News

The Young Lawyers Committee (‘YLC’) commenced their second series of dinner-dialogues under Project:

Generation X last June 19 at the OCBC Executives’ Club with distinguished guest speakers Mr Michael Hwang SC, Ms Indranee Rajah SC and ex-Justice of Appeal Mr LP Thean. The guest speakers had kindly accepted the YLC’s invitation to share their views and experiences on an issue that young lawyers have recently been facing.

For those of you who are clueless about what I’m talking about, shame on you. You should get out more. But for your benefit, here’s a bit of background on the YLC and Project: Gen X ...

Project: Gen X was the brainchild of the YLC of 2002, which had set out to tackle the rather sensitive issue at that time of why an alarming number of the profession, with a great percentage being made up of young lawyers, were leaving practice. Project: Gen X had three main objectives as its ultimate goals:

However, it was at the last dinner-dialogue held in November 2002 that the question that was to become the focus of the YLC’s second Project: Gen X dinner-dialogue was raised — ‘Are young lawyers rude and lacking in professional courtesy?’

	From L to R: Mr Michael Hwang, SC, Ms Indranee Rajah, SC, Mr LP Thean and Mr Sant Singh
	Mr LP Thean shares a personal anecdote
	Ms Angeline Toh and Mr Monty Choy of the YLC having a moment with Ms Indranee Rajah, SC

And so it was that, after a hearty buffet, the three guest speakers took their seats on a raised dais, along with moderator, Mr Sant Singh Tulsi, to address a room brimming with expectant murmuring. The topic was ‘Etiquette and Fair Play’, broadly taken from r 47 of the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules.

The guest speakers were brilliant in their respective addresses, drawn from their own personal experiences, many of them funny anecdotes from reminiscing about their own days as young lawyers, or in the case of Mr LP Thean, from his perspective as an ex-judge of the practice of etiquette and fair play by the profession.

Still, the topic was clearly a delicate subject and the dialogue took a while to get under way after the individual addresses by the guest speakers. It appeared that young lawyers, the target of attack at the last dinner, were as a whole wary of voicing their opinions openly, or even defending against the allegations made of them. Perhaps they were apprehensive about appearing whining or complaining, especially to senior members of the Bar. Perhaps they did not want to put their reputations at stake by doing so. The legal fraternity is, after all, a small one. Eventually though, the floor warmed up and a candid discussion was soon in progress.

The discussion ranged widely from how to deal with difficult lawyers to rude letters and extended to relationships between lawyers of the same firm, be it with bosses or colleagues, and even touched on how to deal with difficult members of the Bench. What became apparent from the conversation between the floor and the guest speakers was that lawyers of all categories could fall foul of r 47 of the Professional Conduct Rules, and not merely young lawyers.

At the end of the night, one message rang clearly through all that had been shared — how you deal with a difficult situation depends on you. You can either choose to respond in kind to the antagonism or you can choose to diffuse the situation through the use of good communication skills, added with a healthy dose of common sense and courtesy. Simply put, rudeness is not an invitation for a similar response.

All in all, it had been a good evening and despite the initial reservations of the floor, this second dinner-dialogue for Project: Gen X was a fruitful beginning to addressing the issue of etiquette and fair play at the Bar. The rest, as they say, is up to you.

Watch out for the next dinner-dialogue session to be held later this year, brought to you by the Young Lawyers Committee.

Project: Gen X Dinner Series II