Dawn Tan is the Founding Director of ADTLaw LLC, a boutique commercial law firm, and the Managing Director of Ashurst ADTLaw, which is a joint venture (known as a Formal Law Alliance) between leading international firm Ashurst LLP and ADTLaw LLC. Her journey from top law student to civil servant, to fresh junior partner in an established law firm – then becoming a legal entrepreneur, is a story of unlikely successes and unexpected triumphs.

Tan was an unlikely law student, having failed on her first attempt to enter the National University of Singapore (NUS) Law School (then the only law school in Singapore). This was hardly surprising given her poor academic results. Fate intervened, and she was admitted, but just barely. With dogged determination, she went on to graduate at the top of her class with First Class Honours –one of a record four students to be conferred that coveted honour that year (till then the practice was to confer the honour on one or at most, two students, and in some years, none at all).

Thereafter, she entered the Singapore Legal Service and served as a Justices’ Law Clerk in the Chambers of the then Chief Justice, Mr Yong Pung How, before obtaining her Masters in Law degree from the Harvard Law School, followed by postings to the Supreme Court Registry as an Assistant Registrar and the Ministry of Trade and Industry on a programme to train Legal Service Officers for Administrative Service postings. She concurrently held teaching appointments at the NUS Law School and SMU Law School (then known as the Department of Law).

Following these experiences, Tan realized that she was not a good fit for a civil servant and decided to cut her teeth in private practice in one of Singapore’s largest established law firms. It was an eye-opener into the practice of law as a business, and when the opportunity arose four years later to strike it out on her own with a friend in a boutique practice, she took it. When she left the shelter of that large law firm, she did so without any clients or business. However, slowly but surely, the clients came. Some were clients she had worked with who were curious about the young entrepreneur (who suddenly found herself becoming acquainted with tasks as varied as changing lightbulbs to settling on a new firm logo and buying stationery) and decided to give Tan a chance. Others were friends of clients who were impressed by the “can-do”, hands-on approach of the young lawyer which enabled her to provide a highlyresponsive and personalized service. When the lease on the firm’s premises expired and the partners decided to go their separate ways, Tan decided to set up ADTLaw. She did so with her secretary, and one trainee. Taking up leased premises in the Balestier area (with famous durian sellers and Bak Kut Teh stalls as neighbours) and taking on the renovation works herself, Tan hunkered down for a rough ride.