Meeting the Attorney-General

Mr Palakrishnan, President, Mrs Arfat Selvam and Mr Goh Phai Cheng SC, Vice-Presidents, and Ms Christina Goh Siok Leng, Treasurer, met with the Honourable Attorney-General, Mr Chan Sek Keong. The following issues were discussed:

• multi-disciplinary practices;
• the freeing of conveyancing scale fees and non-practitioners doing conveyancing;
• law graduates leaving the profession;
• the types of claims made against solicitors for professional negligence;
• mandatory continuing legal education;
• putting forward the Law Society's views in relation to proposed legislation; and
• corporatisation.

The Conveyancing Practice Committee will examine the issues arising from any liberalisation of conveyancing practice.

Legal Profession Act Amendments

The Practice Structures Committee has prepared an information mailer to members and guidelines for the Secretariat on the exercise of its discretion on matters under the purview of the Legal Profession (Amendment) Act. The Committee's draft information mailer to all members was approved by the Council.

Amending the Legal Profession Rules

Consequent to the Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, the Council adopted proposed draft amendments to both the Legal Profession (Compensation Fund) Rules and the Legal Profession (Inadequate Professional Services Complaint Inquiry) Rules 1998.

Amendments to the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules and the Legal Profession (Solicitor's Accounts) Rules were presented to the Council at subsequent meetings.

Electronic Filing of Practising Certificates

The Council approved the proposed consequential amendments to the Legal Profession (Practising Certificates) Rules in order to take into account the electronic filing of practising certificates.

Our Committees

Mr Palakrishnan, Mrs Arfat Selvam and Mr Goh Phai Cheng SC will take charge of the formation of the Resource Panel. The Council reviewed the lists of Committee members and agreed that a Committee member who was absent from three consecutive meetings without a valid reason should cease to be a member of the Committee.

Members' Survey

A questionnaire will be sent to all members to find out more about their working hours, earnings, areas of specialty, stresses and volunteer work.

Equity in lieu of Legal Fees

The Ethics Committee will look into setting guidelines to deal with situations where lawyers are offered share options in corporations in lieu of legal fees; a report will be presented to the Council shortly.

Young Singaporeans' Dialogue with the Prime Minister

Mr Ahmad Nizam Abbas and Mr Thio Shen Yi were nominated to attend this year's annual dialogue session with the Prime Minister on 1 April 2000.

Report on 'Peer Mediation in Schools' for Council's Discussion

The Council noted the Subordinate Court's report on 'Peer Mediation in Schools' and agreed that the Law Awareness Committee was to look into the issue of how the Law Society could contribute to this project.

Sub-Committee for Bankruptcy/Insolvency

Pursuant to feedback from Dr Chandra Mohan, Official Assignee & Public Trustee/Official Receiver at the Law Society's tea reception for the Heads of Government Departments on 27 January 2000, the Council decided that a sub-committee under the Civil Practice Committee should be formed to look into bankruptcy and insolvency issues. Mr Patrick Ang, Council member, will be involved in this sub-committee.

Doctor Guidelines

The Council noted the draft practice guidelines issued by the Law Society and the Singapore Medical Association and decided to adopt the Guidelines. The Guidelines are to be circulated to members and published in the Law Gazette.

Foreign lawyers

In response to the Attorney-General's Chambers' enquiry on whether we have a 'Foreign Lawyers Commitee', the International Relations Committee will form a committee or sub-committee on 'Foreign Lawyers'. Several of the Committees and the Council will review and contribute their feedback to the Council on the draft Legal Profession Amendment Rules when they receive the said draft Rules.

Associate Members

With effect from 1 April 2000, lawyers who are not in practice will only have to pay a revised subscription of $200 to qualify as Non-Practitioner Members of the Law Society. They will be referred to generally as 'Associate Members'.

Proposed Companies Amendment Bill 2000

The Corporate Practice Committee is in discussion with Ms Juthika Ramanathan, Registrar, Registry of Companies and Businesses, to discuss the proposed amendments to the Companies Act.

E-mail Communications

The Council decided that e-mail shall be used to obtain Council members' responses for any urgent Council decision, subject to security considerations

Arbitration The SIAC intends to appoint another panel of arbitrators for expeditious arbitrations for claims up to $300,000 and to establish a system of referrals from litigation to arbitration. The Arbitration Sub-Committee presented a concept paper to the Council and will meet with Mr Ang Yong Tong, Executive Director, SIAC, on 15 February 2000 to discuss the Sub-Committee's ideas in its concept paper, and how the SIAC and the Law Society can work at this together.

Meeting the Chief Justice

Mr Palakrishnan, President, his two Vice-Presidents, Mrs Arfat Selvam and Mr Goh Phai Cheng SC, and his Treasurer, Ms Christina Goh Siok Leng, met the Honourable Chief Justice Yong Pung How on 1 February 2000.

At the meeting, the Honourable Chief Justice noted that the current proposed opening hours of the service bureaux may need to be extended to 9am to 5pm to facilitate the implementation of Phase 1.2 of the Electronic Filing System, which would commence on 1 March 2000. He also proposed that an Implementation Committee be set up to resolve teething problems and explained that the fee structure was intended to discourage excessive documentation and to get practitioners to focus on necessary documents and issues. The Chief Justice indicated that whilst the electronic filing of practising certificates is voluntary this year, it would be compulsory next year.

NUS Law Faculty's Annual Production

The Council agreed to give a $1,000 donation to the NUS Law Faculty for the sponsorship of their annual production in aid of charity. The NUS Law Faculty's appeal for sponsorship has also been publicised in the Society's Fax Bulletin.

Video-Conferencing in Criminal Pre-Trial Conferences

Mr Edmond Pereira, Chairman, Criminal Practice Committee, reported that video-conferencing for Criminal Pre-Trial Conferences (PTCs) would be conducted from two Chambers in the Registry, and that the Attorney-General's Chambers would be ready to conduct video-conferencing from their Chambers in March 2000.

Mr Pereira discussed defence counsel's options of conducting video-conferencing either from their own firms, or from dedicated terminals provided by the Law Society, or by court attendance before the PTC judge. He highlighted the problems of timing and consultation with the Deputy Public Prosecutors, prior to the actual PTCs.

Mr Naresh Mahtani, CEO will consult with the Criminal Practice Committee, the Society's IT Department and external contractors to explore the feasibility of the options and the provision of e-tools for lawyers.

Law-on-Line

The Ethics and IT Committees will meet for in-depth discussion of IT issues which have ethical implications, such as the provision of free legal advice by law firms on websites and law firms allowing legal documents to be downloaded on line. The Committees will thereafter report their findings to the Council.

NUS Students' Pro Bono Work/PLC Students On-the-Job Training

The CLAS and Law Awareness Committees will discuss the NUS students' request to be involved in pro bono work and on-the-job training for PLC students, and revert to the NUS students and the Board of Legal Education respectively.