The Singapore Law Review

You are invited!

The Singapore Law Review cordially invites you to the SLR Symposium 2007. Come witness our 6 finalists argue their brilliant papers before our judges Dr. Kevin Tan, Professor Michael Hor and lawyers from the sponsoring firm TS Oon & Bazul. You can play a part too in determining the finalists’ performance — the skill with which they respond to questions from the judges AND audience will contribute towards their final results.

And be our guests for the very sumptuous buffet dinner after the event! (more…)

By now, you’re probably wondering: what is the Law Careers Fair all about?

Well, Law Careers Fair basically is, as its name suggests, a one-week siesta where law firms come to the Law Faculty to promote their respective firms. For one whole week, groups of lawyers will bandy together to out-wit, out-pitch and out-sell their law firms to you. Yes, you, the ordinary law school student.

There will be buffets, talks, seminars, freebies, discounts, lucky draws and attractive prizes – all just so that the law firms can get to tell law students more about themselves, what they do and what they are looking for in potential lawyers. Just for this year, the Law Careers Fair committee is working to even have a Hot-Air balloon placed near the quadrangle outside the canteen. Ever wondered if Harry Elias Partnership will suit you better than Allen & Gledhill? Or ever entertained the possibility of being a criminal lawyer who seeks to advocate justice and fight crime in Singapore instead of just being pigeon-holed into doing corporate conveyance?

For the entirety of this one week, your senses will be assailed by the myriad of possibilities that are open to you upon your graduation from law school.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the Law Careers Fair committee working round-the-clock to ensure that the Law Careers Fair turns out a success and meets the expectations of not just the various firms partaking in the event but also of all members of the Faculty.

So what are you waiting for?

Kyle Lee, Law Careers Fair Committee
The Law Careers Fair will be taking place at the Multi-Purpose Room (next to SR 2-3 on level 2), Bukit Timah Campus, from the 12th-16th of February.

Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 4 (February 2007)

Ms. Dawn Kua, Director of Operations, Cat Welfare Society

Q. Tell me more about the Cat Welfare Society.
Cat Welfare Society’s (“CWS”) mission is to save lives through sterilisation. We focus on sterilisation and management of community cats (stray cats) because we believe that keeping the population in check benefits cats, people who like cats and people who don’t.

13,000 cats are killed in Singapore every year. At the same time, the population of cats is not decreasing either. CWS offers an alternative solution to culling cats in our “Trap-Neuter-Return-Manage Programme” (“TNRM”). The cats are trapped, sterilised and then returned and managed in their original environment. Volunteers help with mediation if there are complaints about cats so that the problem is solved and the cats do not need to be killed. Stopping the cycle of over-population starts with sterilisation.

Q. What motivated you to join/found CWS?
I saw an article in the newspaper and my mother signed us both up as volunteers.

Q. What is your role in CWS?
I do just about everything. One misconception is that I work directly with cats — most of my work is with people. I work with caregivers who need help, management committees, town councils. I conduct workshops to train people who want to start up their own TNRM programmes, attend meetings and try and meet with the authorities to work together for more effective policies with regards to cats.

Q. How has your legal education and training contributed to your work with CWS?
I have found my legal education and training very useful in my work with CWS. I’ve never regretted going into law. One thing I’ve noticed is that people are often unaware of the law and the implications of it and they often react in fear to the thought that they might be breaking the law when they are not. They often do not know where to go if they have problems. For example, we have had cases of caregivers being wrongly informed that feeding cats is illegal and they must pay a fee for a license.

It helps also when we are appealing to the authorities to try and change their policies, for example in the case of the HDB by-laws. And, of course, it helps when looking through contracts and the like. Most importantly, I think that a legal education has made me more methodical and better able to analyse situations. A legal education is a good grounding for whatever field you may find yourself going into.

Q. Some people may think that you are “wasting” your legal training by working for a non-profit organization, instead of earning a good income as a lawyer. How would you respond to this?
People find fulfillment in different ways. I don’t make a lot of money but I wake up every morning enjoying my job and finding meaning in what I do.You can find out more about CWS and its work at www.catwelfare.org.

Would you like to contribute your time and legal skills to a good cause? You can start doing Pro Bono work right here, right now! NUS Law Faculty has its very own Pro Bono Group. For more information on the projects that it has done and future volunteer opportunities, please check out its website at http://law.nus.edu.sg/lawclub/npbg/. Alternatively you can keep a look out for emails sent to your NUS email account.

Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 4 (February 2007)

Interested in being an in-house counsel but unsure about what they do? Ms Angeline Joyce Lee, President of the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (SCCA), gives us a first-hand insight into what in-house counsel do.

Q. What is an in-house counsel?
In-house counsel are employed by a single company. They provide legal advice and other services relating to the business of the company. Technically, the company is their client but of course in practice, in-house counsel provide their services to the board of directors, the management, and the business units or departments of the company they work for.

Q. What are the duties and responsibilities of in-house counsel? Do they play a non-legal function within the company?
Their primary responsibility is to manage the legal risks faced by the company. This involves providing legal advice, drafting and negotiating contracts, keeping up-to-date on changes in the law which affect the company, and ensuring that the company complies with statutory requirements. They also manage the company’s relationships with external counsel, and any litigation that the company is involved in.

Depending on the company’s organizational structure, some in-house counsel also handle corporate secretarial and compliance work. Compliance has gained importance in recent years and it is common in Singapore for in-house counsel to take on the compliance function as well.

Increasingly, in-house counsel are also called upon to advise the company on
business-related issues. As in-house counsel deal with many aspects of a company, they acquire a good knowledge of the company’s operations and business. This is essential to enable in-house counsel to be effective in discharging their legal function. This knowledge, combined with their legal knowledge, places in-house counsel in a unique position to assist the company on business issues or strategies. It is also not unusual to find in-house counsel assuming responsibility for human resource or corporate communications.

Q. What are the challenges facing an in-house counsel?
Globalisation and the increasing number of cross-border transactions by companies will create new challenges for in-house counsel, especially since lawyers generally specialize in particular disciplines and jurisdictions. Another challenge facing in-house counsel is the need for them to maintain professional integrity in the face of the commercial interest of the company in getting a deal done. In-house counsel often face this direct pressure from the business people and they have to always remember that they are there to protect the interests of the company.

Q. How is working as an in-house counsel different from working as a lawyer in private practice?
The in-house counsel principally has one “client” while the lawyer in private
practice has many different clients. The in-house counsel is also an employee of its client, whilst a practitioner is not. Practitioners are required to be admitted to the bar and to hold practicing certificates whereas in-house counsel have no such requirements.

In-house counsel see transactions in the overall context of the company’s business and strategy; this is generally less obvious to the practitioner. Practitioners need to be able to bring in business; in-house counsel have a captive client (although, of course, they still have to ensure good service to the client).

Q. What does the SCCA do?
It creates a platform for in-house counsel to interact, share information, and develop/upgrade their skills. The SCCA also provides opportunities for continuing education, and communicates and represents the interests of in-house counsel with one voice on issues that concern the legal community. You can find out more about the SCCA on its website at www.scca.org.sg.

Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 4 (February 2007)

I read with interest the article entitled “Re-scoping s. 377A: A Juxtaposition of Views” (Juris Illuminae, January 2007) in which Muhammad Aidil sought to argue for the continued criminalization of homosexual acts. His arguments left me unconvinced.

Aidil’s first argument was that legalising homosexual activities in Singapore, where a large part of the population subscribes to faiths that outlaw homosexual activities, would be “worrying”. This raises the pertinent issue of the extent to which we should allow religious values to influence legislation, especially in a multi-religious state like ours. If we outlaw homosexual acts on religious grounds, should we not also ban contraception, since some Catholics are opposed to it?

Aidil also argued that legalising homosexuality would have negative effects, given our location in a Muslim-dominated region. If this were indeed the case, should not anal sex between consenting heterosexual couples remain criminalized as well, since anal sex is also frowned upon by most Muslims? Surely, if we are to retain the law against homosexual acts, we must do so on some stronger foundation than religion.

Aidil correctly pointed out that one of the functions of the criminal law was to protect the rights of individuals. In the context of homosexuality, however, this argument cannot stand. It simply begs the question of whom we aim to protect, and from what. Do we want to protect straight men, from getting raped by gay men? Even if this were the case, the solution lies not in criminalizing homosexual acts, but in extending the provisions on rape and male sexual assault.

It was also pointed out that gay rights activists assert their right to have sex because it is done privately and is consensual. Aidil then argued that using the same reasoning of privacy and consent, gay rights activists would go to the extreme and begin advocating incest, bestiality and necrophilia. This connection is a very far-fetched one to make. It is also difficult to see how, as Aidil argued, bestiality or necrophilia can be ‘consensual’ in any true sense of the word.

It is plain, then, that these arguments against decriminalizing homosexual acts wither down to little more than an intuitive disgust for homosexual activity. Should our law-making be governed by this intuitive disgust? I hope not.

Mohan Gopalan is a first year law student.

From the Chief Editor
For many of us, the most natural thing to do after obtaining our LL.B is to join the legal profession as a lawyer in private practice. However, there is more to the legal profession than a law firm – we can work in the Legal Service, in the legal departments of government ministries and statutory boards, as an in-house counsel, in academia and even in voluntary welfare organisations, to name just a few.

An expanding legal market has brought about many challenges. Let’s see these challenges as opportunities, opportunities which we should seize and turn to our advantage. To do this, we need to find our passion in the law – we need to be inspired by it. Build upon the initial interest and motivation we had when we decided to study law. Take up internships to experience first-hand what legal work is all about. Speak to lawyers from different areas of the legal profession, lecturers, friends and seniors. Visit the Law Careers Fair from 12-16 February. And, of course, read this month’s Juris interviews with people from various legal fields.

Even if we decide to leave the legal profession altogether, our legal education and training is never wasted. I believe that our legal education and training enables us to be more methodical and analytical, skills which are invaluable in any profession.

A big thank you to everyone who entered the SLR Writing Competition. All the entries we received were excellent, and we had a tough time shortlisting the 6 finalists. The finalists will be presenting their entries to a panel of judges. The skill with which they respond to questions from the judges and audience will contribute towards their final results. So come on down to the Moot Court on Thursday, 15 February at 6pm for an exciting and stimulating evening of intellectual thrust and parry.

Enjoy the Lunar New Year break!

Maureen Poh

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Q. How many years have (both of) you been in practice?
Bazul (BA): Thian Seng has been in practice for the past 13 years and I have been in practice for 8 years.

Q. When (both of you) you first set out as lawyers, what did you do and what kind of working environment were you in?
Thian Seng (TS): I did my pupilage in a large law firm before moving to a mid-size firm and thereafter to a small firm before ending up in the same firm as Bazul. In a large firm, there is usually a well-established hierarchy with pupils, legal associates, senior legal associates, junior partners and equity partners. The norm was for pupils to work for the legal associates and senior legal associates. There was generally less direct contact with the partners.

I can safely say that being a pupil/legal associate in a large firm probably gives you less contact time with the partner running the file than a pupil/legal associate in a mid-size or small firm. It may also be difficult to actively participate in the day-to-day running of the files.

Q. What made you want to set up your own firm? What sort of inspirations, considerations and vision did you have?
BA: I felt that there was a need for a younger and more dynamic law firm — a firm that could reach to the commercial industry’s needs quickly and constructively. I believed that we could offer flexibility and a personal touch to our clients. The vision for the firm is for it to grow in size to be a midsize or large firm. As you can see, from just the 2 of us and within 4 years, we now have 5 partners, 2 pupils for the 2006 intake who have been retained, 2 paralegals, 10 staff members and 2 pupils for the 2007 intake who will be joining us in June this year. These are exciting times for the firm and those who join us!

Q. What brought the 2 of you together as partners?
TS: Well, before we started the firm, we worked together in our previous firm for some years. We were able to communicate with each other on the same wavelength and we have a huge amount of respect for each other. We shared the same vision of starting our own firm, moulding its culture and making it successful.

Q. Do you think there is a certain entrepreneurial streak in you which led you to strike it out on your own?
BA: Definitely. Starting a new firm entails quite a bit of risk-taking. It involves asking questions like can I get clients? Can I make ends meet? Can I pay the salaries? Can I manage the firm? What if I fail? Only someone who has an entrepreneurial streak would be prepared to take such risks. As an employee, you would not have to face these questions as they are always taken for granted. However, we make it a point to teach anyone who works with us how to think like an entrepreneur. This is important as I believe that learning how to run a firm makes you more responsible, a better lawyer and a more well-balanced person. Those who work with us gradually start feeling a sense of belonging to the firm as well as a sense of ownership.

Q. What difficulties did you encounter in the initial period?
TS: We must say that we have been very lucky. We did not encounter much difficulty at all. By the time we started our practice we had already earned the respect in the industry and it was not difficult to get work. Once we started doing work, it brought us more work. We also did not encounter much difficulty in recruiting as we pay as much as the large firm with the same benefits. Our philosophy of wanting to train interns and pupils has made it attractive for those just starting out to want to join us as they see our firm as a place where they can receive proper training and really learn how to become a good lawyer. It is encouraging to see that our efforts are appreciated by the interns who have joined us. Many have informed us that they would like to continue with the firm as pupils.

Q. What qualities do you think a practitioner should possess before he /she considers setting up his own practice?
BA: One fundamental quality is the ability to put clients’ interest above yours. If you start a firm purely to make more money, you are likely to fail. Money will come if you are first able to properly discharge the duties that you owe to the Court and to your clients without any hesitation.

Q. TS Oon and Bazul is a (small) firm very specialized in areas of practice, namely Maritime Law/Banking and Aviation. We understand that this is a rather unusual case. Would you like to elaborate on your methodology in running the firm?
TS: We did not find this unusual. Our philosophy was to practise in the areas we are experts in. This allowed us to demonstrate to clients that we could competently handle matters relating to banking, trade finance, marine insurance, international trade, freight forwarding and aviation. This is why we have many institutional clients such as P&I Club, hull and cargo underwriters, major shipowners, banks and commodity trading houses. I should add that this is also why the cases we handle now are generally significant high value cases. For example, we successfully acted for an aircraft owner in a suit against a national carrier for a claim in the amount of US$32 million. We are also advising clients in a S$100 million joint venture agreement. We have also been instructed to act for underwriters in a RM$170 million claim involving damage to sub-sea pipelines. How were we able to achieve all this? Sheer hard work plus the fact that we earned our clients’ trust by consistently delivering the goods.
Q. What is your personal ethos as a lawyer? How would you size up your own legal career so far?
TS: Work hard. Be humble as you can; always learning whether it is from judges, opponents, clients or subordinates. No office politics. I firmly believe that the time spent in the office should best be spent doing the work and achieving clients’ objectives. As for sizing up my legal career, I think that I have achieved much in my career thus far but I think that I can achieve even more. As I said earlier, my vision is for the firm to succeed and grow bigger and better.

BA: Be honest and always sincerely care for those who work with you. Enjoy your work, then it doesn’t become a chore. That is why we try our best to motivate those who work with us to excel in what they do and to enjoy the work. When a person is happy, it makes him a better worker and colleague. How about my legal career? Well, I am very proud to say that all our efforts have been bearing fruit. We have been named as a leading shipping firm in the Asia Pacific Legal 500 for 2 years’ running. This surely is a reflection of what we have achieved in the past 4 years and the state of our legal careers thus far.

Q. What words of advice would you give to law students who are eagerly looking forward to a legal career?
TS: Study hard and always be willing to learn. A career as a lawyer is an exciting one that is as rewarding as the amount of effort that is put in.

BA: Do an internship with a law firm during your school holidays and find out what it is really like to be a lawyer. This will not only help you to decide what subjects to take in school, it would also help make what you are studying now come alive. We have had a number of interns join us during their vacations who have said that they had enjoyed their time with us. One of them is Tang Chong Jun from Durham University who wrote about his time with us in “Lex Loci”, which is a publication for law students in the UK.

Bazul and Thian Seng are partners in the boutique law firm, TS Oon & Bazul. – Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 4 (February 2007)

Ms. Disa Sim, District Judge, Subordinate Courts

Q. Could you describe a typical day of a district judge?
This really depends on which division (e.g. criminal trial courts, civil trial courts, civil registry or Family and Juvenile Court) the District Judge is posted to. Being posted to the Civil Registry, my day typically involves hearing pre-trial matters (e.g. contested interlocutory applications and applications for summary judgment), as well as post-judgment applications to enforce judgments or execution proceedings relating thereto. I also regularly hear assessment of damages cases.

Q. How did you come to be a judge?
After completing my policy secondment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), I decided that I was ready for a fresh challenge and indicated to the Legal Service Commission that I would be interested in a posting to the judiciary.

Q. Having taught in NUS as Assistant Professor and worked in MFA prior to serving as a judge, does your work as a judge bear any relationship to your academic and policy interests? Or are they entirely separate?
They certainly are interrelated. Being a judge allows me to explore my academic and policy interests from another perspective, test how these ideas apply in practice and observe how they play out in a practical setting.

Q. What do you think is the greatest challenge you face as a district judge?
Ensuring that every party feels that he or she has received a fair hearing, regardless of what the substantive result is.
Q. What advice do you have for students who aspire to be a judge one day?
Accumulate as much practical experience as possible, whether in law or in life. This will prove invaluable in understanding where parties are coming from, their motivations, and in deciding how best to resolve the problem.

Q. Any advice for future advocates who will have to appear before the court?
A good advocate should always try to assist the court. An advocate should be alert to cues from the judge, and be prepared to depart from his or her prepared case to assist the judge with the areas that the judge may have difficulty with.

Q. What does the future hold for you, professionally?
Being with the Legal Service gives me the opportunity to try my hand at so many different types of work without even having to change employer! After my stint with the Subordinate Courts, I hope to broaden my exposure even further by rotating to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

Ms Disa Sim is District Judge in the Subordinate Courts. — Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 4 (February 2007)

Q. Tell us a little more about yourself.
I am a graduate student at the Faculty of Law pursuing a Master’s Degree in Law with major electives in the areas of Shipping Law and international commercial arbitration. I was born in a land situated between the latitudes 14°53′54″ N and 15°40′00″ N and longitudes 73°40′33″ E and 74°20′13″ E, a land blessed with golden sand beaches, swaying palms, magnificent churches and friendly people… “the Pearl of the Orient”- Goa. I pursued a Bachelors programme in Commerce at the Goa University and followed it up with a LL.B.

My desire to delve deeper into the field of maritime trade and commerce led me to pursue a Post Graduate Diploma in Shipping Management pursuant to which I spent a very eventful few years as a greenhorn litigator at the Bombay High Court.

Q. I understand you worked as a lawyer in India. What made you decide to pursue a Master’s degree?
I was called to the Bombay bar in September 2002 and commenced legal practice at the Bombay High Court as an Assistant Advocate at Shah and Sanghavi. However, the lure of the seven seas and ships prompted me to join the Chambers of Mr. S. Venkiteswaran (Venki), Senior Counsel, High Court of Bombay and a noted authority on admiralty and maritime law in India.

Ever since graduating from law school, I’ve always wanted to pursue a Master’s degree in Law. However, I realised that a couple of years in the profession would make my graduate studies more meaningful and purposeful. Further, work experience helped me to clarify career objectives and gain invaluable hands-on experience in my area of interest.

Q. What do you think a graduate degree can do for your career?
A graduate programme in my opinion serves many purposes: it’s a great way to slow down the pace of life, to look at life from a different perspective; it provides a wonderful opportunity to recharge my batteries, and most importantly, it acts as a refresher course to update my knowledge and aids me in focussing on an area of specialisation.

A LL.M. from a foreign university is always appealing to potential employers as it adds a bit of exoticism to your C.V. which employers love. The fact that you have studied abroad is also quite helpful when it comes to dealing with foreign clients.

In my opinion, an LL.M is a great option to young lawyers in search for a break from the monotony of a very demanding profession. I think it’s a great option to prevent young lawyers from quitting the profession. It gives then some time to stop, ponder and take the right decision as to their future as lawyers. In the bargain, one gets to update one’s knowledge base, acquire new skills and get a hold on one’s life and career.

Q. Why did you decide to do your graduate degree in NUS?
An extremely distinguished faculty, an ambience replete with academic activity, an LL.M. programme which blends high quality, intensive course work with research, the numerous opportunities to interact with professionals from the legal profession and the commercial world, the hope that the extremely competitive environment at NUS would bring out the best in me, coupled with the fact that Singapore is rapidly emerging as a maritime arbitration hub are factors which have prompted me to choose NUS. I firmly believe the LL.M programme offered by NUS provides me with a perfect platform to update and hone my skills as a lawyer.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every bit of my time here in NUS and in Singapore. This has been in no small measure due to the efforts put in by a few of my Singaporean friends who have gone out of their way to take good care of me. The past few months I’ve spent in NUS have been absolutely wonderful and I won’t hesitate to state that they have been the “best days of my life”. Singapore is also a perfect base to explore the Southeast Asian region. Given the travel bug in me, I took the opportunity of the semester break to explore the region. I spent a wonderful two weeks in December back packing Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia. It was an amazing journey of discovery. Although backpacking maybe punishing on the body, it is great for the soul and it is truly the only way to experience the culture and diversity of the region.

Q. What do you hope to do after you obtain your graduate degree?
I firmly believe the LL.M programme will offer me a perfect platform to launch myself on to the world legal scene, all cylinders firing. I expect to emerge out of my graduate programme a more confident lawyer, well equipped with the necessary skills and tools to take on the world. On the personal front, I hope to find the girl of my dreams, sweep her off her feet, get married and live happily ever after, just like in the fairy tales

Ajay is currently pursuing an LL.M at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. Juris Illuminae Vol 3. Issue 4 (February 2007)