Michael Hwang currently practices as a Barrister and Arbitrator, with his main focus in international arbitration.

Michael was educated at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Oxford University, where he was a College Scholar and prizewinner. After completing his legal education, he took up a teaching appointment at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney. He was called to the Singapore Bar in 1968, when he joined Allen & Gledhill and helped to build it into Singapore's largest law firm. He became a partner in 1972, and retired from the firm at the end of 2002 after serving as Head of its Litigation and Arbitration Department for 10 years. Michael has over 40 years of experience in the legal arena. His areas of practice have included banking, finance, company, real property, intellectual property, tort, criminal, administrative and family law as well as a general commercial practice as an advocate and solicitor.

In 1991 he was appointed a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore, (a full time post equivalent to the office of an acting High Court Judge) for a fixed term which expired at the end of 1992. During his term of office, he dealt with a full caseload across a broad range of civil litigation and 15 of his reasoned judgments are reported in the Singapore Law Reports. Several of these judgments have been referred to with approval by other courts and academic commentators. He returned to private practice at the beginning of 1993.

In 1997 he was appointed one of the first 12 Senior Counsel ("SC") of the Supreme Court of Singapore (a status equivalent to that of Queen's Counsel in England).

In 1999, he was elected a member of the American Law Institute, and also served as a Visiting Professor to the National University of Singapore teaching advocacy and commercial arbitration. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at the same University, teaching commercial and international arbitration.

Between 2000 and 2003, he served as a Commissioner of the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) based in Geneva, a body set up under the Security Council to assess claims against Iraq arising from the First Gulf War.

He has held office as (a)  Vice President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), (b)  Vice Chair of the International Bar Association's (IBA) Arbitration Committee, and  (c) Chairman of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

He also serves as (a)  a Court member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and (b)    a Trustee of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC).

He is currently on the Advisory Boards of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) and the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC)

Michael has been  listed in the Euromoney Guide to the World's Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration (2000), Euromoney Guide to the World's Leading Litigation Lawyers (1999 and 2001), AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers Survey (2000), The Asia Pacific Legal 500 (1999 and 2002), Euromoney Guide to the World's Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers (2001), Guide to the World's Leading White Collar Crime Lawyers (2010), IFLR 1000: The Guide to the World's Leading International Business Law Firms (2000 and 2002) and An International Who's Who Legal Series (2000).

According to In Brief  (London based legal publication) (September 1997)", Michael Hwang is recommended by a number of major city firms for his ability and efficiency." The Asia Pacific Legal 500 (2001 and 2002) also noted that "Michael Hwang SC [is] regarded as a first-rate litigator." The International Who's Who of Commercial Arbitrators (2005) rated him as "Singapore's leading lawyer for commercial arbitration expertise" and said "Mr Hwang received more nominations from clients and peers in the course of the research than any other commercial arbitration specialist in the country, and was described as 'sharp with a good mind' and 'number one' by respondents".Global Arbitration Review(June 2006) rankedhim as Asia's top arbitrator.  Chambers Asia 2008 described him as "a world class arbitrator" who is "brilliant, popular, prominent, incisive and decisive" and "always one of the first name to be mentioned in…. regional arbitration". Who's Who Legal 2008 described him as "the most highly nominated individual in the (Directory's) research" a "quite outstanding lawyer having received multiple nominations from within Singapore and overseas" and an "illustrious figure in the local market". Asia Pacific Legal 500 2008/9 described him as "in terms of diversity of cases and sheer academic prowess there no finer Senior Counsel working in Singapore today".  The Best of the Best 2009 rated him as one of the top 38 commercial pracitioners in the world.  Guide to the World's Leading Commercial Arbitration Experts (8th Ed) described him as having received personal nominations for inclusion placing him in the world's top 15 in this field. The International Who's Who of Construction lawyers 2010 described him as being among 421 of the world's leading construction lawyers. Asialaw Leading Lawyer's 2010 described him as one of the most highly acclaimed legal experts in the Asia Pacific region following an extensive survey of senior corporate executives, in-house counsel and private practice lawyers.

Michael also holds numerous arbitration appointments, having been involved in many arbitrations and mediations involving a variety of countries both in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.

He has also conducted training courses for arbitrators from time to time under the auspices of the ICC, the AAA/ICDR, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and King's College, London, in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Dubai.

He has served as a director of various public and private companies and is currently a director of YTL Pacific Management Reit Ltd, the manager of the Starhill Global Reit (a listedReal Estate Investment Trust in Singapore)

He is also :-

1. Chairman of the Singapore Dance Theatre Limited (a non-profit public company)
2. Chairman of the Appeals Committee of the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX)
3. A Board Member of the Board of Legal Education (a statutory agency)
4. A Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Directors
5. A Member of the Supervisory Committee of the Asian Bond Fund (ABF) Singapore Bond Index Fund
6. A Member of the Ethics Committee of the Public Accountants Oversight Committee
7. A former Board Member of the Port of Singapore Authority (a statutory board)
8. The former Chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Law Society Of Singapore.
9. A former Vice President of the Law Society Of Singapore
10. The former Chairman of Lasalle College of the Arts (a non-profit public company)

In 2000 he was awarded the Public Service Medal (PBM) for services to the Singapore Dance Theatre.

In 2003, he was appointed Singapore's Non-Resident Ambassador to Switzerland.

In 2005, he was appointed the Deputy Chief Justice of the Courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC Courts),  where he has delivered a number of judgments accessible on www.difccourts.ae.

In 2006, he was nominated as a member of the International Council of Arbitration for Sports (based in Lausanne, Switzerland).

In 2007, he was elected President of the Law Society of Singapore.

In 2010, he was appointed Chief Justice of the DIFC Courts.