Christopher de Souza

Christopher de Souza is a Partner in the Intellectual Property department at Lee & Lee in Singapore. His practice focuses on Intellectual Property Law, and encompasses a wide number of dispute resolution areas including intellectual property, contract, negligence, defamation, internet defamation, banking and regulatory disputes, and disputes involving shareholders, directors, finance and companies, as well as matters involving international arbitration, criminal proceedings and white collar crime.

Christopher graduated with First Class Honours from King's College London, where he topped his law class, and pursued the BCL Masters degree at the University of Oxford, graduating with Distinction. He was awarded a Shell scholarship while at Oxford and received six book prizes at King's College London, including the Sweet & Maxwell prize for the joint highest honours in his graduating class and the Jelf Medal for his academic and sporting contributions to the University.

He has acted as lead Counsel in hearings before the Singapore High Court and Court of Appeal, and has acted as counsel in international arbitrations. He also represents clients in mediations and negotiations, and in the State Courts, and has represented and advised global MNCs, local and regional SMEs, family businesses, and private citizens.

During his years of practice, Christopher was a Justices' Law Clerk to the Chief Justice of Singapore, Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers, and an Assistant Registrar of the High Court before moving into private practice. He has been a Member of Singapore's Parliament since 2006 and is a member of the Government Parliamentary Committees for Law and Home Affairs.

Christopher also makes it a point to accept criminal briefs, acting for clients in both the High Court and the State Courts in cases involving alleged corruption, outrage of modesty, theft, bomb hoaxes and credit card fraud. He served as a member of the Singapore High Court's panel of Defence Counsel for Capital Cases.

His reported cases include Baizanis, Georgios v Snap Innovations Pte Ltd and another [2024] SGHC 200; Allianz Capital Partners GmbH, Singapore Branch v Goh Andress [2023] 1 SLR 1618; Long Well Group Limited and others v Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft and others [2018] SGHC 57; Rohm & Haas v Nexplanar Corporation & Anor [2017] SGHC 310; NUH (Singapore) Pte Ltd v Cicada Cube Pte Ltd [2018] SGCA 52; and Louis Vuitton Malletier v City Chain Stores (S) Pte Ltd [2009] 2 SLR (R) 684.

He has also represented oil giant Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte. Ltd. as lead Counsel in relation to regulatory litigation involving the 2013 fuel leak at Sembawang Station and the 2011 Pulau Bukom Oil Refinery Fire, and has acted in multiple SIAC arbitrations involving regional energy, mining, power plant and financial disputes.

Christopher tabled, in Singapore's Parliament, the Prevention of Human Trafficking Bill, which was passed into law in 2015 and is now part of the laws of Singapore. He has spoken at conferences including The Singapore Legal Forum 2010, The Singapore Academy of Law "Forensics Conference" 2009, the Presidents of Law Associations of Asia (POLA) Conference 2006, the World Economic Forum, and the Thomson-Reuters Foundation Trust Asia Forum 2016. He was appointed as a Member of the Complaints & Disciplinary Panel by the Public Accountants Oversight Committee in 2019 and as a Member of the Competition Appeal Board in 2019.

His publications include Halsbury's Laws of Singapore (Criminal Law) Chapter [5] (Lexis-Nexis, 2008), "Expanding the Boundaries of Sudden Fight" (2003) 15 Singapore Academy of Law Journal 333, "Diminished Responsibility: A Less Vindicatory Excuse than Provocation" (2005) 17 Singapore Academy of Law Journal 793, and "Dismantling Human Trafficking," Singapore Law Gazette (2015).