Rajeev Amarasuriya to run for BASL President 2025/26

Attorney-at-Law Rajeev Amarasuriya will run for President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) for the year 2025/26 at the elections scheduled for February 2025, a news release said.He was elected Secretary of the BASL in February 2020 by a landslide receiving 83% of the votes cast, and commenced his tenure in the midst of the first country lockdown due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Amarasuriya, as Secretary of the BASL is credited for providing transformational leadership to the BASL during the period 2020–2022, which covered both the pandemic and the economic crisis, introducing many novel initiatives and completely changing the way the BASL conducted business, making use of new technology and other innovations.

He is also credited for transforming the way the BASL conducted Continuous Legal Education and Professional Development successfully reaching out to the entire membership irrespective of geographic location. He introduced the BASL Webinar Series conducted in all thrree Languages and completed 175 Webinars with the support of over 500 Lawyers as Resource Persons during these two years. These Webinars are to-date accessible publicly on the BASL YouTube Channel, the release said.

He also introduced the BASL Online Certificate Courses, which benefited approximately 2,000 Members and generated the highest revenue for the BASL at the time from courses. Many other such successful initiatives were commenced during his tenure.

Amarasuriya completed his primary and secondary education at Royal College, Colombo, where he was a Senior Prefect and the Editor of the College Magazine.

Having obtained 4A’s with an Island Ranking at his Advanced Level Examination and the Highest Number of Prizes at his last Royal College Prize Giving, he entered the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo in the 1997/1998 batch and Graduated obtaining 2nd Class Upper Division Honours. He thereafter entered the Sri Lanka Law College for his Final Bar Examination where he topped the batch and received the Justice Siva Supramaniam Gold Medal, among other prizes.

Amarasuriya is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK), a Chartered Global Management Accountant, a Fellow Member of the Institute of Certified Management Accounts of Sri Lanka and is an Alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School (Executive Education). He is also the recipient of the CIMA Star Gold Award by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) as the most outstanding CIMA Member below the age of 40 years at the time in 2013 and as a CIMA – LMD Trailblazer in 2021.

Having devilled in the Chambers of Dr. K. Kanag-Isvaran, PC and Mr. Sanjeeva Jayawardena, PC, and thereafter having worked as a Junior Counsel to Mr. Sanjeeva Jayawardena, PC for a decade until 2013, Amarasuriya is now an independent practitioner engaged in the areas of public law and most branches of civil litigation before the Appellate Courts. He also provides corporate and legal consultancy in a wide range of civil and commercial areas.

Having received approval from the Constitutional Council earlier this year, Amarasuriya assumed the role as a Member of the Governing Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (Formerly Monetary Board) as well as its Monetary Policy Board. He is also a Member of the Council of the University of Colombo and a Member of the Standing Committee of Legal Studies of the University Grants Commission.

He is also the Country Representative of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association and has been an Executive Committee Member of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA) since 2021.

He has been a Member of the Council of Legal Education of Sri Lanka, Commission Member of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, Governing Board Member of the Sri Lanka National Arbitration Centre, Board Member of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Board, President of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo, Chairman of the National Law Conference in 2015, Convenor of the LAWASIA – Sri Lanka Golden Jubilee Conference in 2016, Founder Editor of the BASL Junor Bar Law Journal in 2005 and the BASL Sinhala Law Journal in 2021 and Visiting Lecturer and Examiner in Tax Law of the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo among several other appointments and offices. He has also spoken at many fora on varied topics of Law, both in Sri Lanka and overseas.