Opening Remarks

Introduction to the Mindfulness Business Charter

Mr. Richard Martin – Director, Byrne Dean Ltd

Panel Discussion:

• Ms. Susan de Silva – Life Coach
• Mr. Brian Henderson - Founder, Whole Business Wellness Limited 
• Ms. Elaine Seow – Director, Focus Law Asia LLC
• Mr. Jordan Tan - Co-Managing Partner, Audent Chambers LLC

Q & A Session & Networking

Ms. Susan de Silva was a practicing lawyer for more than 30 years in Singapore and England until she retired in 2018. She is now a Life Coach.

Susan was one of the founding partners of Singapore law firm Bird & Bird ATMD LLP, which has evolved into a global alliance with an international firm. Susan has enjoyed building the firm’s Corporate Law and Environmental Law practices, and its regional Employment Law practice. As a co-founding partner, former practice head and the firm’s Managing Partner for some years, she has learned about organisational and personal effectiveness, and she continues to learn.

Susan began coaching in 2015 while still in legal practice. She is a Certified Professional Coactive Coach, an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaches Federation, and is now completing an advanced course on the neuroscience of coaching. In addition to coaching, Susan speaks and writes on the topic of creating working environments in which people can go to work feeling engaged and go home feeling fulfilled. She contributes to the Law Society of Singapore’s Practice Well programme which is an initiative “aimed at helping all legal professionals find their balance to thrive in this increasingly hectic industry”. She is also an associate trainer with Byrne-Dean, a leading workplace behaviour consultancy that helps organisations all over the world create kinder, fairer, more productive workplaces.

Mr. Richard Martin is a speaker, writer, trainer and thinker around mental health in the workplace. 

His first career was an employment lawyer in London. He trained with Gouldens, becoming a partner in that firm before its merger with global firm Jones Day, where he served as a partner for three years. He then moved to City firm Speechly Bircham where he ran the large employment practice and served on the management committee. The plan to become more involved in management took an unexpected turn when, in 2011, he suffered a serious mental breakdown, spent a month in hospital and undertook a lengthy recovery process. Richard is now a director of workplace consultancy byrne dean where he leads on their mental health work.  He spends much of his time in an increasingly global training environment raising awareness of mental health, helping people understand their own mental health as well as how they can be more supportive of and understanding towards others, making mental health part of the conversation at work.   Richard co-chairs the steering committee of the Lord Mayor of London’s This is Me campaign to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around mental illness through the power of personal story telling. He also leads Byrne Dean’s work promoting and developing the Mindful Business Charter which is a cross business initiative focusing on the ways in which we work within and between our organisations and looking to remove the unnecessary sources of stress – helping us all be more aware of the impact we have on each other as well as giving a framework and a permission to talk about it, creating healthier and more effective working environments as a result.  He has undertaken foundation level studies in psychotherapy and counselling, is a mental health first aid instructor and an accredited coach. Richard’s book “This too will pass – Anxiety in a professional world”, published in 2018, is a memoir of his experience of illness and recovery

Mr. Jordan Tan graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2008 with first class honours, winning prizes for being the top student in the final year exams, and served as a Justices’ Law Clerk to the Supreme Court Judges.

He is regularly instructed as counsel and has been appointed amicus curiae twice including by the Chief Justice in a landmark case on judicial mercy. He has been ranked as a "Next Generation Lawyer" and "Rising Star" in Legal500 and described as "smart, professional, persuasive, organised and a future SC." He is also recognised in Prestige’s 40 under 40 listing as a "Leader". A member of the Singapore Academy of Law's Law Reform Committee and Professional Affairs Committee, he has led arbitration-related reform initiatives which recommendations have been accepted by the Ministry of Law. He has also taught at his alma mater, winning the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2010.

FEES

(includes materials, if any)

SILE CPD Points 
Practice Area: Professional Skills 
Training Level: General
Public CPD Points: 1.5