| Cavinder Bull | |
| Birth Place: | Singapore |
| Education: | University of Oxford (BA) Harvard University (LLM) |
| Occupation: | Lawyer |
| Years Active: | 1993–present |
| Known For: | CEO of Drew & Napier |
Cavinder Bull 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]
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.[5] [6] He was ranked fourth in the Bar Exams; when he returned to Singapore, he topped the local Bar Exam. He served as a Justices' Law Clerk to former Chief Justice Yong Pung How before joining Drew & Napier in 1994,[7] and left for Harvard Law School in 1995 on a Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship to pursue a Master of Laws. He then passed the New York Bar Exams and joined Sullivan & Cromwell as a litigation associate.[8]
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.[9] In 2008, he was appointed Senior Counsel at the age of 39, an accolade rarely accorded to those under 40 years of age.[10] Bull is also occasionally involved in academic writings, having written on subjects such as civil procedure.[11] 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,[12] and was reported to be looking into developing a mechanism "to handle disputes amongst businesses" in Singapore and China.[13]
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.[14] Bull was also appointed to the Disciplinary Tribunal of the International Association of Athletics Federations[15] and also a member of the NUS Law Advisory Council.[16] He was previously also the Co-Chairman of the Singapore Exchange Disciplinary Committee, where he served for six years.[17]
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,[18] a civil case acting for the liquidators against Hin Leong founder Lim Oon Kuin[19] and a case of fraud by thumb drive inventor Henn Tan.[20] Bull was also on the Disciplinary Tribunal which fined Eugene Thuraisingam for a poem that was in contempt of court in 2018.[21] 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.[22]
Bull and his two elder sisters were raised single-handedly by his mother after his father died when he was 15 months old.[23] He studied at Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and Anglo-Chinese Junior College.[24] [25]