Philip Jeyaretnam

In 2015, Abraham's Promise was selected by The Business Times as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965 to 2015, alongside titles by Arthur Yap and Daren Shiau.

Philip used to chair the Board of Trustees for the nonprofit arts group the Practice Performing Arts School, founded by the late theatre doyen Kuo Pao Kun. In his view, the arts are as important as any other elements in the growth of a society. Writers, artists, composers, directors – whom he terms "ideas people" – are needed for a lively arts scene and that more should be done to encourage new ideas from artists. He also called for greater support from the private sector for "the serious arts", since the popular arts are commonly "funded by the market and community organisations".

On 1 January 2011, Philip was appointed as managing partner of Rodyk & Davidson LLP, one of Singapore's leading law firms. In 2016, he led the firm's combination with Dentons, forming Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP. He holds the positions of Singapore chief executive officer and global vice-chair at Dentons. Philip is recognised as an expert in arbitration, construction law and litigation in major legal publications. Described by Legal500 as a 'star' and 'master tactician' in 2014, Philip's recent and significant cases include representing The Wall Street Journal on issues arising from its coverage of the 1MDB affair and defending the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Programme against a suit by the Government of Papua New Guinea.

Philip is a member of the Singapore Public Service Commission and the Presidential Council for Minority Rights. He has served as the Chairman of Maxwell Chambers since 2010 and is a member of the SIAC Regional Panel of Arbitrators. In July 2005, Philip was appointed as a board member of the Singapore National Kidney Foundation by the then Minister for Health to help restore proper governance and public trust. He is a former President of the Law Society of Singapore, and was Founding Chairman of the Society of Construction Law from 2002 to 2004.

Philip is the younger son of the late-Singaporean opposition politician, J.B. Jeyaretnam (who was the first opposition politician to be elected to Parliament in post-independence Singapore), and Margaret Walker. This makes Philip of Sri Lankan Tamil and English descent. Growing up, he was "inspired by both [his] parents who were lawyers". He found his father's court work "exciting" due to "the probing, the cut and thrust, the interplay between two opponents" which "appealed to [his] competitive streak". Philip also said that his "best days are spent right in the thrust of battle in court" where he gets to "uncover things, to get to the truth". His older brother, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, is currently an opposition politician in Singapore (leading the Reform Party, which was founded by his father shortly before his death in 2008).

In 1990, he was a Fulbright Fellowship visitor to the University of Iowa International Writing Program and to the Harvard Law School. He was also an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Building at the National University of Singapore from 2005 to 2013.

Philip's collection of short stories, First Loves, published in Singapore in 1987, claimed record sales on Singapore's Sunday Times best-seller book list. It won him the compliment as Singapore's "home-grown Maugham". First Loves and his debut novel Raffles Place Ragtime (1988) were both nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize (South-east Asia and the South Pacific). His second novel, Abraham's Promise (1995) won a highly commended book award from the National Book Development Council of Singapore. He was presented with the 'Young Artist of the Year' award in 1993, the Montblanc-NUS Centre for the Arts Literary Award in 1997, and a S.E.A. Write Award in 2003.

Philip received his early education at Raeburn Park School and the United World College of South East Asia in Singapore, and at the Charterhouse School in Surrey, England. He then went on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read Law and graduated with First Class Honours in 1986. He was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1987, and was conferred the title of Senior Counsel in 2003, when he was only 38, one of the youngest lawyers to be appointed senior counsel.

Philip Antony Jeyaretnam SC (born 1964) is the Singapore chief executive officer and global vice-chair at Dentons. He is a Senior Counsel and a former President of the Law Society of Singapore. He is also a Singaporean lawyer and novelist. He is the son of Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, who was a prominent opposition politician in Singapore. His brother, Kenneth Jeyaretnam, is the secretary-general of the opposition Reform Party.