Christopher de Souza (born 1976) is a Singaporean politician and lawyer who has been serving as

Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore The speaker of the Parliament of Singapore is the presiding officer of the Parliament of Singapore. The speaker is nominated by the prime minister before being appointed by the Parliament. The speaker is also second in the presidential lin ...

since 2020. A member of the governing

People's Action Party The People's Action Party ( abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) a ...

(PAP), he has been the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) representing the Ulu Pandan division of Holland–Bukit Timah GRC since 2006. A lawyer by profession, de Souza has been working at Lee & Lee since 2006 and had also worked at WongPartnership between 2011 and 2014. Prior to entering politics in the 2006 general election, he had worked in the

Singapore Legal Service The Singapore Legal Service is the collective body of lawyers who work in the courts, the Attorney-General's Chambers, and the legal departments of various government ministries and statutory boards in Singapore. Lawyers who are a part of the l ...

Early life and education

De Souza was educated at St. Michael's Primary School, St. Joseph's Institution and Raffles Junior College before graduating from King's College London in 2000 with a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of ...

with first class honours degree. He subsequently went on to complete a

Bachelor of Civil Law Bachelor of Civil Law (abbreviated BCL, or B.C.L.; la, Baccalaureus Civilis Legis) is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. The BCL originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and C ...

with distinction degree at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

in 2001 under a scholarship. He had also represented Singapore in

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

at various tournaments until 2005.Lee & Lee - Partners - Christopher de Souza
, accessed on 31 August 2015.

Career

Public service

De Souza started his career in the

in 2002 as a Justice's Law Clerk to Chief Justice

Yong Pung How Yong Pung How (11 April 1926 – 9 January 2020) was a Malayan-born Singaporean judge, lawyer and banker who served as the second chief justice of Singapore between 1990 and 2006, appointed by President Wee Kim Wee. He also served as the c ...

. He served as Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers between 2004 and 2005 before becoming a Magistrate at the Subordinate Courts and Assistant Registrar at the High Court between 2005 and 2006.

Legal career

De Souza joined Lee & Lee in 2006 as a Senior Associate before he became a Partner in 2008. In 2011, he left Lee & Lee and joined WongPartnership as a Partner. In 2015, he left WongPartnership and returned to Lee & Lee as a Partner. In 2022, De Souza was found guilty of assisting his client in the suppression of evidence by a Disciplinary Tribunal of the Law Society of Singapore.

Political career

De Souza made his political debut in the 2006 general election when he joined a five-member

(PAP) team contesting in Holland–Bukit Timah GRC. The PAP team won by an uncontested walkover and de Souza thus became a Member of Parliament representing the Ulu Pandan ward of Holland–Bukit Timah GRC. During the 2011 general election, de Souza joined the four-member PAP team contesting in Holland–Bukit Timah GRC. After they won with 60.08% of the vote against the

Singapore Democratic Party The Singapore Democratic Party ( abbreviation: SDP) is a politcal party in Singapore. The party was founded on 6 August 1980 by Chiam See Tong. During the 1991 general election, Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen won Bukit Gombak SMC and ...

, de Souza continued serving as the Member of Parliament representing the Ulu Pandan ward of Holland–Bukit Timah GRC.Final tally of votes cast for GE2011 released
, Fann Sim, SingaporeScene, Yahoo! News Singapore, 12 May 2011, accessed on 16 September 2011.People's Action Party - MP-Elect Profile - Christopher de Souza
, accessed on 16 September 2011. He retained his parliamentary seats in the subsequent general elections in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

and

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

after the PAP team in Holland–Bukit Timah GRC won with 66.60% and 66.36% of the vote against the

in those two general elections. De Souza has served on various Government Parliamentary Committees (GPCs) since 2006, and has been the Deputy Chairman for the GPC on Manpower from 2011 to 2015, and Chairman for the GPC on Home Affairs and Law since 2015. In 2009, he was nominated as a Young Global Leader at the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

.World Economic Forum - Christopher De Souza
, accessed on 16 September 2011. On 31 August 2020, de Souza and Jessica Tan were elected as Deputy Speakers of Parliament.

Personal life

De Souza is a Catholic. He and his wife Sharon have four children.

References

External links

Christopher de Souza
on Parliament of Singapore {{DEFAULTSORT:De Souza, Christopher Living people 1976 births Saint Joseph's Institution, Singapore alumni Raffles Junior College alumni Alumni of King's College London Alumni of the University of Oxford Members of the Parliament of Singapore People's Action Party politicians Singaporean Roman Catholics