Daniel Koh

Daniel Koh is a Partner with the firm's Dispute Resolution and Family Law team. His primary practice area is Family Law, and his main area of practice is civil and criminal law litigation.

He recently retired as a judge in the Family Justice Court after a public service career spanning almost 40 years. As a family court judge, he dealt with a wide range of family disputes, ancillary hearings, probate applications and contested lasting power of attorney and deputyship appointment hearings under the Mental Capacity Act.

His adjudicative skills were honed by two decades of experience on the Singapore court bench, dealing with civil and criminal trials while serving as a magistrate, assistant registrar, district judge and Registrar in the Subordinate Courts of Singapore. In 1995, as Registrar, he assisted the Chief Judge in initiating a comprehensive series of judicial reform and process engineering exercises that transformed the legal and judicial landscape in Singapore, significantly enhancing public access to justice and heightening public trust and confidence in the courts and the rule of law.

In May 2001, he held the position of Deputy Principal Senior State Counsel in the Attorney General's Chambers, prosecuting sensitive financial and securities fraud cases. As director, he supervised teams of deputy public prosecutors in the Financial Securities Offences and Corruption & Specialist Crime directorates. He was the lead prosecutor in several complex high-profile white-collar crimes, including the China Aviation Oil case, one of the biggest financial scandals in Singapore.

He was the first Public Guardian in Singapore from 2010 to 2015, seconded from the Attorney General's Chambers in 2009 to take on this appointment.

Since the Mental Capacity Act came into effect on 1 March 2010, he has, supported by the Office of the Public Guardian, carried out various functions towards enabling and protecting vulnerable persons in society who lack mental capacity. Since 2010, he has been a regular overseas expert speaker at several World Congress sessions held in Washington, Melbourne, Berlin, Tokyo and Seoul on guardianship law.