She was educated at Raffles Institution in Singapore, and read law at the National University of Singapore. She was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1987 and began practice with Freshfields as a legal associate. In 1988, she joined the Litigation Department of Drew & Napier. She was appointed Senior Counsel in 2003 and was the Deputy Head of Drew & Napier’s Dispute Resolution Department until October 2012, when she left to join the government. Her practice as a dispute resolution lawyer included cross-border commercial disputes and international arbitration.
Ms Rajah has been the Member of Parliament for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) since 2001. She chaired the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Law & Home Affairs from 2004 to 2006 and the GPC for Defence and Foreign Affairs from 2006 to mid-2009. She was a Deputy Speaker of Parliament from 2006 to 2011.
She was appointed Senior Minister of State for Law and Education on 1 Nov 2012. Under her law portfolio, she co-chaired the Committees on Family Justice and on the formation of the Singapore International Commercial Court with then-Judge of Appeal VK Rajah, the recommendations of which have been accepted and are now in implementation. She is currently co-chairing the committee on Strengthening Singapore as a Restructuring Hub with Judicial Commissioner Mr. Kannan Ramesh. She also chairs the Steering Committee on the strategic direction of Singapore’s third law school at UniSIM.
In her education portfolio, she led the Committee for Applied Studies in Polytechnics and ITE (ASPIRE). The ASPIRE report resulted in SkillsFuture, a national movement that sets a new direction in aligning education with economic demand, career guidance, and lifelong learning.
Following the 2015 General Election, she relinquished her education portfolio and was appointed Senior Minister of State for Finance in conjunction with her Ministry of Law portfolio.