Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Cavinder Bull
Singaporean lawyer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Cavinder Bull SC is a Singaporean lawyer and the chief executive officer of the law firm Drew & Napier. He has served in this position since August 2017,[1] upon the departure of Davinder Singh to start his own practice.[2] He has an active practice in complex litigation and international arbitration[3] and is considered one of the top 15 litigators in South-East Asia.[4] In late 2024, Bull was awarded a global award for commercial litigation lawyer of the year.[5] In 2025, Bull was named the dedicatee of the Delos Remote Oral Advocacy Programme Asia 2025.[6]
Remove ads
Career
Summarize
Perspective
Legal career
Bull graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (first class honours) in Jurisprudence from Trinity College, Oxford University in 1992, and was called to the Bar of England and Wales the next year.[7][8] He was ranked fourth in the Bar Exams; when he returned to Singapore, he topped the local Bar Exam.[7] He served as a Justices' Law Clerk to former Chief Justice Yong Pung How before joining Drew & Napier in 1994,[9] and left for Harvard Law School in 1995 on a Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship to pursue a Master of Laws.[7][8] He then passed the New York Bar Exams and joined Sullivan & Cromwell as a litigation associate.[7][10]
Bull re-joined Drew & Napier in late 1997 and was made a partner in 1998. He is involved in commercial litigation and is cited by Chambers Global and Asia Pacific Legal 500 as one of Singapore's top lawyers.[7][11] In 2008, he was appointed Senior Counsel at the age of 39, an accolade rarely accorded to those under 40 years of age.[12] Bull is also occasionally involved in academic writings, having written on subjects such as civil procedure.[13] He has sat on various review committees, such as one chaired by the Attorney-General in 2006 regarding the supply of foreign lawyers in Singapore,[14] and was reported to be looking into developing a mechanism "to handle disputes amongst businesses" in Singapore and China.[15]
Bull sits on several professional bodies, including Vice-President of the SIAC Court of Arbitration, a member of the Governing Board of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, and Vice-President of the Asia Pacific Regional Arbitration Group.[16] Bull was also appointed to the Disciplinary Tribunal of the International Association of Athletics Federations[17] and also a member of the NUS Law Advisory Council.[18] He was previously also the Co-Chairman of the Singapore Exchange Disciplinary Committee, where he served for six years.[19]
Bull has been involved in several high profile and high value matters in the course of his career including a US$1.27 billion case involving Georgia's former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili,[20] a civil case acting for the liquidators against Hin Leong founder Lim Oon Kuin,[21] securing a S$3.5 billion judgment in that case,[22] and a case of fraud by thumb drive inventor Henn Tan.[23] Bull also represented Ong Beng Seng in a high profile case involving former Minister S Iswaran.[24] Bull was also on the Disciplinary Tribunal which fined Eugene Thuraisingam for a poem that was in contempt of court in 2018.[25] He also represented Lee Kwan Yew's former lawyer Kwa Kim Li in disciplinary proceedings as a result of a complaint made by Lee Hsien Yang.[26]
Other appointments
Directorships
- Singapore Technologies Electronics (2009–2012)
- National Healthcare Group (2009–2012)
- Singapore University of Technology and Design (2009–2015)
- Ascendas Property Fund Trustee (2010–2013)
- Agri‑Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (2004–2010)
Remove ads
Personal life
Bull and his two elder sisters were raised single-handedly by his mother after his father died when he was 15 months old.[27] He studied at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and Anglo-Chinese Junior College.[28][29]
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads