In my President’s message in May, I wrote about the communication audit that our public relations consultants, Blackie McDonald, would undertake on the Society’s behalf. The objective of this exercise was twofold, to understand where the Society currently stood in relation to expectations of members and to improve the Society’s effort in helping members overcome the challenges and issues faced.

Between May and July, our consultants personally interviewed 36 practising members across the profession. To ensure a fair representation, interviews were carried out with junior (11), middle (9) and senior (16) members of both genders, who were practising in small, medium, large law practices and a statutory board.

Those interviewed included members involved in contentious and non-contentious work. Some had served as volunteers on Society committees, while others had taken part in activities organised by the Society. Many had never participated in the Society’s activities.

Council and I thank all the members who took part in this important process that provided us with valuable feedback on the following:

• current perceptions of the Society;
• expectations on the role of the Society in today’s practice environment;
• feedback on how the Society can improve to help serve members better;
• feedback on current key issues impacting the legal profession; and
• feedback on the Society’s regular communication channels with members.
  

From the outset, Council agreed that a face-to-face interview exercise would be the only effective method to obtain clear and frank opinions from a cross-section of our profession. I am glad to say, we were not wrong, as the responses were thought provoking.

The results of the communication audit were presented to Council by our consultants at our Mid-Year Workplan Review on 23 August 2003.

The key findings of the audit showed that members saw the following needs:

• the importance of the legal profession developing technology skills;
• the need for the legal profession to focus on developing business skills to better manage their law practices in economically challenging times;
• members to be made more aware of the feedback channels available at the Society;
• the Society to work harder to raise the profile of the profession and tackle the problem of poor public perception of the legal profession;
• the need for the Society to work to improve cohesiveness at the Bar; and
• the need to review our rules of conduct.
  

Many of the above are already being addressed by initiatives undertaken by the Council in 2003.

In my message for August, I wrote about the specific initiatives of both our Continuing Professional Development and Information Technology Committees to provide broad-based training to members. Since then, seminars with renewed focus on management, business and technology skills, have been organised.

Council and I know the importance of open communication and the need to continue providing regular feedback channels. In the course of the year, we have held two open dialogue sessions and sought your feedback through surveys (one with all law practices and two with all members) on important practice issues. We have also begun Council Listens sessions where a member of Council is available every lunchtime Monday, to listen to members’ views, problems and receive feedback. I have also received e-mails at the Society, and this is another regular channel for your feedback.

In addition, the Council meets each month, a chair of one of our standing committees to ensure that we keep in touch with our volunteers.

We will also improve our webpage by refreshing it frequently to keep it relevant. Our weekly newsletter EJus News just turned one in August. We send this to each of you via e-mail and to all law practices by fax. Our communication audit showed that EJus News has achieved what we had hoped it would, namely, to provide relevant ‘bite sized’ practice information. The Secretariat is looking at improving the newsletter to make it even more reader friendly and interesting.

Our flagship publication, SLG, was redesigned this year. It will always be a magazine for the profession, by the profession. We want it to continue to be your first port of call about issues affecting your profession.

In June, Council appointed an ad hoc committee chaired by Mr Loo Ngan Chor, to review our rules of ethics and practice, and recommend changes to any rules that are archaic.

In my message for August, I had described the initiatives and programmes we will undertake in the course of this year to improve camaraderie and cohesiveness at the Bar.

Most importantly, the audit showed strong concern about the public’s perception of the legal profession. In November 2002, Council recognised the urgent need to work in a focused manner to improve the public’s perception and improve media relations. In May, I explained why we had engaged public relations consultants to advise us how to champion the legal profession with the public. Since then, several initiatives have been undertaken and we hope to see them bear fruit in the coming months.

The communication audit also showed strong support for our Law Awareness initiatives and the work of the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme. This month, our law awareness initiative for the year takes off in the Southeast CDC and Northwest CDC. Themed Family and Child Law, it includes public forums, seminars, a roving exhibition, and free legal clinics.

Finally, the communication audit highlighted that members hoped the Society would improve on the following:

• make the Society more approachable, especially for junior lawyers and not to be viewed primarily as a regulatory body; and
• work to rally the profession to champion interests and issues of concern to the profession.
  

Rest assured Council will address these concerns in the following months. Council and the Secretariat are always here to listen, learn and improve.

Arfat Selvam
President
Law Society of Singapore