Associate Professor
Department of Building
School of Design and Environment
National University of Singapore
4 Architecture Drive
Singapore 117566
Tel: (65) 6516-3437
Fax: (65) 6775-5502
Email: bdgccf@nus.edu.sg
Dr Philip Chan is an Associate Professor with the Department of Building, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore. He is the Deputy Head for Finance and Administration in the Department of Building. He is also the Programme Director of the KCL-NUS MSc (Construction Law and Arbitration) programme, and teaches on the MSc (Project Management) programme as well as the MArch programme.
Dr Chan has been recently appointed as a co-Editor of the Asian International Arbitration Journal and a member of the Editorial Board of the International Construction Law Review.
He had been appointed Deputy President by the Minister of National Development under the Building Maintenance Strata Management Act to sit on the Strata Titles Board. He had received training as an English barrister and is an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore. He also practises as a lawyer under his law firm of Messrs Philip CF Chan. He is a Fellow and a Secretary of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb) and is in the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Regional Panel of Arbitrators and in the Panel of Arbitrators - of both the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) and the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators.
Dr Chan is a practising arbitrator and had been appointed as a sole arbitrator in an ICC arbitration. He has been invited by several public and private organisations to give talks and carry out in-house training on matters of construction law including the use of standard form of building contracts and arbitration.
Dr Chan’s work experience spans across the construction industry, the courtrooms and arbitration rooms, and the lecture theatres and seminar rooms. He had graduated with a Diploma in Building from the Singapore Polytechnic in 1976 and worked in the construction industry. He worked for the contracts section of Housing and Development Board, WT Partnership (Brunei Office), BEC Consultants, Lilley International, and Fudo Construction. He went on to obtain his LLB (Hons) and LLM and was called to the English and Singapore bar. He worked for the legal department of the Housing and Development Board and the law firm of Donaldson and Burkinshaw. He joined Ngee Ann Polytechnic in 1988 and obtained a diploma in education from the University of London. In 1991, he became a lecturer in the School of Building and Estate Management. He was seconded to Singapore International Arbitration Centre as its Executive Director and Registrar in 1996. He then completed his PhD with the University of London under the supervision of Duncan Wallace QC. The title of his thesis is “The Development of Construction Law in Singapore”.
His teaching, research interest, publication and practice are in the areas of construction law and arbitration. The International Construction Law Review has published several of his papers. He has co-written several books. They are "Halsbury's Laws of Singapore" Volume 2 in the Building and Construction section, the "Public Sector Standard Conditions of Contract: A Commentary"; and the "Construction Law Casebook" Volumes 1 and 2. On his own, he has written the "Commonwealth Construction Cases: A Singapore Perspective" and "Casebook on Insolvency and the Construction Industry", and "Public Sector Standard Condition of Contract 2005 Edition: A Commentary". He is now involved in the research areas of “Strategic Global Procurement”, “The use of Web-based tools for project management in formulating claims for litigation/arbitration” and “Indoor Air Quality law”.
He regularly speaks at the Department of Building Seminar Series where the latest issues are analysed including amendments to the Building Control Act, the Architects Act, the Professional Engineers Act, and the PSSCOC. He also regularly writes in the newsletter of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators on the case law development in the area of arbitration.