Speech by Senior Minister of State for Law and Transport Mr Murali Pillai SC at Rajah and Tann Singapore LLP 50th Anniversary Dinner
10 September 2026 Posted in Speeches
Introduction
Mr Ng Kim Beng, Managing Partner of Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP,
Mr Lee Eng Beng SC, Chairman, Rajah & Tann Asia,
Friends and Partners of Rajah & Tann,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
1. I am honoured to join you this evening.
2. Thomas Wolfe famously said, “you can’t go home again”. If home is a place where one has friends and memories of battles lost and won, and comrades with unbreakable ties of history, then I am happy to say how wrong he was, and what an honour it is to come home and join everyone tonight to celebrate Rajah & Tann’s golden jubilee, its golden jubilee.
3. 50 years is a significant milestone. 20 of those years I had direct knowledge of, having worked in the firm from 2004 to 2024.
4. But even before that, I had unknowingly been a beneficiary.
5. Rajah & Tann was set up in 1976, by TT Rajah and Tann Wee Tiong, who practised from a small room in the Bank of China Building in Raffles Place. Both these founding partners had long been in legal practice by then.
6. Around 2004, when I told my father that I was joining Rajah & Tann, he asked me, “is that TT Rajah’s firm?” My late father had been held as a political detainee under Operation Cold Store and TT Rajah represented him free of charge. He was among many who benefited from Mr Rajah’s well-known pro bono practice, which he carried on with after founding this firm.
7. But as a father, he had a caution to me. Bearing in mind that the services did not cost him a cent, he said, “but that firm does not make money!” I hastened to assure him that this was not the case!
8. Today, Rajah & Tann is one of Singapore’s leading law firms, with an extensive network across ASEAN and beyond, leading practices across many areas of law, early investments in technology and new businesses, and a reputation that extends well beyond Singapore.
9. That is a remarkable journey.
10. But we must not understand this journey as one merely of corporate ambition and growth. To do so will truly miss what those of us who have worked in Rajah & Tann know. Everyone in this firm believes that law is a universal human striving for justice that transcends borders. This firm supports the people who work in it: who struggle, and think, and write, and do battle with words; but also, those who listen to one another with respect and some indulgence. This is a firm, but it is also a family.
11. These are the ideas which I think have transformed the firm and will continue to do so in the next 50 years.
12. Let me say more about what each belief entails. If justice transcends borders, then Rajah & Tann must be at home in the region. If people are its key resources, then the firm must listen seriously and give weight to new ideas and innovations. Last, if it is committed to the moral arc of law, then it must commit to giving justice for all.
At home in the region
13. First, going beyond borders.
14. I have had the privilege of seeing parts of Rajah & Tann’s international journey myself. I was at that fateful meeting in Putrajaya in Malaysia in 2008, when the partnership decided to go regional. The idea, which was ahead of its time, was to invite leading lawyers in ASEAN to be partners, not employees. We were firm that it would not be a “post-box” arrangement where we just sent the work to a group of firms in their respective jurisdictions.
15. This was a model that truly worked. The partnership was able to seek out top legal talent in ASEAN. Lifelong friends, some of whom I’m pleased to see here this evening, were made as a result, including: Fikri of AHP; Yew Chen and See Ting of CLO; Surasak, Melisa and Supawat of R&T Thailand; Heng Chhay of R&T Cambodia; Ben Yap of CnG; and Vu Thi of R&T Vietnam. A special mention also to Andrew CL Ong, who was heavily involved in the crucial early years of R&T Asia.
16. I have personally seen, at different points, how Rajah & Tann has sought to connect Singapore with opportunities beyond our shores.
17. The value proposition is undeniable. In a world where there are increasingly cross-border issues, a premium is paid for seamless advice and the ability to take action with top lawyers involved in each jurisdiction.
18. Rajah & Tann were prescient in this respect. The firm began looking beyond Singapore relatively early. Shanghai opened in 2003. By 2009, Rajah & Tann was already on the way to becoming a regional legal powerhouse. In 2014, Rajah & Tann Asia was formally launched.
19. The logic of looking beyond Singapore was compelling. Singapore is a sophisticated, but relatively small, legal market. At the same time, Singapore enterprises were venturing abroad, and international businesses were expanding across Asia. For Singapore law firms, this presented an opportunity.
20. That opportunity is even greater now. We can see it in Asia’s growing weight in the global economy. Take ASEAN. It is currently the 5th largest economy in the world, but is on track to overtake Japan to be the 4th largest by 2030, with a combined GDP of between US$4.5 to 5 trillion. Nearly 200 of the Fortune 500 companies are now headquartered in Asia-Pacific, more than in North America or Europe.
21. But this is not simply about corporate scale or numbers on GDP, trade and investment, but where globally business leadership increasingly sits.
22. Five of the world’s six leading innovation clusters are in Asia. Across industries once dominated by the West, Asian companies have emerged as global leaders, from automobiles and electronics to semiconductors and advanced technology. They are at the forefront of industries shaping the future, including electric vehicles, renewable energy, and other clean technologies.
23. ASEAN is very much part of this story. The region has produced over 40 unicorn companies and counting, many of them homegrown, built for Southeast Asian conditions, and now expanding globally.
24. Asia is no longer simply a market to sell into or a place to manufacture. Increasingly, ideas are being developed here, global businesses are being built here, and new industries are being shaped here.
25. Singapore sits at the heart of these shifts. More than 1,000 foreign companies now have headquarters here, many using Singapore as a base for the region. For our legal profession, that means more sophisticated businesses, more cross-border activity, more complex legal needs, and significant opportunities for firms with the capabilities and reach to grow alongside Asia.
26. But building a regional legal network to capture that opportunity requires investment, patience, and a willingness to take risks. Rajah & Tann has stayed the course all these years – investing in the relationships, people, and capabilities needed to make a regional network work.
27. Today, Rajah & Tann Asia has more than 1,000 fee earners across 10 countries, with a strong presence across Southeast Asia and representative offices in Shanghai and Shenzhen. Its journey shows what is possible when a Singapore firm has the ambition, and the courage of its convictions, to go beyond our borders.
The Human Face of Law
28. As I said at the start of my speech, coming here tonight is like coming home to me. Rajah & Tann has been a family to many of us, placing people at the centre of our work.
29. The atmosphere was very convivial. When one of us had an appeal before the Court of Appeal, we would hold a moot court for the lawyer. Frequently, he got hantam (which is, in our national language, “whacked”). Invariably, the experience was that the Court of Appeal was not even half as tough as the moot court. We do this not for billing, we write off our time for such work. It is because we see ourselves through the lawyer. It is the spirit we nurtured.
30. Of course, it was not all work. A lot of practical jokes used to be played in the firm. One that I participated in involved a group of junior lawyers bravely commencing “legal proceedings” against a partner for alleged defamation. That led to a flurry of applications with imaginative arguments. I filed an intervention application for my so-called “client”, the officious bystander. All this, however, came to a grinding halt when the then-managing partner, Steven Chong, got wind of this and decided he should hear the case.
31. Despite all this, I learnt and practised enough law to take silk. Rajah & Tann gave me the platform to become Senior Counsel in 2020, a high honour for which I am indebted.
32. Taking people seriously means taking our aspirations and ideas seriously too. I am confident that Rajah & Tann will continue to help its lawyers realise their aspirations.
33. Not only that, Rajah & Tann has never been afraid to try something new. It established Rajah & Tann Technologies in 2018, followed by Rajah & Tann Cybersecurity, and has continued to explore AI and new ways of delivering legal services.
34. What stands out is this willingness to look ahead, to see how clients’ needs are changing, and to move with them.
35. That spirit has earned Rajah & Tann recognition as the Financial Times’ Most Innovative Southeast Asian Law Firm for 13 consecutive years.
Justice
36. Finally, justice. The law is more than a business. It is a profession for the pursuit of morality.
37. I, more than most, know the truth and commitment in Rajah & Tann. I was a pro bono partner of Rajah & Tann in the past, coordinating the efforts of lawyers who unhesitatingly volunteered their time to help the less fortunate in our society through legal clinics, and through association with the Legal Aid Bureau and Pro Bono SG.
38. In 2011, it established the Rajah & Tann Foundation, the first of its kind by a Singapore law firm, supporting disadvantaged members of our community. More recently, the firm became a founding law firm of the Commonwealth Pro Bono Centre, extending that contribution beyond Singapore.
39. TT Rajah was known for representing ordinary working people – bus drivers, waiters, factory workers, and others who needed someone to speak for them. Fifty years on, Rajah & Tann has changed and grown, but it has also remained the same.
Going further together
40. Let me make one final point about going beyond our borders.
41. To Rajah & Tann and our Singapore law firms that want to go beyond, you do not have to make that journey alone. The Ministry of Law wants our law firms to succeed - in Singapore, across the region, and internationally.
42. My colleagues and I have been meeting our firms, and we will continue to do so in the coming months to understand their ambitions, where they see opportunities, the challenges they face, and how the Government can support them.
43. We will work alongside the profession, opening doors where we can, supporting internationalisation and innovation, and strengthening the ecosystem for our firms to grow and compete.
44. Ultimately, each firm will chart its own course. But if you have the gumption to go further, we will work with you to get there.
Conclusion
45. Let me end by congratulating Rajah & Tann on this very special milestone. I recall attending the 45th anniversary dinner, where the Guest of Honour was VK Rajah SC, former Judge of Appeal of the Supreme Court, former Attorney-General and, of course, former managing partner of Rajah & Tann.
46. I must confess that 45 years is not a well-known milestone to celebrate. But VK educated me. He said that the 45th anniversary is a “sapphire” anniversary, and hence precious in its way.
47. A golden jubilee is an occasion to look back with pride, not only at what has been achieved, but also at the people who made it possible.
48. Tonight, we should also remember those who helped build Rajah & Tann but are no longer with us. Among them is the late Mr Patrick Ang, who served as managing partner of Rajah & Tann Singapore and later as Vice-Chairman of Rajah & Tann Asia. I am delighted to see his wife here, together with their daughters.
49. He and I shared something in common. He was an alumnus of Princess Elizabeth Primary School (PEPS) and the Chairman of the PEPs Alumni. PEPS happens to be in Bukit Batok, my constituency where I continue to serve as MP.
50. One day, he invited the principal and teachers to the firm for a leadership conference. He asked me to turn up, so I turned up. The teachers were so surprised. “How come their MP is meeting them at an internal conference?” I told them I had no choice, my boss ordered me to come.
51. But this man had a heart of gold. Just shortly before he passed on, he attended a PEPS function to welcome Indonesian primary school students to the school. There was a backstory.
52. Some months earlier, he met PEPS children who recounted their journey to Indonesia. They visited 2 schools. The first one was an international school which had facilities apparently better than PEPS. The second one was a village school in Bandung.
53. There, the children had the time of their lives playing with their counterparts. Everyone in the village turned up, and they had lots of fun. Patrick asked the PEPS student representative: if he had one wish, what would it be? The student said Patrick would not be able to grant his wish. Patrick said, “try me”. He said, “I want to invite the Indonesian students from Bandung to visit us in Singapore”.
54. Patrick made it happen. And I also know that the Rajah & Tann Foundation helped to make it happen.
55. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Rajah & Tann. It shows us what it means to pursue justice, to build a large law firm like a small family, and to keep the door open to everyone who needs the power of the law, as one of your founding fathers did for my father all those years ago.
56. To everyone who has been part of that journey, past and present, congratulations on what you have built and thank you for your contributions to Singapore and our legal profession.
57. May the next 50 years take the firm to even greater heights. Thank you.
Last updated on 10 September 2026