David Lim

David Lim graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1988 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B, Honours) degree and obtained a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) from the NUS in 1994. Upon graduation, David joined the Singapore Legal Service and served as a Deputy Registrar & Magistrate at the (then) Subordinate Courts (1988-90), as an Assistant Registrar in the Supreme Court (1990-92), and as a legislative draftsman in the Attorney-General’s Chambers (1992-2011). He returned to the judiciary as a District Judge in 2011 and was a judge-mediator at the (then) State Courts Centre for Dispute Resolution (SCCDR) until he retired in 2020. He currently continues to be an active mediator and mediation trainer whilst pursuing his personal interests at leisure.

>David is a Certified Mediator (Level 4) of the Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) and is a Principal Mediator of the Singapore Mediation Centre (SMC). He has successfully resolved many cases involving a wide range of subject matters and law. He has undergone training with the Regents University, London, in the application of psychotherapeutic approaches in mediation; with the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University School of Law (Malibu, California), in the mediation of litigated cases; and with the RAKMO Institute (Ljubljana, Slovenia) in the practice of transformative mediation.

A passionate teacher at heart, David is a mediation trainer with the SMC and has conducted many training courses and workshops on mediation and negotiation for the SMC and also for the Singapore Institute of Legal Education (SILE) in the course for admission to the Singapore Bar. He has also given talks on mediation techniques to mediators at various organisations including (more recently) the Society of Mediation Professionals (2022) and the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre (FIDReC) (2023).

During his time at the SCCDR, David was actively involved in the training of judicial and volunteer mediators. After retiring, he continued to contribute to mediation training in the State Courts and conducted a mediation workshop for new judicial officers in 2021, and training sessions for the court volunteer mediators in 2021 & 2022.