Sudha Rai Selvam

As Vice-President, I sit on the Board of the Civilians Association (Singapore), a NCSS Registered Non-Profit Charity Organisation. We give out the annual Singapore Silent Heroes Awards and also champion charity causes like helping single-parent needy families, elderly in need as well as focus on youth development.

Construction, Engineering and Infrastructure Projects Practice Group

Corporate Law & Dispute Resolution (International Arbitration)

Distribution Agreements, Licensing Agreements and Trade Terms for the APAC region primarily China, India, Australia, New Zealand.

I wore two hats as Legal Counsel and Assistant Company Secretary at Trust Bank, Singapore’s first Digital Bank, a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited and BetaPlus (a special purpose vehicle under NTUC). I routinely negotiated NDAs with new wealth partners as well as reviewed commercial partnership agreements on a daily basis. As part of a strategic shift to further position the bank as a leader in digital innovation within the industry, I solo-spearheaded a transformative initiative to streamline lengthy partnership agreements from cumbersome pdf-based processes to an efficient electronic “click to accept” 2-paged form. Through this, I was able to preserve content integrity while significantly accelerating the pace of our commercial operations. To kickstart the new financial restructuring product line expansion of the bank, I authored the Debt Restructuring Programme T&Cs for customers in line with SCBSL’s T&Cs. I also re-vamped the existing General & Product T&Cs as well as Key Fact Sheet, combing through with the intention of “Trustifying” any equivocal language. It is noteworthy that the bank has won an award for its "Plain English" contracts. Other than looking at contracts, there were other exciting moments like drafting legal opinions, ensuring requisite licenses were obtained and advising the Customer Team on customer feedback. Besides my role as a legal counsel, I have robust experience as a corporate secretariat having worked alongside the bank’s Chief Legal Officer who doubled up as the Company Secretary. The bread and butter of it was ensuring the Bank met the Banking (Corporate Governance) Regulations 2005, adhered to the MAS Corporate Governance Guidelines 2021 and the Standard Chartered Group’s Standards. I worked at Trust Bank with a gap in between in 2023.

My practice areas included Commercial Litigation, Corporate Law, Construction, Insurance, Property and Arbitration. My day to day involved dealing with insurance claims and other criminal matters. I have also drafted a plethora of undertakings including Sale and Purchase Agreements and Wills during my employment. I have also written submissions to court on various litigious matters where some of my submissions have been colossal in giving weight to the defendant's acquittal.

I was in the Corporate Banking & Finance department, as well the Mergers & Acquisitions and Environmental Social Governance departments handling clients across various jurisdictions. I worked on Mergers & Acquisitions, Commercial Contracts, Joint Ventures, Sustainable Financing and Bonds during both my pupilage and apprenticeship . My day to day included drafting Deeds, Facility Agreements, Shareholder Agreements, registering Charges, drafting Employment Contracts, Sale & Purchase Agreements, Share Transfer Agreements as well as negotiating Pre-emptive Rights like Right of First Offer and Right of First Refusal rights. I worked with companies and banks on compliance with the MAS Green Standards on sustainable financing and the recommended disclosure frameworks by SGX. Furthermore, I handled Commercial Disputes as well as Pro-bono Criminal cases, Estate and Divorce matters to add diversity to my portfolio. There was a gap where I went off to study in between my pupilage and apprenticeship.

I worked with the Dedicated Distress and Special Situations team on complex, cross-border restructuring matters during this internship. I also got exposure in drafting a Scheme of Arrangement.