Smitha Menon

Smitha MENON is the Head of the firm's Restructuring & Insolvency Practice and a Partner in the International Arbitration, India and Special Situations Advisory Practices.

Her main areas of practice are corporate disputes and cross-border restructuring.

Smitha’s international and local appointments include serving as Vice President of the International Insolvency Institute and being on the board of the Stichting Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection. She is the treasurer of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, a member of the World Bank’s Insolvency and Climate Change Working Group and the Asia Group Leader of the World Law Group’s (WLG) Restructuring & Insolvency Practice Group. Smitha is also on the Income Tax Board of Review Panel, the Shanghai Arbitration Commission's Panel of Arbitrators and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Arbitration and ADR. She is an Honorary Member of the board of the Singapore network of the International Women's Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC) and a Fellow of the Insolvency Practitioners Association of Singapore. She was also the first female Singapore court member on the ICC International Court of Arbitration and the inaugural Chair of the ICC Singapore Arbitration Group.

She is a former Council member of the Singapore Law Society and Chairperson of both the Law Society’s Young Lawyers Committee and the Singapore Academy of Law Young Members Chapter. She has served on the Professional Affairs Committee of the Singapore Academy of Law and continues to serve on the Law Society's Inquiry Panel regularly representing the Law Society in disciplinary proceedings. She has been appointed arbitrator on Indian and Nepal law governed arbitrations conducted under the SIAC Rules and ICC Rules.

Smitha is the first lawyer in Singapore to win the "Woman of the Year in Restructuring (Asia) Award" conferred by the International Women's Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation in 2020. She is also the youngest Singapore Court member and the first female Singapore Court member to be appointed to the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

She graduated from King's College, London (LL.B., Hons.) and is admitted to the Singapore Bar.