Legal career
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. [7] [8] He was ranked fourth in the Bar Exams; when he returned to Singapore, he topped the local Bar Exam. [7] He served as a Justices' Law Clerk to former Chief Justice Yong Pung How before joining Drew & Napier in 1994, [9] and left for Harvard Law School in 1995 on a Lee Kuan Yew Scholarship to pursue a Master of Laws. [7] [8] He then passed the New York Bar Exams and joined Sullivan & Cromwell as a litigation associate. [7] [10]
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. [7] [11] In 2008, he was appointed Senior Counsel at the age of 39, an accolade rarely accorded to those under 40 years of age. [12] Bull is also occasionally involved in academic writings, having written on subjects such as civil procedure. [13] 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, [14] and was reported to be looking into developing a mechanism "to handle disputes amongst businesses" in Singapore and China. [15]
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. [16] Bull was also appointed to the Disciplinary Tribunal of the International Association of Athletics Federations [17] and also a member of the NUS Law Advisory Council. [18] He was previously also the Co-Chairman of the Singapore Exchange Disciplinary Committee, where he served for six years. [19]
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, [20] a civil case acting for the liquidators against Hin Leong founder Lim Oon Kuin, [21] securing a S$3.5 billion judgment in that case, [22] and a case of fraud by thumb drive inventor Henn Tan. [23] Bull also represented Ong Beng Seng in a high profile case involving former Minister S Iswaran. [24] Bull was also on the Disciplinary Tribunal which fined Eugene Thuraisingam for a poem that was in contempt of court in 2018. [25] He also represented Lee Kuan Yew's former lawyer Kwa Kim Li in disciplinary proceedings as a result of a complaint made by Lee Hsien Yang. [26]
