He was conferred a Special Award for his outstanding contributions to the legal profession at the Chambers Global awards in London in 2007, and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the first Chambers Asia Awards in 2010 in Singapore.

5          Mr Wong was previously chairman of the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore and the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. He was previously a member of the Board of Trustees of the Singapore Business Federation and a director of several companies, including Temasek Holdings, Singapore Press Holdings, Hap Seng Plantations Holdings Berhad and Singapore Airlines Limited.

6          Mr Wong was appointed Deputy Attorney-General with effect from 19 December 2016.

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c/o Attorney-General’s Chambers           

1 Upper Pickering Street                                       

Singapore 058288

c/o Presidential Council for Minority Rights

Parliament House

1 Parliament Place Singapore 178880

BACKGROUND NOTE TO PRESS EDITORS

Functions and Composition of the

Presidential Council for Minority Rights

1          The functions of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights are:

(a)       To draw attention to any Bill or subsidiary legislation that contains differentiating measures; and

      (b)       To consider and report on matters affecting any racial or religious community that are referred to the Council by Parliament or the Government.

2          A “differentiating measure” is a measure that is disadvantageous to a racial or religious community and not equally disadvantageous to other such communities.

3          The Council makes a report on the Bills and matters considered to the Speaker of Parliament. 

4          From time to time, the Council also advises the President on the nominations of persons to the Presidential Council for Religious Harmony, and the Malay Community Committee and the Indian and Other Minority Communities for purposes of parliamentary elections.

5          The Chairman and Members of the Presidential Council for Minority Rights are appointed by the President on the advice of the Cabinet. Under the Constitution, the Council shall consist of a Chairman, not more than 10 permanent Members and not more than 10 other Members. Apart from permanent Members who are appointed for life, the Chairman and other Members are appointed for a period of 3 years.

6          With the new appointment of Mr Lucien Wong to the Council taking effect from 14 January 2017, the Council will consist of 18 Members, comprising the Chairman, 5 permanent Members and 12 other Members as follows:

Chairman

The Hon Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon

Permanent Members

Mr Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister

Tuan Haji Othman bin Wok

Mr Goh Chok Tong, Emeritus Senior Minister

Mr S Dhanabalan

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law

Other Members

AG Lucien Wong

Mr J Y Pillay

Mr Othman Haron Eusofe

Mr Timothy James de Souza

Mr Abdullah Tarmugi

Prof Chan Heng Chee

Mr Barry Henry Patrick Desker

Mr Philip Jeyaretnam

Archbishop Willam Goh Seng Chye

Shaikh Syed Isa bin Mohamed Semait

Mr Surjit Singh s/o Wazir Singh

Venerable Sik Kwang Sheng