Elsa Chen

Partner (Chief Economist)

Elsa is Regional Co-Head of the Firm’s Competition & Foreign Investment Review Practice, and Co-Head of its ESG & Public Policy Practice. She is also the Firm’s Chief Sustainability Officer.

She is regularly instructed on high-stakes antitrust and foreign investment matters in Singapore and across Asia, including multi-jurisdictional merger control investigations, and transactions subject to heightened national security scrutiny. Her practice combines legal, economic and policy analysis, and she is frequently sought out for her ability to translate regulatory risk into strategic and commercially grounded outcomes.

Since the introduction of Singapore’s national security investment screening framework in 2024, Elsa has been at the forefront of shaping market understanding of these regimes. She advises designated and non-designated entities, as well as global investors, on navigating FDI reviews, managing national security sensitivities and securing approvals in transactions involving critical infrastructure and strategically significant sectors.

Elsa is the only economist in Asia to be named a Global Elite Thought Leader by Lexology Index: Thought Leaders – Competition (Economists). She is described as “a top competition economist with unparalleled experience” and “the top merger control practitioner in Singapore”, and is praised for her “analytical and practical approach”, “intelligent and insightful advice” and ability to articulate complex issues with clarity and precision. The Legal 500 highlights her “wealth of experience” and commends her for addressing complex issues with “care, sensitivity and commercial judgement”, while noting that she brings “a fresh perspective on competition matters from her economist background”.

In the ESG and public policy sphere, Elsa advises on the evolving regulatory and governance expectations shaping corporate strategy and capital allocation. She is also engaged at the frontier of ESG and competition policy, where sustainability objectives, and regulatory intervention intersect.

Elsa joined the Firm in 2007, following her time at Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. She was a pioneer member of the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (“CCS”), giving her an institutional perspective on the design, intent and evolution of Singapore’s competition and foreign investment regimes.

Work Highlights

• Advised on notified transactions with an aggregate value approaching S$800 billion, including every public takeover notified to the CCS, and the first and only Provisional Infringement Decision of CCS to be successfully overturned (Greif/GEP).
• Advised on close to 90 per cent. of complex CCS merger reviews requiring commitments, including landmark cases that shaped Singapore’s merger control jurisprudence, such as the first foreign-to-foreign merger cleared with commitments (Thomson/Reuters), and the first CCS conditional merger clearance requiring local commitments (SEEK/JobStreet).
• Assisted on drafting of legislation, codes, policies and regulatory regimes, including the merger control framework for the Airport Competition Code, the Media Market Conduct Code, and economic aspects of competition law in the electricity and gas markets.