Lucien Wong Yuen Kuai (born 1953) is a Singaporean lawyer who has been serving as the ninth

attorney-general of Singapore The attorney-general of Singapore is the public prosecutor of Singapore, and legal adviser to the Government of Singapore. The functions of the attorney-general are carried out with the assistance of the deputy attorney-general and the solicito ...

since 2017. A former corporate lawyer, Wong was the chairman and a senior partner of

Allen & Gledhill Allen & Gledhill LLP is a Singapore law firm with a regional network of associate firms and offices. It is the largest law firm in Singapore, and is a regional market leader in many practices, particularly banking, finance, capital markets, corpo ...

, as well as the chairman of the

Singapore International Arbitration Centre Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) is a not-for-profit international arbitration organisation based in Singapore, which administers arbitrations under its own rules of arbitration and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. It was establis ...

and the

Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Transport of the Government of Singapore. History The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) was established on 2 February 1996 by the MPA A ...

Education

Wong graduated from the University of Singapore (now the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

) with a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree in 1978. He topped his final-year class.

Career

Private practice

Wong was called to the Singapore Bar in 1979. He started as a legal assistant in

Drew & Napier Drew & Napier LLC is one of Singapore’s leading law firms. Founded in 1889, the firm has more than 500 employees. It is regarded as one of the “Big Four” law firms in Singapore. Drew & Napier regularly advises governments, government in ...

in 1980, becoming a partner in 1982. He then moved to Allen & Gledhill, where he was a partner from 1987 to 1998, before being appointed managing partner from 1998 to 2012, then chairman and senior partner. As a corporate lawyer for over three decades, he specialised in

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

corporate A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...

and financial services law. He also sat on

law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pro ...

committees, reviewing amendments to Singaporean

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

and

securities law Securities regulation in the United States is the field of U.S. law that covers transactions and other dealings with securities. The term is usually understood to include both federal and state-level regulation by governmental regulatory agencies, ...

. As the personal lawyer of

Lee Hsien Loong Lee Hsien Loong (; born 10 February 1952) is a Singaporean politician and former brigadier-general who has been serving as Prime Minister of Singapore and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party since 2004. He has been the Member of Par ...

, the

Prime Minister of Singapore The prime minister of Singapore is the head of government of the Republic of Singapore. The president appoints the prime minister, a Member of Parliament (MP) who in their opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of the majority of ...

, Wong represented him during the dispute with his siblings over

Lee Kuan Yew Lee Kuan Yew (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, often referred to by his initials LKY, was a Singaporean lawyer and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990, and Secretary-General o ...

's Oxley Road estate.

Public service

On 25 November 2016, the Prime Minister's Office announced Wong's appointment as

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

. Wong would be Singapore's first Attorney-General without prior experience on the Bench nor in the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Human rights lawyer International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law are primarily made up of treaties, ag ...

Eugene Thuraisingam Eugene Singarajah Thuraisingam (born 10 June 1975) is a lawyer from Singapore. He is the founder of the law firm Eugene Thuraisingam LLP, a law firm that specialises in international arbitration and criminal and commercial litigation. He is al ...

, who was later brought to Court by Wong, as Attorney-General, for scandalising the judiciary, said Wong’s lack of Bench and criminal law experience will have little bearing “because he is a top lawyer, one of the best”. He added: “He is a very highly regarded and respected lawyer who has been in practice for a very long time ... For criminal law, he will pick it up very fast. Generally, he has led one of Singapore’s most successful firms". Law Society president Thio Shen Yi described him as a "well-known corporate visionary" and

Senior Counsel The title of Senior Counsel or State Counsel (post-nominal letters: SC) is given to a senior lawyer in some countries that were formerly part of the British Empire. "Senior Counsel" is used in current or former Commonwealth countries or jurisdicti ...

Lok Vi Ming said he had "few equals in the legal profession". Parliament also debated his age, as he would be 63 or three years older than the retiring V K Rajah when appointed; however,

Law Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...

K Shanmugam Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam ( ta, காசிவிஸ்வநாதன் சண்முகம்; born 26 March 1959), better known as K. Shanmugam, is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has been serving as Minister for Law since 2008 ...

said that the appointment, being for a specified term, was "in accordance with Article 35 of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

". As a "transitional arrangement", Wong was appointed on 19 December 2016 as a Deputy Attorney-General and a Senior Counsel. In 2017, the

Singapore Democratic Party The Singapore Democratic Party (abbreviation: SDP) is a politcal party in Singapore. The party was founded on 6 August 1980 by Chiam See Tong. During the 1991 general election, Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen won Bukit Gombak SMC and Nee ...

(SDP), an opposition political party in Singapore, wrote in to the

President of Singapore The president of Singapore is the head of state of the Singapore, Republic of Singapore. The role of the president is to safeguard the Reserves of the Government of Singapore, reserves and the integrity of the Singapore Civil Service, public serv ...

Tony Tan Tony Tan Keng Yam (; born 7 February 1940) is a Singaporean former politician who served as the seventh president of Singapore between 2011 and 2017. He did not seek for a second term as president in 2017 due to a constitutional amendment ...

, urging him to revoke Wong's position as the Attorney-General as he had refused to look into Lee Wei Ling and

Lee Hsien Yang Lee Hsien Yang (; born 24 September 1957) is a Singaporean businessman. Education Lee attended Catholic High School and National Junior College before graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge with a double first in engineering science under th ...

allegations In law, an allegation is a claim of an unproven fact by a party in a pleading, charge, or defense. Until they can be proved, allegations remain merely assertions.

that

, had abused his powers and made false statements in Parliament. The SDP said that the association of Wong with Lee Hsien Loong prior to his becoming the Attorney-General has created an acute

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

which cannot be ignored and any further delay or refusal to act will cause even greater erosion of confidence in Singapore's public institutions. The Prime Minister, however, had stated that the President had been informed of the connection between him and the appointed AG, and had no issues with it. On 14 January 2017, he commenced his first three-year term as Singapore's ninth Attorney-General, succeeding V K Rajah. He was re-appointed for his second three-year term commencing on 14 January 2020 until 2023. On 26 September 2022, it was announced that Wong will be appointed for his third three-year term as Attorney General beginning on 14 January 2023 until 2026.

Professional appointments

Prior to his appointment as Attorney-General, Wong was the chairman of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. He was also a member of the

Singapore Business Federation Singapore Business Federation (Abbreviation: SBF; ; ; ) is the apex business chamber in Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies a ...

's board of trustees and director of

Broadcom Limited Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

Singapore Health Services Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, Cerebos Pacific Limited,

Singapore Technologies Engineering Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd, doing business as ST Engineering, is a Singaporean multinational technology and engineering group in the aerospace, smart city as well as defence and public security sectors. Headquartered in Singapore, ...

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

Singapore Press Holdings Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPHL) was an organisation with businesses in property and aged care in Singapore. Since its takeover by Cuscaden Peak in 2022, it has been renamed Cuscaden Peak Investments. Prior to 1 December 2021, SPHL was i ...

, Hap Seng Plantations,

Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines (abbreviation: SIA) is the flag carrier airline of the Republic of Singapore with its Airline hub, hub located at Singapore Changi Airport. The airline is notable for highlighting the Singapore Girl as its central figure in ...

Monetary Authority of Singapore The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is the central bank and financial regulatory authority of Singapore. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general, as well ...

Capitaland CapitaLand is a Singaporean headquartered company focusing on investment, development and management of real estate. It is one of Asia's largest real estate companies and the owner and manager of a global portfolio comprising integrated develo ...

and other companies. Wong is currently a member of the

Presidential Council for Minority Rights The Presidential Council for Minority Rights (PCMR) is a non-elected government body in Singapore established in 1970, the main function of which is to scrutinize most of the bills passed by Parliament to ensure that they do not discriminate ...

and was the former chairman of the

Singapore Management University The Singapore Management University (SMU) is a public autonomous university in Singapore. The university is the only city campus in Singapore. It ranks third in Asia as a specialist university, behind Hong Kong University of Science and Techn ...

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

's advisory board.

Personal life

Wong is married and has a son, Paul Wong.

References

External links

Lucien Wong's CV
on the Attorney-General's Chambers website {{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Lucien 20th-century Singaporean lawyers Singaporean Senior Counsel National University of Singapore alumni 1953 births Living people 21st-century Singaporean lawyers Attorneys-General of Singapore