Sharmila is a corporate lawyer involved in international practice. A daughter of a diplomat, Sharmila Gunasingham, a Singaporean by birth and nationality, was raised in the Western capitals of the world, including Washington D.C. and Bonn. She schooled in the UK, attended London University, and trained with a prestigious London law firm for two years, qualifying as an English Solicitor before returning to Singapore.

Admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor in Singapore in November 1981, Sharmila immediately began practicing at Rodyk and Davidson LLP (R&D), working with Mrs. Arfat Selvam, its head of corporate. She was made a partner of R&D in a span of four years. Appointed the partner contact at R&D for the Pacific Rim Advisory Council (PRAC), an international membership of 21 major law firms in the Pacific Rim region, she was also elected to office by the member firms as the Vice Chairperson of PRAC.

After a decade at R&D, Sharmila was invited and became the Co-Founder of a new boutique corporate law firm established by Mrs. Arfat Selvam which was named Arfat Selvam and Gunasingham and later changed its name to ASG Law Corporation (ASG). During Sharmila’s 14-year tenure as ASG’s Joint Managing Director, she spearheaded the firm’s Formal Law Alliance with Herbert Smith a leading UK law firm with international offices and headed up ASG’s team handling Herbert Smith referrals. During this time, Sharmila also accepted an invitation from the leading Canadian law firm Stikeman Elliott to be its Singapore representative.

Sharmila’s experience as a corporate lawyer and international connectivity enabled her to establish in 2006, Global Law Alliance, (GLA) a Singapore Law Corporation focusing primarily on corporate work whilst representing global clients based in Asia, Europe, the USA, the Middle East and beyond. She soon set about establishing alliances with international law firms across the world and expanded practice areas beyond corporate to include litigation and dispute resolution.

Sharmila’s areas of practice include Corporate Law, Corporate Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Cross Border Transactions and Financial Services. Active in the fund management industry, Sharmila was also elected as the President of the Financial Planning Association of Singapore, a 5000-member body of financial institutions. She has also been rated as a leading individual in the Singapore legal fraternity by leading international rating agencies.

Sharmila also serves on the board of the Indo-Pacific Centre, the public policy arm of GLA.

Featured in a widely publicized interview, by the ‘Straits Times’ (Singapore’s leading English newspaper) and ‘Lianhe Wanbao’ (Singapore’s Chinese language newspaper) where her views were sought on a number of issues including political leadership and corporate governance, Sharmila has increasingly been sought after as a speaker by distinguished forums.

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