Kala Anandarajah

Practice Areas

Competition & Antitrust and Trade

Consumer Protection

E-Commerce

Employment

Sustainability

Career

Anandarajah takes pride in ensuring that every piece of work she undertakes is targeted and focused, addressing the specific need of the client in a practical business-oriented manner. That has kept her interest in the law ignited.

Anandarajah heads the Competition & Antitrust and Trade Practice. Always a forerunner in niche areas of the law, her key practice areas are Competition (merger control, cartels, investigations, etc), Trade (export controls, FTAs, sanctions etc), and Consumer Protection. She has strong secondary practices in Employment, Environmental (EHS) & Sustainability (ESG), Corporate Governance and Telco/Media Laws, where she has formidable accolades. She has had many firsts in her career, handling difficult and complex matters, demystifying and simplifying issues to achieve the clients’ aim.

Lauded by clients as having “unrivalled knowledge and understanding of the law and uniquely… able to understand very complicated businesses and their likely reactions” by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2021), for being "very dedicated, very quick and precise," by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2019), described as “super switched-on” by Who’s Who Legal (2018), and one with “very wide vision” by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2017). She is described as a Thought Leader for competition by GCR and Worldwide Leading Lawyers. 2020 Who’s Who of Leading Lawyers notes that she “earns high praise from peers, who identify her as ‘extremely dynamic, inspiring and sharp’ and ‘a lawyer who knows everything and is extremely well prepared””.

One client comments: "She has impressed us with her legal knowledge, business acumen and also understanding of the Commission and the legal arena, which makes her a dream for anybody looking to engage competition lawyers". Chambers further lauds Anandarajah for her “solid, can-do attitude and excellent client management skills ... She is top-notch in competition law matters and is very good at working out a strategic solution to a legal problem ... one of the few practitioners who is truly at the cutting edge ...”

Clients give her exceptional praise, deeming her “superbly responsive, very hard-working, solution-oriented and reliable.” AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers says she “is the complete package for all competition issues in ASEAN”. Some of her other citations include:

• Women Lawyer of the Year, SE Asia by ALB Women in Law Awards (2023)

• Singapore’s Top 100 Lawyers by A-List: Asia Business Law Journal (2023)

• Winner, Competition in Singapore by Lexology Client Choice Awards (2022)

• Top 10 Most Innovative Practitioner in Asia Pacific by FT Most Innovative Lawyers (2022)

• Top 50 Female Employment Lawyers in the World by International Employment Lawyers (2022)

• Winner, Outstanding Achievement Award, Euromoney Women in Business Law (2021)

• Highly Commended Lawyer in Private Practice at the Legal 500 Southeast Asia Awards (2021)

• Most Highly Regarded in Southeast Asia by Who’s Who Legal: Southeast Asia Competition (2021-2022)

• Elite Practitioner in Competition/antitrust by asialaw Profiles (2020-2023)

• Thought Leader for Competition in Worldwide Leading Lawyers (2020-2022)

• Nominated Regional Lawyer of the Year by The Legal 500 (2020)

• Commended External Counsel of the Year 2016 by the Inhouse Community

• Top 100 Women in Antitrust in the World by the Global Competition Review

• Chambers Asia-Pacific and Chambers Global leading lawyer for competition, trade (the only local firm) and employment

• Who’s Who Leading Lawyer for Competition, Trade, Corporate Governance, Employment

• Winner of Euromoney Legal Media Group Asia Women in Business Law Awards twice

• Awarded Best Lawyer in Competition & Antitrust in Singapore by Best Lawyers (2015), and identified by Best Lawyers since 2013 to date

Anandarajah sits on various boards, including Building and Construction Authority, Institute for Human Resource Personnel; a member of the External Review Panel of Safety in SAF (MINDEF), the Appeal Board - Council of Estate Agents (MND). She was for a long-time part of the Workplace Safety & Health Council, a board member of Singapore Institute of Legal Education (chairing the Committee which introduced CPD for lawyers in Singapore) and was on the Committee for Professional Training of Lawyers formed by the Chief Justice of Singapore, whose report has shaped legal practice from 2023. In 2022, Anandarajah was awarded The Public Service Star (Bintang Bakti Masyarakat) and in 2014, she was awarded the Public Service Medal (Pingat Bakti Masyarakat), both of which are conferred by the President of Singapore, for public service rendered through the boards and councils she sat on.

Professional Memberships

Member, Appeal Board of Council of Estate Agents

Board Member, Institute of Human Resource Professionals

Member, Transplant Ethics Committee (Lay-Persons) appointed by the Ministry of Health

Previously Dy Chair, Workplace Safety and Health Council

Previously Board Member, Building & Construction Authority Board

Publications

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. She has written over half a dozen legal books on Corporate Governance, Competition and Antitrust, Trade, Bills of Sale, Bankruptcy, Auditors and more. Anandarajah has conducted a number of lectures internationally, including the UK, the US, South Africa, Austria, Japan, China, India, Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Maldives in her areas of expertise.