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NEWS |
Law Reach 2009
“The SMU students who volunteered for Project Law Reach were touched by the various lawyers’ passion for the community, especially how these lawyers were willing to set aside some time to serve the community. Indeed, the event not only reached out to the community, but ignited a greater passion amongst the student volunteers, which would hopefully carry through as they enter the working world.”
Student volunteer at the Law Reach legal clinics
“It was a truly humbling experience helping people on the ground. I attended to a woman whose face was fractured by her abusive husband. I also assisted a man whose teenage son is in police custody for sexual offences. These might seem like typical run-of-the-mill cases but when at the end of the sessions, they look at you and tell you that you have just provided a life-line to them without which they would not know what to do, it makes you realise that your profession is no longer just another job. You have just made a difference to a person and a family.”
Josephus Tan, first year lawyer
It is real impact testimonies like these that continue to encourage lawyers to serve on the Law Awareness Committee and at the Law Society’s legal clinics for the public, where people can have the opportunity to speak to a lawyer on various issues confronting them.
One of the highlights of Law Reach, a weekend event held on 24 and 25 October 2009 at AMK Hub, was free legal consultation for the public. Our lawyer volunteers were consulted on many legal issues in the areas of matrimonial, employment, tenancy, probate, and even criminal matters.
Besides providing a pro bono service to the community, the clinics were also an opportunity for law student volunteers to interact with practising lawyers and gain first-hand experience of legal advice given in “real time” to people with “real” problems.
Law Reach also included an exhibition and interactive talks on the topics of Employment; Debt and Bankruptcy; Internet Youth Crime; and the Relationship between Work and Social Networking Sites. Besides lawyers, we were also privileged to have panelists from NTUC and the Singapore Human Resource Institute, as well as local personalities, Ms Karen Tan, an actress, give her perspective as a parent on Youth Crime and Mr Joe Augustin, a radio personality, share his views about blogging rules.
The Society’s revised edition of the Know the Law booklet, written for laypersons, was made available at $1.00 each, with some parents even buying the book for their children to keep them on the “straight and narrow”!
Law Reach was launched by Guest-of-Honour, Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, who gave a meaningful opening speech on how “Pro Bono Work Pays”, not just for the community, but also for lawyers and law firms.
Vice-President Ms Malathi Das, in her opening remarks, reminisced about her involvement in the very first Law Awareness event 16 years ago in 1993 at Raffles City, and talked about how proud she was that this meaningful endeavour by the Society was still going strong. A few senior lawyers who attended the event, namely Mr George Lim and Mr N Sreenivasan, had been part of the organising committee for the pioneering event in 1993.
With 62 lawyers from 30 law firms with the help of 80 students offering 150 hours of pro bono legal advice to 303 members of public, Law Reach was indeed a concerted and commendable effort by the legal profession to reach out to the community.
The Law Awareness Committee thanks all donors, supporters, partners and volunteers for making this meaningful event possible.
Wong Peck Lin
Director, Community Relations
The Law Society of Singapore
Guest-of-Honour Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee
Vice-President of the Law Society, Ms Malathi Das
Panel discussions included a wide range of topics, from employment to bankruptcy
A legal clinic in session
Invited guests at the launch
Invited guests at the launch