John Mathew was born in 1962. Corporate filings for his directorship at a listed Malaysian company identify his nationality as Malaysian.
His professional life has centred on Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, where the legal profession is organised around advocates and solicitors admitted to the High Court of Malaya. Malaysia's legal system is rooted in the English common law tradition, which shaped the practice of the Malaysian bar after independence.
John Mathew studied law at the University of Malaya, where he took a Bachelor of Laws with Honours. The university was formed in 1949 in Singapore from the King Edward VII College of Medicine and Raffles College, and its Kuala Lumpur campus was established in 1959 as the country's academic centre developed.
He was admitted in 1987 as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya, the combined status under which Malaysian lawyers practise both advocacy and solicitor work.
John Mathew's career includes a partnership at Shook Lin & Bok, one of Malaysia's oldest law firms. The firm began in 1918 as Messrs Yong Shook Lin in Kuala Lumpur, was renamed Messrs Shook Lin & Bok after Tan Teow Bok joined as a partner in 1938, and opened a Singapore office in 1964. It later grew into one of the largest law firms in Malaysia.
By March 2016 he was a partner at Christopher & Lee Ong in Kuala Lumpur. The firm was formed in 2013 through a merger of three Malaysian law firms and is a member firm of Rajah & Tann Asia. He heads its Dispute Resolution & Litigation Practice Group, where his practice focuses on general civil litigation, banking litigation and advisory work. His profile lists experience in capital reduction exercises for public and private companies, corporate transactions and drafting contractual arrangements, along with reported decisions such as Datuk Hussain Bin Mohamed v First Malaysia Finance Berhad, decided by the High Court of Malaya in 1990.
He is a panel arbitrator with the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC). The centre was established in 1978 as the Regional Centre for Arbitration, Kuala Lumpur, under the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization, and was renamed the Asian International Arbitration Centre in 2018. He has been a Notary Public since 2004.
John Mathew was appointed an independent non-executive director of Malaysia Smelting Corporation Berhad (MSC) with effect from 23 March 2016. MSC is a Klang-based company engaged in smelting tin concentrates and producing refined tin metal, and its shares are listed on Bursa Malaysia and the Singapore Exchange. In May 2023 he became chairman of the company's Nomination and Remuneration Committee, and from 17 November 2023 he was redesignated senior independent director. He later resigned as chairman of that committee, with another director taking over.
John Mathew is a member of the Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators, a professional body for arbitration practitioners in Malaysia. He also served for several years as a member of the Compensation Committee of Bursa Malaysia, the national securities exchange that operates Malaysia's stock markets and listing framework.
Quotes from others about the person
Clients of Christopher & Lee Ong, as reported on the firm's profile of him, praise his broad knowledge across different areas of law and the careful rigour of his legal analysis.
