IP Stars 2024 Tier 1 for Trademark Prosecution in Singapore  •  World Trademark Review 2025 Gold for Prosecution and Strategy in Singapore  •  Asia IP Profiles 2025 Tier 1 for Trade Mark Prosecution in Singapore  •  Straits Times' Singapore's Best 100 Law Firms 2025  •  Global Law Experts Annual Awards 2025 Intellectual Property Law Firm of the Year in Singapore  •  Global Law Experts Annual Awards 2025 Patent Law Firm of the Year in Singapore  •
1874

November 6th
Established on 6th November 1874, Donaldson & Burkinshaw has a rich and colourful history dating back one and a half centuries.
Our founding partners, Alexander Muirhead Aitken, Alexander Leathes Donaldson and John Burkinshaw, contributed actively to the legal
profession, jurisprudence and public life of early Singapore. Aitken left his mark especially in the judicial institutions, while Donaldson and
Burkinshaw both dominated the legislative branch of this former British settlement.
1875

Alexander Donaldson was one of three members of
the first local Bar Committee formed in 1875 to
assist the Attorney-General in matters affecting the
local profession and practice etiquette.
1880
Alexander Donaldson and John Burkinshaw both acted for the plaintiff in the high profile law suit of The Jeddah [1881] KY 24 (Kyshe Law Reports), a case about an abandoned steamship which inspired Joseph Conrad’s epic novel “Lord Jim”, later made into a movie by Columbia Pictures in 1965.
Henry Mosley Dyne
(Former Senior Partner)
Fred Wu Chang Sheng
(Legendary Litigator)
Tan Bock Hoay
(Former Senior Partner)
Post-War
Years
After the War, the Firm continued to dominate the legal landscape of Singapore. Members of the Firm exercised considerable influence on the early politico-legal development of modern Singapore.
Norman Sylvester Hogan was an administrator who served the Firm for 50 years and retired in 1970. To commemorate the Firm's centenary celebrations in 1974, Norman published the book "Fifty Years of Donaldson & Burkinshaw".