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Director, Legal Office, Ministry of Health Singapore

Mr Tan Sze Yao leads the in-house legal team at the Ministry of Health, which provides legal support and advice to the Ministry on healthcare policy and legislation, drug procurement, data sharing, professional appeals and regulatory enforcement. From 2020 to 2023, Sze Yao and his team coordinated the Government’s legal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including whole-of-Government workstreams on safe management measures, vaccine negotiations/purchases and border health controls.

Prior to joining the Ministry of Health, Sze Yao was State Counsel in the Civil Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers, advising the Government on a variety of transactional, disputes and advisory matters. Sze Yao has also worked in the Supreme Court as a Justices’ Law Clerk and Assistant Registrar and served as a Military Prosecutor at MINDEF. Between 2013 and 2015, Sze Yao associated with Anderson Mori & Tomotsune in Tokyo. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with double First Class Honours (2003, 2004) in Law under a Singapore Public Service Commission scholarship and is admitted to practice in both New York (2013) and Singapore (2012).