Christopher de Souza

Christopher de Souza
Party Affiliation	PAP
Current Role	• MP for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC • Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore
Past Roles	• •
Others	• •
Background
Education	• • • •
Personal Details
Age	49
Others

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Christopher de Souza (born 21 January 1976) is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore since 2020. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ulu Pandan division of Holland–Bukit Timah GRC since 2006.

Aside from his political career, de Souza is a practicing lawyer and a partner at Lee & Lee, where he has worked since 2006, with a brief tenure at WongPartnership between 2011 and 2014. Prior to entering politics, he was part of the Singapore Legal Service. He is registered as "Christopher James de Souza" in the directory of law practitioners on the Ministry of Law website.

For the full list of positions, refer to PARL Link.

Early Life and Education

De Souza attended St. Michael's Primary School, St. Joseph's Institution, and Raffles Junior College. He later pursued law at King's College London, where he graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours). In 2001, he obtained a Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction) from the University of Oxford under a scholarship.

Beyond academics, de Souza was an accomplished field hockey player and represented Singapore in various tournaments until 2005.

Career

Public Service

De Souza began his career in the Singapore Legal Service in 2002 as a Justice's Law Clerk to Chief Justice Yong Pung How. Between 2004 and 2005, he served as a Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers. In 2005, he was appointed as a Magistrate in the Subordinate Courts and an Assistant Registrar in the High Court.

Legal career

In 2006, de Souza joined Lee & Lee as a Senior Associate, becoming a Partner in 2008. He later moved to WongPartnership in 2011 as a Partner before returning to Lee & Lee in 2015 in the same role.

In 2022, the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Law Society of Singapore found that de Souza had engaged in professional misconduct by assisting a client in suppressing evidence. However, this decision was overturned on appeal. On 31 July 2023, the Court of Three Judges ruled that de Souza had no intention of suppressing evidence, fully acquitting him. In November 2023, the Law Society of Singapore was ordered to refund him over S$32,000 in legal costs, affirming his complete exoneration.

Political career

De Souza entered politics in the 2006 general election, contesting as part of a five-member PAP team in Holland–Bukit Timah GRC, which won uncontested. He became an MP for the Ulu Pandan division, a position he has retained since.

In the 2011 general election, de Souza was part of the four-member PAP team contesting in Holland–Bukit Timah GRC. The team won with 60.08% of the vote against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP). He retained his seat in the 2015 and 2020 general elections, as the PAP team secured 66.60% and 66.36% of the vote, respectively, against SDP.

Since 2006, de Souza has served on various Government Parliamentary Committees (GPCs). He was Deputy Chairman of the GPC for Manpower from 2011 to 2015 and has been Chairman of the GPC for Home Affairs and Law since 2015. In 2009, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. On 31 August 2020, he was elected Deputy Speaker of Parliament alongside Jessica Tan.

Controversy

• while he was Deputy speaker of Parliament, Christopher de Souza, a lawyer by profession, was found guilty of professional misconduct by a disciplinary tribunal.
• Law Society brought 5 charges against him and argued for him to be suspended for four years.
• But a disciplinary tribunal found that only one charge would stand.
• he was found guilty by a two-member disciplinary tribunal in 2022 for helping his client suppress evidence by preparing and filing an affidavit that did not reveal his client had breached an undertaking not to use certain documents.
• On one of the five charges brought against him by the Law Society, the tribunal found that there was cause of sufficient gravity for de Souza to face disciplinary sanction before the Court of Three Judges.
• Decision by the Court of Three Judges 31 jul 2023 Mon cleared him of charge of professional misconduct as a lawyer
• court comprised Justices Belinda Ang, Woo Bih Li and Kannan Ramesh, reversed the tribunal's decision
• Law Society of Singapore (LawSoc) was ordered to pay a refund of more than S$32,000 in costs to Christopher James de Souza after he was acquitted of improper professional conduct as a lawyer.

Personal life

De Souza is a Catholic. He and his wife Sharon have four children.

14th Parliament MP  : Ang Wei Neng • Baey Yam Keng • Cheryl Chan Wei Ling • Chan Chun Sing • Chee Hong Tat • Cheng Li Hui • Edward Chia Bing Hui • Chong Kee Hiong • Desmond Choo • Chua Kheng Wee Louis • Eric Chua • Darryl David • Christopher de Souza • Foo Mee Har • Grace Fu Hai Yien • Gan Kim Yong • Gan Siow Huang • Gan Thiam Poh • Derrick Goh • He Ting Ru • Heng Chee How • Heng Swee Keat • Shawn Huang Wei Zhong • Indranee Rajah • S Iswaran • Janil Puthucheary • Amy Khor Lean Suan • Koh Poh Koon • Kwek Hian Chuan Henry • Desmond Lee • Lee Hsien Loong • Liang Eng Hwa • Lim Biow Chuan • Jamus Jerome Lim • Sylvia Lim • Lim Wee Kiak • Low Yen Ling • Mariam Jaafar • Masagos Zulkifli Bin Masagos Mohamad • Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman • Mohd Fahmi Bin Aliman • Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap • Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim • Murali Pillai • Nadia Ahmad Samdin • Ng Eng Hen • Ng Ling Ling • Louis Ng Kok Kwang • Rachel Ong • Ong Ye Kung • Joan Pereira • Leon Perera • Denise Phua Lay Peng • Poh Li San • Pritam Singh • Raeesah Khan • Rahayu Mahzam • Saktiandi Supaat • Seah Kian Peng • K Shanmugam • Sharael Taha • Sim Ann • Sitoh Yih Pin • Hany Soh • Sun Xueling • Alvin Tan • Carrie Tan • Tan Chuan-Jin • Dennis Tan Lip Fong • Desmond Tan • Jessica Tan Soon Neo • Tan Kiat How • Tan See Leng • Tan Wu Meng • Patrick Tay Teck Guan • Teo Chee Hean • Josephine Teo • Tharman Shanmugaratnam • Tin Pei Ling • Edwin Tong Chun Fai • Vikram Nair • Vivian Balakrishnan • Wan Rizal • Don Wee • Lawrence Wong • Xie Yao Quan • Alex Yam Ziming • Yeo Wan Ling • Yip Hon Weng • Melvin Yong Yik Chye • Zaqy Mohamad • Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim NCMP  : Leong Mun Wai • Hazel Poa