Simon TAY

Simon TAY is a Senior Consultant in the Firm focusing on the intersections of politics and public policy with business and foreign investment. 

He has extensive experience in the areas of international and public law, with emphasis on sustainability, political and economic issues. He advises multinational corporations and has served on the Global Advisory Boards of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. and Toyota Corporation and was previously corporate advisor to Temasek Holdings. 

He is of counsel on matters concerning public and regulatory policy across Asean and on and a number of practices, especially sustainability and responsible business. He also supports our senior leadership for our regional network and transnational practice. 

Concurrently, Simon is the Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs which represents Singapore in “track two” diplomacy and has advised and worked with a number of key regional governments. He is also appointed as an Ambassador for Singapore, currently accredited to Greece on a Non-Residential basis. He served as an independent and non-elected Member of the Singapore Parliament from 1997 to 2001. From 2002 to 2008, Simon chaired the National Environmental Agency, the main regulator for environmental protection in Singapore, and led a number of public consultations Singapore 21 and the Singapore Green Plan 2012. He represented Singapore at the 2007 Bali COP on Climate Change and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development. In 2006, he received the Public Service Medal, a Singaporean National Day award.

His 2025 book, Island in the World: Singapore’s Geopolitical DNA was launched in the run up to Singapore’s 60th anniversary, with the Foreign Minister.  As a professor, he is an expert on international law and public policy at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, and has also taught at Harvard Law School, Yale University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Simon has authored numerous articles in leading legal and academic journals in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe; and his commentaries on Asia feature regularly in the international and regional media, including the BBC, CN, Bloomberg, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia, NHK and CCTV. He is a regular speaker at global meetings including the World Economic Forum, the International Bar Association Conference, Inter-Pacific Bar Association Conference and SIBOS. Simon graduated from the National University of Singapore and obtained a LL.M. from Harvard Law School where he was a Fulbright Scholar and won the Laylin prize for the best thesis in international law.