Opening of Legal Year 2005

This speech was delivered by the President at the Opening of Legal Year held on 8 January 2005.

May it please Your Honours, Chief Justice, Judge of Appeal, Judges and Judicial Commissioners of the Supreme Court.

In the mind’s eye of our nation, lawyers have moved through three phases: first, we were viewed as something of a social nuisance, likely to get in the way of nation building and social development. Then, for a time, we were seen as an economic drag, imposing rents on commerce, subtracting rather than adding value. The third phase arrived with a brand new name — the legal services industry — describing what lawyers produce as something to be consumed or exported, and so adding to the economy. At last, it seemed, lawyers were a good thing, at least economically.

In all of this, we have come a long way from old ideas of the law as a profession. We in the Law Society are not fossils and the coming year will see continued effort on our part to ensure that Singapore Lawyers as a group can move forward with full confidence, compete fairly without handicap and deliver value to clients not just in Singapore but internationally. To this end, we are broadening the scope and deepening the intensity of our Continuing Professional Development Programme, and assessing and analysing what, if any, minimum requirements there should be for practitioners at different stages of their professional lives. We will also be proposing the elimination or reform of various regulations that impede the carrying on of honest, competitive business.  Internationally, we will continue to work at forging ties with our counterparts in Asia, with an emphasis on providing a platform for our practitioners to build on in those countries or regions, most immediately China and Indonesia. In doing so, we will continue our collaboration with SIAC, the Stock Exchange and IE Singapore.

However, there is a danger in over-commercialising the law. Industrious we may be, but we are not merely an industry. 
The legal profession plays an important social and civic role, most clearly in the upholding of the rule of law and the ensuring of access to justice. Lawyers who think like businessmen may be tempted to advise their client in terms of what that client might get away with, instead of what is legally and morally right to do. Businessmen-lawyers may not see the virtue or purpose in serving those sections of the community who cannot afford large fees.  

Indeed, it is the spirit of professionalism, of pride in the work we do, that drives excellence and ensures that law is not merely a business. To professionalism, I would add a sense of social responsibility as an enduring hallmark of good lawyers.

The Society must and will play its part in sustaining the spirit of professionalism and nourishing the sense of social responsibility. It is our hope that we can enter a fourth phase: one in which both roles -— our economic and social roles — are valued 
and honoured.

Recent tragic events have sharpened our understanding of the interconnectedness of nations. The legal profession’s social role, like its economic one, has an international dimension. The Law Society has offered its assistance to Bar Associations and Law Societies of nations affected by the earthquake in Aceh.

This year, the Society marks the twentieth anniversary of its criminal legal aid scheme. In the past year, we have strengthened the scheme, both financially and administratively.  We have also launched Project LawHelp, which matches law firms to volunteer organisations. Everyone who has a genuine claim must have a remedy that can be sought in a reasonable and affordable way. When the law and justice seem remote to ordinary citizens, self-help grows, causing social problems and ultimately lawlessness.  Lawyers pursuing global opportunities must not result in neglect of the commonplace problems of individual people. There will always be an important place for lawyers who deal with everyday, domestic concerns.

The legal profession has much to contribute, both individually and collectively, to the life of the nation. The past year has seen a stronger role taken by the Society in putting forward the special perspective that the legal profession brings to bear on issues — a perspective which emphasises effective procedure, natural justice and practical remedies. We have met not just with the Ministry of Law, the Courts, AG’s Chambers and the Singapore Land Authority, but also with the Ministry of Manpower and the Peoples’ Association.

I now make a new year’s wish. To express that wish, I turn to a year long past. Forty-eight years ago, when the late Justice FA Chua was elevated to the Bench at the age of 43 the then Chairman of the Bar Committee, Mr RL Eber, had some wise words to say that I seek Your Honours’ indulgence to repeat. They require some adaptation, for when he refers to young men, we would today include young women. He was also rather more distant in age from those youngsters on whose behalf he spoke than I am today. And of course, no small detail this, there are today no more Lords in Singapore. But the spirit of what he said is as relevant now as it then was. This is what he said:

If Your Lordship looks around you, you will find a number of young men, all youngsters at the Bar. I speak of these young ones with feeling because many years ago I was one like them. I would like to remind Your Lordship that a little word of encouragement, a little tolerance and a little understanding and appreciation of the efforts of these young barristers, would go a long way towards making them like and enjoy their work, and probably induce them to come to your Courts thoroughly prepared with every aspect of their case, so that justice will be done to their clients.

That was what Mr Eber said all those years ago. It is my sincere hope that the Bar, both collectively and individually, young ones and old ones, should receive in all cases and at all times, the respect which our advocacy, tempered but determined, surely has earned us. A little tolerance and a little understanding go a long way.

I now on behalf of the Bar, renew our pledge to Your Honour, the Chief Justice, of full and unstinting support to the Judiciary in the administration of justice.

I wish you too, Chief Justice, Judge of Appeal, Judges and Judicial Commissioners of the Supreme Court, the Attorney-General, all members of the Law Society and of the broader legal community, in the legal and judicial service, at the Faculty and in foreign law firms, continuing good health to carry on the good work and shared purposes of all of us, devoted to the pursuit of law.

Philip Jeyaretnam, SC

President

The Law Society of Singapore