Kala Anandarajah, Head, Competition & Antitrust and Trade, Lead Partner, Corporate Governance, Rajah & Tann

Kala takes pride in ensuring that every piece of work she undertakes is targeted and focussed, addressing the specific need of the client in a practical business-oriented manner.

A profound legal advisor to both multinational corporations and local companies across the region, Kala has had many firsts in her career, handling difficult and complex matters, demystifying and simplifying issues to achieve the clients’ aim.

Kala Anandarajah heads the Competition & Antitrust and Trade Practice and leads the Corporate Governance Practice at Rajah & Tann. With several accolades for her legal work, her key practice areas are Competition and Trade (including consumer protection), with strong secondary practices in Employment, Environmental (EHS) & Sustainability, Corporate Governance and Telco/Media Laws.

She sits on various boards, including Building and Construction Authority, Singapore Institute of Legal Education; and is a member of the External Review Panel of Safety in SAF (MIDEF), the Appeal Board - Council of Estate Agents (MND). She was for a long-time part of the Workplace Safety & Health Council and was on the Committee for Professional Training of Lawyers formed by the Chief Justice of Singapore.

Anandarajah has been involved in major cartel/ abuse investigations, cross-border mergers/ other notifications, leniency applications, and also handles dawn-raids, complaints, consultation, counselling, compliance, training and implementation of competition laws across the region. On trade agreements specifically, her work has spanned providing feedback on FTAs being negotiated, setting up a business and structuring logistics flows to benefit from RTAs and FTAs, advising extensively on ROOs and COOs, whilst meandering the different ROO under different FTAs, advising on how best to benefit from preferential treatment, and also handling defending violations vis-à-vis customs regulators.

Anandarajah holds an LLB (Hons) degree from National University of Singapore and has completed her MBA (Banking and Finance) from Nanyang Technological University.

She is perhaps the only Singapore lawyer cited as a leading Trade lawyer by international legal ranking journals. Anandarajah is a prolific writer and is widely published, with many of her books being first publications in Singapore and the region and now leading texts relied upon by many lawyers, other professionals and businessmen.

Some of the accolades and recognition bagged by Kala include, Nominated Regional Lawyer of the Year by Legal 500, Commended External Counsel of the Year 2016 by the Inhouse Community, Top 100 Women in Antitrust in the World by the Global Competition Review, etc.