Ipoh-born lawyer becomes judge in UK High Court, after practising as King's Counsel

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — Eason Rajah, who was born in Ipoh, Malaysia and is an elite lawyer in the UK, has now moved one step higher in his legal career by being appointed as a UK High Court judge.

In an announcement on UK’s judiciary website on March 16, Eason’s appointment as a High Court judge in the UK will take effect from April 18, filling up a vacancy in the High Court after other judges were promoted to the Court of Appeal or had retired.

“Eason Rajah KC will be known as The Honourable Mr Justice Rajah,” the announcement said, with KC referring to the King’s Counsel term which is only reserved for lawyers considered to be among the best in the UK.

According to an article by “Advocates The Podcast” which had previously interviewed Eason, he left Malaysia at the age of 11 to study at a UK boarding school and later took up law at the University of Nottingham. It said Eason was the only son of a local lawyer and a retired schoolteacher.

Based on the websites of the UK judiciary, UK’s Judicial Appointments Commission, his previous private practice and a Legal 500 listing, Eason graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1988 with a law degree, and was called to the UK’s Bar (Gray’s Inn) in 1989 and also qualified to be a lawyer in Malaysia when he was called to the Malaysian Bar in 1991.

In the UK, he held a general chancery practice and later specialised in international trust and estate litigation. His areas of practice included onshore and offshore capital taxes, trusts and will disputes, and succession planning.

Appointed as a King’s Counsel — otherwise known as a “silk” — in 2011, he won the Legal 500 Private Client: Trusts and Probate Silk of the Year 2018.

He was appointed as a recorder (crime) in 2016 and four years later was authorised to sit as a UK High Court judge in the Chancery Division.

He also chaired the Chancery Bar Association from 2018 to 2020.

Following his appointment as a High Court judge, he has now retired from private practice.