We are pleased to welcome The Honourable Tan Sri Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan, Former Judge of the Federal Court of Malaysia to the Senior Mediator Panel.

Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan’s distinguished career spans more than four decades across legal practice, judicial leadership and legal scholarship. After obtaining a degree in Physiology from the University of London, she was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in 1984 and to the Malaysian Bar on 15 February 1986. She joined Skrine in Kuala Lumpur, practised for 21 years, and co-authored The Law of Dismissal.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (2006) and certified mediator, Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan was appointed to the Bench in 2007 — the first female judge of South Asian ethnicity elevated to the superior judiciary in Malaysia. As Judicial Commissioner at the High Court of Shah Alam and subsequently Judge of the Kuala Lumpur Commercial and Admiralty Courts, she oversaw the Admiralty Court’s establishment, and set critical precedents in corporate insolvency and maritime law. Elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2014 and to the Federal Court — Malaysia’s apex court — in 2018, she received royal honours from the King in both 2014 and 2023 and served as a member of the Judicial Appointments Commission before retiring from the Bench on 23 February 2026. She is also editor of the Malaysian “White Book”, and General Editor of Bullen & Leake & Jacob’s Malaysian Precedents of Pleadings.

As Vice Chair of the International Bar Association’s Judges’ Forum and member of the Steering Group of the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts (SIFoCC), she shapes global best practices in commercial dispute resolution. She is Patron of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA), a Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, a corporate member of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, and a member of Newman’s Row and the London Court of International Arbitration. In 2025, she was appointed Chairperson of the Malaysia Maritime Law Review and Reform Committee under the Ministry of Transport and Advisor to the Cross-Border Insolvency Law Reform Main and Working Committees, and with effect from end March 2026, Judge of the Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre (QICDRC). She now sits as a full-time arbitrator and mediator and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Malaya.

SMC welcomes Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan to its Senior Mediator Panel, and we look forward to the wealth of judicial experience, legal scholarship and leadership she will contribute to the mediation community.