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About

I read law at Oxford. Before that I spent two years as an armament technician in the Singapore Army, which is an excellent cure for believing that your own schedule belongs to you.

Almost everything I have done outside a classroom comes from one stubborn idea: that the distance between a young person and an opportunity is usually a single conversation, and that somebody has to arrange the conversation. So I have spent most of six years arranging them — mentors for students who do not happen to know any, conferences for people choosing law at seventeen on the strength of a television programme, a Model UN, a policy hackathon, and a great many appeal letters written at a Meet-the-People session on a Tuesday night.

Working in a disputes practice taught me the part I had not worked out on my own: that a commercial dispute is never simply about winning, and that the lawyers worth becoming are the ones who have not forgotten there is a person at the other end of it.

Now — undergraduate at the University of Oxford

Lucas Liu

In the press

Someone else's account of the same evening.

The path so far

  1. 2026 –

    University of Oxford

    Reading Jurisprudence

    Reading law at Oxford. The two questions I keep circling are how rules get made and who they end up serving.

  2. Jun 2025 – Aug 2026

    Watershed Law

    Legal intern

    I interned at a boutique disputes practice. I found the firm in an Asian Legal Business article and sent a cold email. I was drawn to maritime and insolvency work, and my research on disputed debts subject to arbitration agreements became an article the firm published on the Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration website.

    Professional reference

    “He took on substantive legal work with a degree of independence that we would not ordinarily expect of an intern.”

    Christian Teo, DirectorEsther Yong, Associate DirectorWatershed Law · Reference letter ·

  3. Apr 2025 – Apr 2026

    Future Lawyers Singapore

    Co-President · now Advisor

    Co-led The Mosaic of Law, our flagship conference, with Singapore Management University, Rajah & Tann, PDLegal, Pro Bono SG, the Singapore Maritime Foundation and others. Built the legal education workshop programme that reached Hwa Chong, Dunman High, River Valley High, Victoria JC, Eunoia JC and Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and ran a law essay competition and learning journeys to Rajah & Tann and the State Courts. Director of Outreach before that; advising since.

  4. Nov 2025 – Aug 2026

    MACRO Academy

    Head of Department, General Paper

    Ran the A-Level H1 General Paper department part-time — teaching coordination, resource development, tutor training and the department's expansion strategy.

  5. Jan 2024 – Nov 2025

    Singapore Army

    Full-time National Serviceman

    Armament technician at the 6th Army Maintenance Base, supporting the Guards, Commandos and Artillery formations with weapon inspections, preventive maintenance and preservation of the FH2000 platform. I sat the Oxford admissions process during this period.

  6. Dec 2023 – Jan 2026

    MAJU: The Youth Policy Initiative

    Head of Events · Deputy Head, Programmes

    A ground-up, youth-led organisation that puts young Singaporeans into policy discourse. I led the events department through MAJU's flagship Hackathon Challenge with the National Youth Council, and before that ran the Policy Experiential Programme for pre-university students.

  7. Jan 2021 – Dec 2022

    Global Youth Leaders' Summit

    Co-founder · Secretary General

    Co-founded GYLS and became its Secretary General, running the summit's first fully physical conference in partnership with the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences — 230 participants drawn from secondary schools and tertiary institutions, organised with 24 other student leaders and Dear Asian Youth Singapore, and funded in part by the National Youth Council's Young ChangeMakers Grant and MCCY's Our Singapore Fund. I moderated the opening dialogue with former minister Yaacob Ibrahim, which The Straits Times covered.

  8. 2018 – 2024

    Hwa Chong Institution

    Humanities Scholar · Diploma with Distinction

    Six years on the Ministry of Education's Humanities Scholarship and Programme, finishing with the Hwa Chong Diploma with Distinction, the Outstanding Student Award and an Edusave award for leadership and service. A distinction in the John Locke Institute's politics essay competition along the way, on whether election results express the will of the people.

  9. Nov 2021 – Jan 2022

    A.W. Law LLC

    Legal intern

    My first law internship, across criminal, civil litigation and family work — legal research, case summaries and memoranda, drafting letters of demand and affidavits, and translating the legal process for clients who spoke only Mandarin.

Awards

  • 2026Global Trade Law Academy — Graduation AwardNUS Centre for International LawA four-hour foundational exam on WTO law and dispute settlement — most-favoured-nation and national treatment, general exceptions, the TBT and SPS Agreements, the Appellate Body and the MPIA. Sat 12 June 2026; the award is signed by the Academy's convenor, Joseph Weiler.
  • 2025To confirmDouble-degree scholarship, Law and EconomicsNational University of Singapore
  • 2024Hwa Chong Diploma with DistinctionHwa Chong Institution
  • 2023John Locke Essay Competition, Politics — DistinctionJohn Locke InstituteOn the question: do the results of elections express the will of the people?
  • 2023Edusave Award for Achievement, Good Leadership and ServiceMinistry of Education, Singapore
  • 2022Humanities Scholarship and ProgrammeMinistry of Education, Singapore
  • 2022Outstanding Student AwardHwa Chong Institution

Also completed

  • Entrepreneurship 1 & 2 — University of Pennsylvania
  • Introduction to Philosophy — University of Edinburgh

Convening

  • 2026Family law mock trial, Hwa Chong International School × FLSJudge
  • 2026FLS Learning Journey to A&O Shearman, with Yayasan MENDAKIOrganiser
  • 2026Moot Court & Legal Workshop Series, Current Affairs Club × FLSFacilitator
  • 2026Mosaic of Law — “Emerging Fields: The Ever-Evolving Landscape”Panel moderator
  • 2025ShaperX: Mastering Personal Finance, Global Shapers Singapore HubPanel moderator
  • 2025Groundbreakers Leadership Programme, BAGUS TogetherParticipant
  • 2024Aspiration to Advocacy, FLS flagship conferenceDirector of Outreach
  • 2022Global Youth Leaders' Summit, with NUS FASSSecretary General

What I'm building

Future Lawyers Singapore

Co-President, now Advisor

See the law before you commit to it.

Most people choose law at seventeen, on the strength of a television programme. FLS runs conferences, firm visits, mock trials and workshops so the choice is made against something real. I ran outreach first, then co-led the organisation through The Mosaic of Law — our flagship conference, built with SMU, Rajah & Tann, PDLegal, Pro Bono SG and the Singapore Maritime Foundation — and I advise now.

Profectus Education

Co-founder

Built by youths, for youths.

Co-founded because access to skills and opportunity is distributed almost at random, and the students who most need a mentor are the least likely to know anyone who can be one. A year in, I wrote about nearly giving it up, and about deciding to measure it by the quality of the workshops and the community rather than by growth.

Global Youth Leaders' Summit

Co-founder

A general assembly, run by sixth-formers.

Co-founded in 2021, when it ran virtually, and led as Secretary General the following year when it went physical at NUS — three days, 230 participants from secondary schools and tertiary institutions, and a Model UN at the centre of it. I was seventeen.

MAJU: The Youth Policy Initiative

Head of Events

Youths in the room where policy is made.

A ground-up, fully youth-led organisation that works as a bridge between young Singaporeans and government. I led the events department through MAJU's flagship Hackathon Challenge with the National Youth Council, having run the Policy Experiential Programme for pre-university students before that.

Service

Six unbroken years of it, from secondary school onwards.

  • May 2025 –

    Global Shapers Community, Singapore Hub

    Global Shaper

    Part of the World Economic Forum's youth network in Singapore. I moderated the ShaperX financial literacy series, run with the National Youth Council and MoneySense.

  • Jul 2024 –

    Profectus Education

    Co-founder

    Founded to widen access to skills, mentorship and opportunity for students who would not otherwise have it.

  • Nov 2022 – Jan 2024

    People's Action Party

    Case writer

    Weekly Meet-the-People Sessions at Tampines GRC: sitting with residents, hearing what had gone wrong, and writing the appeal letters to government agencies on their behalf.

  • Mar 2021 – May 2023

    Dear Asian Youth (Singapore)

    Vice President

    Ran events and partnerships across the Singapore and Southeast Asian chapters — a mental health series of podcasts and webinars with Samaritans of Singapore and WeCare, and a Cultural Diversity Convention with local and international speakers.

  • Jan 2022 – Jan 2023

    The Bone Marrow Donor Programme

    Leader, Project Edelstein

    Led a student project raising awareness and funds for the donor registry — a school roadshow, a public Zumba event with Keat Hong CC, door-to-door visits, and coordinating pledgers onto the register.

    • 2,000+ students and staff reached
    • Over $4,000 raised in a year
  • Jan 2020 – Jan 2022

    ISCOS

    Leader, Project Concordia

    Two years on a student project aimed at preventing intergenerational crime — sustained contact with the children of ex-offenders, fitness and general knowledge classes, ISCOS Family Day, and work to reduce the stigma that attaches to a family after a sentence.

  • May 2021 – Dec 2021

    OnePeople.sg

    Youth advocate

    Advocacy on racial and religious harmony in Singapore.

Would love to hear about your experiences, perspectives and stories — over a cup of coffee.

Say hello