Attorney-at-Law Rajeev Amarasuriya was inducted as the 29th President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka on Saturday (29).He was elected as the new President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) at the election held on February 19, 2025.Amarasuriya previously served as the Secretary of BASL and has an extensive appellate court practice, specializing in public law and various branches of civil litigation, including contractual, commercial, property, taxation, and banking law.He holds multiple prominent positions across state and private sector institutions, including serving as a Board/Committee Member of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board, the Standing Committee of Legal Studies of the University Grants Commission, and as a Council Member of the University of Colombo.He also represents Sri Lanka in the Commonwealth Legal Education Association and is an Executive Committee Member of LAWASIA.Amarasuriya has previously held influential roles as a member of the Council of Legal Education of Sri Lanka, a former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka, a Member of the Board of Governors of the Sri Lanka National Arbitration Centre, and as the Immediate Past President of the Alumni Association of the University of Colombo.Academically, he holds a Law Degree from the University of Colombo, is an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka, and a Fellow Member of both the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) and the Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka.
He is also an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School (Executive Education) and was conferred as an AFGG Raisina Fellow in April 2022.Amarasuriya has been recognized for his exceptional contributions and leadership, receiving the CIMA Star Gold Award in 2013 for the most outstanding CIMA member under 40 and being named a CIMA LMD Trailblazer in 2021.Notably, on January 31, 2024, he was appointed to the Governing Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).