Sunil Sudheesan 苏呢尔

Sunil Sudheesan heads the Criminal Law Department at Quahe Woo & Palmer LLC. He graduated from the National University of Singapore in 2004 and was called to the Singapore Bar on 28 May 2005. With over two decades of practice, he has built a reputation for taking on Singapore’s highest-stakes criminal matters at both trial and appellate level.

Sunil’s practice spans the full range of criminal law, including capital cases (murder and serious drug offences), offences involving hurt (culpable homicide, voluntarily causing hurt, and rash or negligent acts causing hurt), corporate and white-collar crime, cheating and corruption offences, sexual offences (including rape, sexual penetration, and outrage of modesty), immigration offences, offences under the Gambling Control Act, money laundering, and traffic offences.

Current Roles

• Vice President, Association of Criminal Lawyers of Singapore (ACLS)
• Member, Sentencing Advisory Panel (since its inception in 2022)
• Member, Advisory Committee of the Professional Conduct Council (2025–2027)
• Panel counsel, Enhanced Guidance for Plea Scheme, State Courts (EGPS)

Pro Bono & Recognition

Sunil is a volunteer lawyer with the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme (CLAS), a Pro Bono SG and Law Society of Singapore initiative providing legal assistance to needy defendants. In 2010, he received the Subordinate Courts’ Volunteer of the Year award (Advocate and Solicitor category).

Notable Cases

Case names are abbreviated.

• LSC v PP [2006] SGCA 38 — Assisted in the trial and appeal in the “Kallang Body Parts” capital case.
• TCJ v PP [2008] 4 SLR(R) 306 — Assisted in the appeal in the “One-Eyed Dragon” case involving the premeditated deadly shooting.
• ELH v PP [2011] SGCA 16 — Assisted in securing an acquittal on appeal to the Court of Appeal for murder, successfully arguing grave and sudden provocation and sudden fight. The accused was ultimately sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
• PP v CJ and Another [2015] SGHC 126 — Lead counsel in a capital drug trafficking case; the accused avoided the death penalty on the basis of substantial cooperation with the CNB and the accused’s role as a drug courier.
• PP v SBL [2024] — Lead counsel for the accused in a billion-dollar money laundering case, one of the largest in Singapore’s history. The accused was eventually released within a year.
• PP v CNK [2023] SGHC 358 — Lead counsel (with Joyce Khoo) in the High Court and Court of Appeal, representing a 16-year-old RVHS student in a culpable homicide (not amounting to murder) case.
• PP v LSC [2024] — Lead counsel (with assisting counsel Joyce Khoo) in the High Court for attempted culpable homicide; the accused was sentenced to 4 years’ imprisonment.
• PP v KPY [2018] SGCA 31 — Lead counsel in the High Court and Court of Appeal; the accused was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
• CKM v PP [2017] SGCA 22 — Lead counsel in the Court of Appeal on charges of rape and robbery, securing a reduction in sentence from 17 to 15 years’ imprisonment.
• LJB v PP [2019] SGHC 254 — Lead counsel in a Magistrate’s Appeal under the Remote Gambling Act (now subsumed under the Gambling Control Act); the appeal succeeded, and the custodial sentence was substituted with a $5,000 fine.
• PP v KSE [2023] SGHC 232 — Lead counsel (with Joyce Khoo) in a Magistrate’s Appeal on charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
• KI v PP [2020] SGHC 265 — Lead counsel in a Magistrate’s Appeal on corruption charges.
• PP v YZHE [2026] SGDC 233 — Lead counsel for the accused charged under the Enlistment Act for National Service evasion.

MEMBERSHIPS & ASSOCIATIONS

• Vice President of the Association of Criminal Lawyers of Singapore
• Member, The Law Society of Singapore
• Member, Singapore Academy of Law
• Member, Sentencing Advisory Panel

OTHER INFORMATION

• Ranked as “Preeminent” practitioner in Doyles Guide’s Leading Criminal Defence Lawyers – Singapore, 2020 and 2023.

• Member of the Advisory Committee of the Professional Conduct Council (2025-2027)