Rajeev Amarasuriya elected to LAWASIA Executive Committee 2021/22

Rajeev Amarasuriya, Secretary of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, has been elected uncontested to the Executive Committee of LAWASIA (The Law Association for Asia and Pacific) for 2021/22.

LAWASIA is a regional association of lawyers, judges, jurists and legal organisations, which advocates for the interests and concerns of the Asia Pacific legal profession.

For over 50 years, LAWASIA has operated as a platform to promote the cross-jurisdictional exchange of legal knowledge; as a voice of the legal profession; and as a conduit for encouraging adherence to mutually held principles of the rule of law, professional integrity and the protection of human rights.

The structure of LAWASIA comprises a Council constituting representatives of all LAWASIA Member Countries including Sri Lanka with a governing Executive Committee elected from among the representatives of the Member countries.  

BASL President Saliya Pieris, PC and BASL Secretary Rajeev Amarasuriya represent Sri Lanka on the LAWASIA Council as the Sri Lanka Councillor and the Alternate Councillor.

Rajeev Amarasuriya

Country members of LAWASIA include Afghanistan, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, England and Wales, Fiji, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, United States of America, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Rajeev Amarasuriya being an Alumnus of Royal College, Colombo holds a Bachelor of Laws LL.B (Hons.) Degree, from the University of Colombo, is an Attorney-at-Law, a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) (UK), a Fellow Member of the Chartered institute of Management Accountants Sri Lanka and a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). He is also an Alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School, Executive Education.

Amarasuriya commenced his Legal practice in the law chambers of Sanjeeva Jayawardena, PC where he practiced law for more than a decade before commencing his own law chambers and is a regular practitioner before the Appellate Courts specialising in all aspects of appellate law, as well as constitutional and public law and has a varied practice in diverse fields and subjects, including civil, contractual, commercial, property, taxation, banking, labour and other disciplines of the law. 

He also provides corporate and legal consultancy in a wide range of commercial areas as the Senior Legal Consultant of Amarasuriya Associates and also as the legal consultant for several State and private sector institutions. 

In 2013, Amarasuriya was awarded the prestigious CIMA Star Gold Award by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) as the most outstanding CIMA Member below the age of 40 years. Amarasuriya was also recently named as one of the LMD-CIMA Trailblazers for 2021.

Amarasuriya assumed duties as the 24th Secretary of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka on 28 March 2020, having secured over 84% of the outstation vote and 82% of the vote in Colombo and was re-elected uncontested for his second term of office this year. Amarasuriya is also presently the President of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo.

He was a Commission Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka for close to five years and is presently a Board Member of the Sri Lanka Accounting Standards and Monitoring Board, a Member of the Incorporated Council of Legal Education of Sri Lanka, a Member of the Standing Committee on Legal Studies of the University Grants Commission, a Member of the Financial Advisory Committee of Sri Lanka Cricket and a Member of the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Law of the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology.

Amarasuriya was the Convenor of the LAWASIA – Sri Lanka 2016 Golden Jubilee Conference held in 2016 in Sri Lanka. 

The Executive Committee of LAWASIA for 2021/2022 comprises President Melissa K. Pang (former President of the Law Society of Hong Kong); Immediate Past President Chunghwan Choi (President of the International Association of Korean Lawyers); President Elect Shyam Divan (Senior Advocate from India); Vice President Eric Yang (Managing Partner Bae, Kim & Lee Singapore who is also a former Vice President International Affairs of the Korean Bar Association); Vice President Steven Thiru (Past President of the Malaysian Bar); Vice President Yap Teong Liang (Director, T.L. Yap Law Chambers Singapore) and Members; Rajeev Amarasuriya; Pauline Wright (Immediate Past President of the Law Council of Australia and presently the President of the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties); Yin Baohn (Senior Counsellor of the General Office of the China Law Council); C.M. Chan (President of the Law Society of Hong Kong); Dr. Pinky Anand (Former Additional Solicitor General of India); Toshiro Ueyanagi (Secretary of the Japan Bar Association and Vice Chair of the Kanto Federation of Bar Associations); Angela Y. Lin (Director and Vice Chairperson International Affairs of the Taiwan Bar Association); and Robert Brown (Past Chair, International Section of the American Bar Association).