Edern Coënt

What is your current role, or what are you working on?
I am currently a member of the international arbitration team at Mayer Brown, based in our Singapore office. My practice focuses on international commercial arbitration, notably in the defense sector, as well as infrastructure and energy-related disputes. I am also co-chairing the Singapore chapter of Mayer Brown’s NextGen initiative, which aims to develop a peer-to-peer network for young professionals and future leaders in a variety of sectors.

What is your proudest achievement?
I have been lucky enough to live, study and work in a few different places and to have developed meaningful connections and friendships in every single one of them. I am very proud to have kept these alive through the years, whether it’s with locals I’ve met along the way, expats like me who seem to always be on the move, or people back home in France, which I have left for Asia almost ten years ago now.

There are now 25 hours in a day! How would you spend your extra hour?
I would spin one more record on my turntable. I find the analogue ceremony of it very soothing, but busy days don’t always allow for that little bit of extra time required to really appreciate it.

If you weren't a lawyer, what would you do?
I would probably run a motorcycle workshop / bar / music joint sort of thing, maybe a boutique hotel or a movie theatre, a place of culture and community.

Your favourite food haunt is...?
I like walking or cycling to Colbar, which is off the rail corridor near the black and white houses of Wessex estate. The food is basic in a good way and the place has a lot of character.