Donaldson & Burkinshaw

Two of the Firm's Founders

The Firm's founders, Alexander Muirhead Aitken, Alexander Leathes Donaldson and John Burkinshaw, were British expatriates who had come to Singapore in the 19th century when the island was a British Crown Colony.

At the time, the development of Singapore Colony’s legal profession, jurisprudence and public life was still in its early stages. The Colony's population then consisted mainly of native Malays, and Chinese and Indian immigrants, who worked as fishermen, rubber-tappers, merchants, coolies, warehouse and port workers, and labourers.

The founders were acknowledged as outstanding members of the legal profession, as stated in Roland Braddell et al ‘One Hundred Years of Singapore’[2]

"Mr. Alexander Muirhead Aitken was admitted as a special law agent in Singapore in 1852, and was called to the English Bar at the Middle Temple in 1864. He took a leading part in public affairs for many years, and his name is to be found on many of the committees appointed at public meetings to carry on local agitations. As has been said, he acted as Registrar of the Court for a short while in 1856; and in 1870 he acted for a month or two as Attorney-General. Otherwise he practised privately, in 1861 with Mr. Abraham Logan, leaving him the next year, and from 1871 to 1873 with Mr. Bernard Rodyk. In 1873, Mr. Alexander Leathes Donaldson joined Mr. Aitken, and the next year they were joined by Mr. John Burkinshaw, the Firm being called in the Directory Aitken, Donaldson & Burkinshaw, though in the Bar records Aitken and Co. Mr. Aitken retired in 1879, and the Firm became Donaldson & Burkinshaw, as it is today.

It has already been mentioned that Mr. A. M. Aitken was the founder of the Firm of Donaldson & Burkinshaw. These two latter gentlemen were in leading practice from the '1870s until the 1890s'. Both of them were respected and popular, and did much useful work in the place.

John Burkinshaw's Practising Certificate

Alexander Leathes Donaldson was admitted an Attorney at Westminster in 1865, and to the local Bar in 1873; John Burkinshaw was admitted an Attorney at Westminster in 1863, and to the local Bar in 1874. When Bond retired his place on the Legislative Council was given to Burkinshaw; in 1893 it went to Donaldson, in 1896 back to Burkinshaw, Donaldson having retired in 1895. Burkinshaw continued to be on the Council until 1902, when he retired. These two gentlemen built up the leading European practice of their day, and their jack-in-the-box possession of a seat on the Legislative Council undoubtedly gave the firm great influence. Both of them were sound legislators, displaying force and wisdom in their speeches, and being of undoubted assistance to the deliberations of the Council.”

When the first local Bar Committee was formed in 1875 to assist the Attorney-General in looking into matters affecting the local profession and practice etiquette, Alexander Leathes Donaldson was one of only three persons invited to sit on the Committee. Subsequently, in 1907, the Bar Committee was made a statutory body by the Courts Ordinance, providing the genesis for the modern Law Society of Singapore.

The Jeddah[3] was a high-profile admiralty suit involving the abandonment of a steamship, the S.S. Jeddah, by her captain and crew. At the time of her abandonment, the S.S. Jeddah was carrying about 778 men, 147 women, and 67 children on board, in addition to considerable cargoes. Alexander Leathes Donaldson and John Burkinshaw both acted for the salvor, the S.S. Antenor.

The abandonment, salvage of, and subsequent litigation surrounding the S.S. Jeddah would later inspire Joseph Conrad to pen his epic novel, Lord Jim, first published as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine from October 1899 to November 1900. The novel has since been made twice into films bearing the same title, Lord Jim, in 1925 (Paramount Pictures, directed by Victor Fleming), and 1965 (Columbia Pictures, directed by Richard Brooks).

Mercantile Bank Building, where Donaldson & Burkinshaw was situated from 1937 to 1978

By the time of the Second World War, the Firm boasted an impressive list of banks, companies, and merchants in Singapore as its clientele. However, this flourishing practice was interrupted by the outbreak of hostilities, at which time the firm's documents and deeds were fortuitously preserved at the Singapore Supreme Court, thanks to the timely efforts of some senior staff members. An account of the dramatic events can be found in a memoir, ‘Fifty Years with Donaldson & Burkinshaw',[4] by Mr. Norman Sylvester Hogan, an administrator who served the Firm for 50 years and retired in 1970.

After the war, the firm continued to dominate the local legal arena as one of Singapore's top law firms.[5] Its leaders continued to wield considerable influence in the early politico-legal developments of modern Singapore. When the 1954 Constitutional Commission of Singapore (better known as the Rendel Commission) was appointed by Governor Sir John Nicoll in July 1953 to undertake a comprehensive review of the constitution of the Colony, Mr. C F Smith, a senior partner of the Firm, was one of the Commission's non-official members.

Following the independence of Singapore from British Rule, the Firm maintained offices in Malaysia at Johor and Kuala Lumpur, and in Sabah at Jesselton (now known as Kota Kinabalu) and Sandakan until the Promulgation of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 30 of 1970. During this time, lawyers who were neither citizens nor permanent residents were barred from practising in West Malaysia.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Firm continued to attract and retain significant legal talent. Its senior partners Antony Purdon Godwin and Wu Chang-Sheng[6] became prominent figures at the Singapore Litigation Bar. Wu Chang-Sheng, son of renowned plague-fighter Dr. Wu Lien-teh (himself credited with modernizing China's medical services and medical education), was particularly renowned for his expertise in construction arbitration. Godwin and Wu were also founding members of the Council of the Singapore Advocates and Solicitors Society (which subsequently became the Law Society of Singapore) in 1967.[7] Henry Mosley Dyne,[8] also a former senior partner, was regarded as a giant in the Chancery Bar until his retirement in 2000.

The firm's intellectual property practice has the distinction of being one of the oldest such practices in Singapore, with a history stretching back over seven decades. When Singapore’s Trademark Registry was first set up in the late 1930s, the Firm handled Singapore’s earliest trademark applications.

Today, the firm's services cover all aspects of IP ranging from searching; clearance (including risk management and regulatory compliance) and protection of trademarks, service marks, patents, and designs; to the enforcement of these intellectual property rights through litigation in civil and criminal courts. The Firm also has its own patent agents who are engineers and scientists, doctorate degree holders, and other professionals with prior experience at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).

Besides offering the full range of civil and criminal litigation services, the firm has a dedicated Medico-Legal Practice Group which caters to litigation of a medico-legal nature and acts for the world’s largest medical indemnifier.

The firm acted for the Singapore Tourism Board and Sentosa Development Corporation in respect of the Integrated Resorts development projects at Marina Bay and Sentosa, and advised the Singapore Tourism Board on transactions concerning the Singapore Flyer, a giant observation wheel attraction located on the Marina Centre Promontory.