Chan Sek Keong

1955 - Scored eight distinctions for his Senior Cambridge School Certificate examinations - one of the best in Malaya that year; Offered a teaching bursary. However, as a teaching career was not what he envisaged, he continued on to the sixth form in hopes of securing a place in a university. During his second year of the sixth form course, Chan heard from his English literature teacher, Dr. Alan Etherton, that a law professor from the University of Malaya would be visiting the school to encourage students in the form to take up a new law course offered by the university. Etherton saw Chan's potential for law and urged him to go for it. Chan, unaware of the career prospects that a law degree could offer, heeded Etherton's advice and went for an interview conducted by Professor Lee Sheridan; 1957 - Law Faculty of the University of Malaya

1962 - 1986 Practised as a lawyer for a number of years first with Bannon & Bailey in Kuala Lumpur and then with Braddell Brothers and Shook Lin & Bok in Singapore before being appointed the first Judicial Commissioner of Singapore on 1 July 1986. Two years later, he became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore; 1992 - Appointed Attorney-General. Acting in this capacity in 1997, he submitted an opinion to the Singapore government that although the Parliamentary Elections Act forbade unauthorised persons to loiter within 200 metres of polling stations on polling day, this did not apply to unauthorised persons who were inside the stations. Chan was asked to render this opinion following a complaint by the Workers' Party that during the 1997 general election former People's Action Party Members of Parliament had loitered in polling stations; 2006 - 2013 He relinquished the position of Attorney-General on 11 April 2006 when he was appointed Chief Justice; Retired in 2012, having spent 26 years in legal service. In October 2013, he joined the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law as its first Distinguished Fellow. The term of appointment is on an honorary basis and will be for an initial period of three years. As a Distinguished Fellow, Chan pursued research and writing projects; 2019 - Called for a review of the constitutional validity of Section 377A

Conferred the Order of Temasek (Second Class) by the Singapore government on 9 August 2008 for his outstanding contributions to the team representing Singapore in the Pedra Branca dispute against the Malaysian government before the International Court of Justice. In the same month, he became the first Singaporean law graduate to be made an honorary bencher of Lincoln's Inn 2008; Became the first Asian jurist to be given the International Jurists Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the administration of justice which, according to International Council of Jurists president Adish Aggarwala, had "enhanced the dignity of the judiciary in Asian countries 2009; Conferred the state award, Darjah Dato' Seri Paduka Mahkota Perak (SPMP), which carries the title Dato' Seri, by Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak 1999

English, Mandarin, Malay

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