Philip Jeyaretnam

Philip Antony Jeyaretnam (b. 1964) is the President of the Singapore International Commercial Court and former President of the Law Society of Singapore.

Son of former Workers’ Party leader J B Jeyaretnam, and brother of Reform Party’s Secretary-General Kenneth Jeyaretnam, Philip Jeyaretnam obtained his Bachelor of Laws with First-Class Honours from the University of Cambridge in 1986. He was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1987 and began his career in private practice. He was appointed Senior Counsel at the age of 38 in 2003, one of the youngest to receive such recognition. His expertise spanned litigation and arbitration across various sectors, including construction, where he was widely regarded as a leading authority.

Jeyaratnam was the founding chairperson of the Society of Construction Law (Singapore), from 2002 to 2004, and from 2004 to 2007, served as the president of the Law Society of Singapore. In 2011, he assumed the role of Managing Partner at Rodyk & Davidson, the oldest law firm in Singapore. Under his leadership, Rodyk & Davidson merged with the international law firm Dentons in 2016, forming Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP (now Dentons Rodyk), with Jeyaretnam becoming ASEAN chief executive officer and global vice-chair.

In 2021, Jeyaretnam was appointed a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore and subsequently elevated to the role of High Court judge later that year. In 2022, he was appointed co-chair of the Commercial Practice Panel of the Supreme Court to develop best practices for managing commercial cases. In 2023, he was appointed as President of the Singapore International Commercial Court. He is also concurrently a member of the Judicial Service Commission and the Presidential Council for Minority Rights.   

Prior to his judicial appointments, Jeyaretnam made significant contributions to public service, including an 11-year tenure with the Public Service Commission and a decade-long chairmanship of Maxwell Chambers, a public facility for integrated alternative dispute resolution, until 2020. His commitment to public service was recognised with the Public Service Star in 2021. He was also honoured with the C.C. Tan Award in the same year by the Law Society of Singapore for exemplifying the Singapore Bar’s values of integrity, fairness, and ethical conduct.

Beyond his legal career, Jeyaretnam is a published author, with works including novels and anthologies of short stories. He received the Young Artist of the Year Award for his literary work in 1993 and the regional literary award, SEA Write Award, in 2003.



For more information
Ang, Qing. “Philip Jeyaretnam Appointed Supreme Court Judicial Commissioner.” The Straits Times, 8 December 2020. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/philip-jeyaretnam-appointed-supreme-court-judicial-commissioner. 
Nureza Ahmad, Nora. “Jeyaretnam, Philip Anthony.” Singapore Infopedia. Accessed on 1 August 2025. https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=64115dd6-f917-4dac-b589-b53b4e03c122. 
“Justice Philip Jeyaretnam.” SG Courts. Accessed on 1 August 2025. https://www.judiciary.gov.sg/who-we-are/justice-philip-jeyaretnam. 
“Philip Jeyaretnam.” Wikipedia. Accessed on 1 August 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Jeyaretnam. 

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The information in this article is valid as of February 2025 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. If you have any feedback on this article, please submit here.