20 November, 2015
Duane Morris LLP and Duane Morris & Selvam LLP are pleased to announce that Singapore managing partner Arfat Selvam is the recipient of The Law Society of Singapore’s C C Tan Award for 2015. Mrs. Selvam, who was president of the Law Society in 2003—only the second woman to have ever held the office—received the award at the Law Society’s Annual Dinner & Dance held on November 13, 2015, at the Marina Mandarin in Singapore.
The C C Tan Award was created in 2003 to recognize members of the Singapore Bar who have displayed throughout their careers “the highest ideals of the profession—honesty, fair play, courtesy and personal integrity.” It is named for the late Tan Chye Cheng, or C C Tan, the first elected president of the Law Society.
Mrs. Selvam has more than 40 years of experience in corporate finance, having been at the forefront of the development of the financial services market in Singapore. Her practice includes mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructures, takeovers, funds raising in the capital markets, privatizations, financial services, cross-border investments, financial services and international joint ventures. Mrs. Selvam has been involved in several landmark transactions, such as DBS Bank’s acquisition of POSB and the merger of Keppel Bank with OCBC, as well as the initial public offerings of Singapore Airlines, Neptune Orient Lines and Creative Technology.
Mrs. Selvam has been closely involved in the changes driving the legal financial services sector in Singapore. She was a member of the Company Law Reform Committee, which made major recommendations affecting the companies and securities laws in Singapore. Mrs. Selvam is also involved in legal services for Islamic banking and finance in Singapore. In 2005, she launched a regional grouping for Islamic financing—the Asian Islamic Finance Alliance (AIFA)—a strategic alliance with other law firms in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei that provides advice and support for structuring sharia-compliant financial products and funding mergers, acquisitions and infrastructure transactions.
Mrs. Selvam was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 1969 and is a former director of the Stock Exchange of Singapore Limited. She was also a member of the Senate of the Academy of Law and the Board of Legal Education and was formerly on the board of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). Mrs. Selvam is a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Directors and a director of JurongHealth Fund Limited.
