Christopher de Souza

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


Personal Details
Age 49
Others Pending


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.[1]

For the full list of positions, refer to https://www.parliament.gov.sg/mps/list-of-current-mps/mp/details/christopher-de-souza

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. [2]
  • 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[3]
  • 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 is married to Sharon, and a father of four children.

14th Parliament
MP  : Ang Wei NengBaey Yam KengCheryl Chan Wei LingChan Chun SingChee Hong TatCheng Li HuiEdward Chia Bing HuiChong Kee HiongDesmond ChooChua Kheng Wee LouisEric ChuaDarryl DavidChristopher de SouzaFoo Mee HarGrace Fu Hai YienGan Kim YongGan Siow HuangGan Thiam PohDerrick GohHe Ting RuHeng Chee HowHeng Swee KeatShawn Huang Wei ZhongIndranee RajahS IswaranJanil PuthuchearyAmy Khor Lean SuanKoh Poh KoonKwek Hian Chuan HenryDesmond LeeLee Hsien LoongLiang Eng HwaLim Biow ChuanJamus Jerome LimSylvia LimLim Wee KiakLow Yen LingMariam JaafarMasagos Zulkifli Bin Masagos MohamadMohamad Maliki Bin OsmanMohd Fahmi Bin AlimanMuhamad Faisal Bin Abdul ManapMuhammad Faishal IbrahimMurali PillaiNadia Ahmad SamdinNg Eng HenNg Ling LingLouis Ng Kok KwangRachel Ong Ong Ye KungJoan PereiraLeon PereraDenise Phua Lay PengPoh Li SanPritam SinghRaeesah KhanRahayu MahzamSaktiandi SupaatSeah Kian PengK ShanmugamSharael TahaSim AnnSitoh Yih PinHany SohSun XuelingAlvin TanCarrie TanTan Chuan-JinDennis Tan Lip FongDesmond TanJessica Tan Soon NeoTan Kiat HowTan See LengTan Wu MengPatrick Tay Teck GuanTeo Chee HeanJosephine TeoTharman ShanmugaratnamTin Pei LingEdwin Tong Chun FaiVikram NairVivian BalakrishnanWan RizalDon WeeLawrence WongXie Yao QuanAlex Yam ZimingYeo Wan LingYip Hon WengMelvin Yong Yik ChyeZaqy MohamadZhulkarnain Abdul Rahim
NCMP  : Leong Mun WaiHazel Poa