PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Good Men and True
– The Law Society Council

In an article on January 10, 2010, the Straits Times made the following comments in the last Council elections:
1. “But if the council is made of walk-in candidates, credibility issues would creep in.”

2. “It lends less credence to moves by the society to raise public interest issues on the profession’s behalf when legitimacy of representation is called into question.”

3. “It meant that democracy was not alive and well in the Law Society, said its president, Mr Michael Hwang.”

Let me comment on those remarks. It is true that in my President’s Message in November 2009 I observed that the lack of candidates to fill the vacant seats meant that democracy was not functioning well in the Law Society. However, it does not thereby follow that the present Council lacks credibility because it is not a fully elected Council.

The existing structure of the Legal Profession Act provides for a mix of elected and statutory members. Fifteen members are elected and six are statutory members, three of whom are appointed by the Minister for Law and the other three appointed by Council (s 48).

The composition of elected members of Council is also prescribed by the Legal Profession Act to be divided into representatives from different seniorities of practitioners to ensure that the final makeup of Council is represented by the different seniorities of its practitioners. Hence, we have fifteen elected members, comprising six members of not less than 12 years’ standing, five members of more than 7 years but less than 12 years’ standing, and four members of less than 7 years’ standing.

Accordingly, the present composition of Council is not based purely on elected membership, but is the product of a carefully created structure designed to give representation to the various stakeholders in the governance of the legal profession, partly by election and partly by appointment.

It is regrettable that candidates of high calibre sometimes choose not to stand for election for personal reasons. It is, however, gratifying to note that Council has not encountered difficulty in inviting members of high calibre to come on board to fill Council vacancies when necessary.

Following the vacancies after the last Council elections, Council took steps to fill the vacancies by paying careful regard to its existing composition, and which areas of practice needed broader representation. Based on these criteria, Council members were invited to nominate candidates for appointment by Council, and within Council itself there was an election from the nominated candidates to arrive at the final decision on the candidates to fill the vacancies. The members that have been appointed by Council by its process of internal election to fill the vacancies are Young Chee Foong, Siraj Omar, Michael S Chia and Hazel Tang Bik Kwan. In addition, Council had a statutory mandate to appoint a further two members to serve on Council, and these appointments were also made in the same way, ie, by internal election by members of Council under s 48. The statutory members so appointed by Council are Gary Allen Pryke and Patrick Ang Peng Koon.

All these members have proven track records of service to the legal profession and are respected by their peers. No one can reasonably say that they are not qualified to undertake the responsibilities of a Council member. When we look now at the makeup of Council, we have members from not only different seniorities, but also different practice areas.
And given that:
a. 14 of the present Council are litigation lawyers while 7 are transactional lawyers; and

b. 10 come from large firms (more than 30 lawyers), 6 come from mid-sized firms (6-30 lawyers) and 5 come from small firms (5 lawyers or less),

I can reasonably say that Council 2010 does represent a fair cross-section of the profession.

I have in my November Message lamented the lack of participation in our Annual Elections, and that lament remains. However, without detracting from the need to have a more active exercise of members’ democratic rights, the Council members named above have (in effect) been elected by the elected, so democracy is not dead, albeit not functioning quite as strongly as the system intends.

Michael Hwang, SC
President
The Law Society of Singapore