P O Ram was admitted into the degree of Utter Barrister of the Middle Temple, Inns of Court in 1968. He subsequently joined the Singapore Legal Service as a Deputy Public Prosecutor and State Counsel in 1969. He subsequently served in various capacities, including as the Deputy Director, Legal Services, Ministry of Defence, and Deputy Director, Legal Aid Bureau. He was second to the Parliament of Singapore and appointed as the Clerk of Parliament in 1995. As the Clerk, he was the full-time executive head of the Parliament and had overall responsibility for Parliament’s operations and support for its legislative functions.
After retirement in 2005, he entered into private practice, practicing in the areas of criminal law, civil litigation, and family law. In 2013, he was approached to take on the responsibility of Secretary General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly for a term of three years. This was a diplomatic posting and required him not just to run the Secretariat, but also to coordinate parliamentary cooperation, education, and relations between the legislators and legislative bodies of the 10 ASEAN countries. His duties included maintaining relationship with the observer parliaments such as Japan, China, and India.
In 2017, P O Ram joined Straits Law Practice LLC. He completed his LLM at the National University of Singapore in 1989.
