37 Facts About Walter Woon

Walter Woon Cheong Ming was born on 12 September 1956 and is a Singaporean lawyer who served as the fifth attorney-general of Singapore between 2008 and 2010.

Walter Woon is currently an Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Lee Kong Chian Visiting professor at the Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law, and the dean of the RHT Legal Training Institute.

Walter Woon had served as the legal adviser to the president of Singapore and the Council of Presidential Advisers between 1995 and 1997.

Walter Woon was a Nominated Member of Parliament between 1992 and 1996.

From 1997 to 2006, Walter Woon served in a number of diplomatic capacities, including Singapore Ambassador to Germany with an accreditation to Greece, and Singapore Ambassador to Belgium, with concurrent accreditation to the European Union, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Holy See.

Walter Woon was appointed Second Solicitor-General in 2006 and subsequently Solicitor-General in 2007.

Walter Woon, an ethnic Singaporean Chinese of Peranakan descent, was born on 12 September 1956 in Singapore to schoolteachers.

Walter Woon was a head prefect at Pasir Panjang Primary School and a prefect while at Raffles Institution.

Walter Woon joined the teaching staff of the NUS Faculty of Law that year, focusing his teaching and research on company law and securities regulation.

On 1 February 1999 Walter Woon was appointed a professor of law.

In November 1990, Walter Woon appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore Bill to make representations on the proposed introduction of an elected President for Singapore.

Walter Woon took the view that since the elected president should be politically neutral, Cabinet members should only be eligible to stand for election five years after leaving politics.

Walter Woon affirmed that the Constitution had to evolve to reflect the changing needs of the people, and that it could not be assumed that the Constitution, drafted in 1965, would be the best Constitution for always and should be frozen in time.

Walter Woon was a Nominated Member of Parliament for three terms, from 7 September 1992 to 6 September 1994, from 7 September 1994 to 6 September 1996, and from 7 September 1996 till 15 December 1996 when Parliament was dissolved for the 1997 general election.

In September 1992, Walter Woon was appointed to the select committee to review the Companies Bill which proposed, among other things, that scripless trading in securities listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore be authorised so that share transfers can be made through computerised book entries.

On 23 May 1994, Walter Woon moved a Private Member's Bill which was eventually passed by Parliament on 2 November 1995 as the Maintenance of Parents Act.

From 1995 to 1997, Walter Woon was Legal Adviser to the President of Singapore and Council of Presidential Advisors.

Between September 1997 and September 2006, Walter Woon was seconded to the Foreign Service.

Walter Woon was Singapore's Ambassador to Germany from 6 February 1998 to July 2003, and was concurrently accredited to Greece from March 2000 to July 2003.

Walter Woon then served as Ambassador to Belgium with concurrent accreditation to the European Union, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Holy See.

Walter Woon was appointed to the post of Second Solicitor-General on 3 October 2006, and Solicitor-General on 2 July 2007.

In February 2008, Walter Woon was appointed by the Ministry of Finance to chair a steering committee to review the Companies Act.

Walter Woon served on the Presidential Council for Minority Rights between 2008 and 2010.

Walter Woon was the first Attorney-General in more than ten years to personally appear in court.

Walter Woon replied, pointing out a number of misconceptions she held as to the facts and the law, and emphasising that the prosecution had been brought as no one was above the law.

Walter Woon prosecuted a number of contempt of court cases, including suits against Dow Jones Publishing Company, Inc for material published in The Wall Street Journal Asia; against US-based lawyer Gopalan Nair for comments on his blog; and against three Singapore Democratic Party supporters, John Tan Liang Joo, Isrizal bin Mohamed Isa and Muhammad Shafi'ie Syahmi bin Sariman, who wore T-shirts bearing the image of a kangaroo dressed in a judge's gown outside the Supreme Court Building.

Walter Woon established a new division in the Attorney-General's Chambers for the prosecution of cases in the Subordinate Courts of Singapore to enhance the development of criminal litigation skills, and recruited a number of young and talented lawyers into the Singapore Legal Service.

Walter Woon assisted in the setting up of the Centre for International Law at NUS to improve international law expertise in Singapore and the region.

Walter Woon was Singapore's alternate representative on the High Level Task Force for the Drafting of the ASEAN Charter, a key constitutional document for ASEAN, which was signed in November 2007.

Walter Woon stepped down as Attorney-General on 10 April 2010 after a two-year term.

Walter Woon subsequently clarified that when he said he had outstayed his welcome he had been "thinking more about the people I prosecuted rather than anything else", and that "I was kidding, I was being facetious".

Walter Woon returned to academia at NUS, and was appointed the first Dean of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education, a company incorporated by the Singapore Academy of Law on 18 January 2010 to manage the postgraduate practical training of graduates from local and overseas universities seeking admission to the Singapore Bar, training contracts, and continuing legal education for practising lawyers.

Walter Woon is currently Chairman of the Singapore International Law Society, Judge Advocate General, and President of the Goethe Institute Singapore.

In 2015, Walter Woon joined RHTLaw TaylorWessing LLP, one of the few largest law firms in Singapore, as its non-executive Chairman and Senior Consultant.

In September 2017, Walter Woon wrote a piece in The Straits Times illuminating how the office of the Attorney-General carries out its prosecutorial function, and suggesting that this could be separated from its other role as legal advisor to the Government.

Walter Woon won a consolation prize for a short story called The Body in Question which he submitted for the 1985 National Short Story Writing Competition.

Walter Woon has said that fiction writing was "something I did on the side when I got tired of writing non-fiction".