Ben Chester Cheong is a Singaporean legal academic and lawyer with approximately 10 years’ experience.
Ben graduated from Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge in June 2015. In the following year, he placed 3rd out of 664 candidates in the Singapore Bar Examinations (Part B) and is the highest performing Cambridge graduate in that year’s Bar Examinations. Ben is dual-qualified and admitted to practice law in Singapore and England & Wales.
He has published extensively (more than 100 publications output including shorter commentaries) on how law shapes global governance and regulatory capacity, especially in areas affected by climate risk and technological change, and his work has been cited over 880 times (on Google Scholar). His papers have appeared in leading law journals, such as Law Quarterly Review, Journal of Environmental Law, Transnational Environmental Law, Journal of Business Law, Statute Law Review, Capital Markets Law Journal, International Company and Commercial Law Review, Company Lawyer, European Papers, Journal of Planning & Environment Law, Singapore Academy of Law Journal, SAL Practitioner, and Asian Journal of Legal Education.
His expertise has been sought after by media outlets globally, including The Straits Times, The Business Times, ChannelNewsAsia, TodayOnline, Nikkei Asia, Al Jazeera, Voice of America, The Star, The Standard (HK) and Chinese Social Sciences Today. Within 2+ years of joining the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), he received the university-level Outstanding Teaching Award in 2022 and the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021.
From 2018 to 2023, Ben served as course convener for Law of Business Organisations, a compulsory module covering partnerships, company law and insolvency. Ben has lectured in other private law subjects, including Contract Law and Equity & Trusts, and he has also taught Advanced Corporate Practice at the Singapore Bar Examinations (Part B). He is an invited peer reviewer for over a dozen journals, including Climate Policy and Journal of Corporate Law Studies.
Ben previously served as an international finance lawyer at American law firm Baker McKenzie, where he has worked on loan transactions in excess of US$500 million, initial public offerings and bond issuances. He also served as of counsel in another Singapore law firm from 2020 to 2026. He is concurrently visiting fellow at University of Reading School of Law, associate academic fellow at NUS Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL), and centre researcher at the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG).
Ben is a law lecturer at SUSS since December 2018 and received permanent status (tenure) in 2021. He was awarded the inaugural Ministry of Education-Singapore Teaching and Academic Research Talent (MOE-START) overseas PhD scholarship in August 2024 for his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge, where he researches on the legal interactions between company law and corporate environmental sustainability. He previously served as a vice-chairman of the community legal clinics committee at Pro Bono SG.
EXPERIENCE
- Acted for several lenders and borrowers on multiple bilateral and syndicated financings under English and Singapore law.
- Acted for several Indian, Singapore and Indonesian multinational companies and lead managers on their US offerings pursuant to Rule 144A and offerings outside the US under Regulation S, initial public offerings and traditional private placement.
- Acted for several companies on their international debt restructurings and liability management, including tender and exchange offers and consent solicitations in relation to their convertible bonds.
- Acted for several companies on financial regulatory matters, including on digital token platforms and products regulated under the Payment Services Act, Financial Services and Markets Act, Securities and Futures Act, and the Financial Advisers Act.
- Acted for several companies in relation to cross-border dual listings (e.g. HKEX) as well as debt listings for local corporations.
- Acted for listed clients and financial institutions on further capital raising, corporate governance, regulatory and corporate compliance matters.
MEMBERSHIPS/DIRECTORSHIPS
- Member, Law Society of Singapore
- Member, Singapore Academy of Law
- Member, Law Society of England & Wales
- Life Member, The Oxford & Cambridge Society of Singapore
- Committee Member, Gen AI Committee, Law Society of Singapore
- Committee Member, Accreditation Committee, Singapore Institute of Directors
- Committee Member, Community Legal Clinics, Pro Bono SG
- Panel Judge for Law, The Global Undergraduate Awards
PUBLICATIONS
- BC Cheong, The ICJ’s Climate Change Advisory Opinion: Critical Implications for UK Environmental and Planning Law (2025) 12 Journal of Planning & Environment Law 1623-1641
- BC Cheong, Sowing Seeds of Change: Intergenerational Justice in Corporate Law and Governance [2025] 7 Journal of Business Law 511-534
- BC Cheong, The Paradox and Fallacy of Global Carbon Credits: A Theoretical Framework for Strengthening Climate Change Mitigation Strategies (2025) 4(1) Anthropocene Science 72-83
- BC Cheong, Leveraging blockchain for enhanced transparency and traceability in sustainable supply chains (2025) 3 Discover Analytics 6, pp. 1-19
- BC Cheong, Bending the Arc of Law: Positivism Meets Climate Change’s Intergenerational Challenge (2025) 14(2) Transnational Environmental Law 285-311
- BC Cheong, A Theoretical Framework for Transformative Corporate Intergenerational Equity (2025) 37(1) Journal of Environmental Law 45-74
- BC Cheong, Climate Volatility, Foundational Freedoms, and the Environment Act 2021: The Transformative Potential of the Principle of Legality (2024) 45(2) Statute Law Review, pp 1-12
- BC Cheong, The Doctrine of Corporate Conscience: Navigating the Labyrinth of ESG Litigation in the Quest for Sustainability and Justice (2024) 19(4) Capital Markets Law Journal 352-361
- BC Cheong, UK Supreme Court’s Finch Ruling: A Watershed Moment for Fossil Fuel Projects and Climate Action (2024) 10 Journal of Planning and Environment Law 1093-1098
- BC Cheong, Singapore’s Unique Carbon Credits Regime, SID Bulletin 2024 Q3
- BC Cheong, Singapore’s sustainability movement: How communities can make a difference, The Business Times (16 November 2024)
- BC Cheong, Fighting food waste requires reducing waste in the first place, The Straits Times (16 September 2024)
- BC Cheong, The ESG dilemma: Balancing real progress with investor scepticism, The Business Times (31 May 2024)
