SINGAPORE, Sat: In conjunction with the Presidents of Law Associations Conference 2006 held in Singapore, the Young Lawyers Committee of the Law Society of Singapore yesterday hosted the Young Lawyers Forum 2006 and invited Malaysian young lawyers to attend this forum.
More than 20 Malaysian young lawyers made the trip down to Singapore early Friday morning to attend the one–day forum which started at 3pm. (Click here to view the picture gallery)
A panel of four distinguished speakers kicked off the informal and interactive first session. Chairing this session was Senior Counsel, Jimmy Yim, the Managing Director of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution of Drew & Napier LLC. The one thing that he emphasised was that young lawyers may forget or not know the substantive law, but a young lawyer must always adhere to professional ethics, as ethical conduct is paramount in the career of a young lawyer.
Our second speaker was Subhas Anandan, a leading criminal lawyer in Singapore. Whilst always having a passion for criminal law, it has taken him 35 years of practice before he could now specialise in purely criminal work. He had to be flexible in carrying out other types of contentious and non–contentious work. Anandan stressed that his passion for criminal practice springs from the fact that you are protecting the fundamental liberties of your client.
Our third speaker on the panel was Genevieve Chia, a recruitment consultant from Law Alliance, an international legal recruitment firm. She gave the audience valuable insight into the marketability of lawyers to overseas jurisdictions such as Hong Kong, China, and the Middle East. At the same time, she advised the young lawyers to manage their expectations and to ensure that they devote time to build up the necessary experience in private practice.
The final speaker in this first session, was our Richard Wee, the KL Bar YLC Chairman. Richard informed the audience of the ongoing efforts of the Malaysian NYLC to carry out a survey on the young lawyers of Malaysia to obtain data on the general working conditions of the young lawyers and to measure the level of job satisfaction. With the results of such a survey, the NYLC could then engage in dialogues with both the Bar Council and the law firms.
We then broke for a quick tea session, where this young lawyer then took the opportunity to mingle and speak to some of the Singapore young lawyers. I had noticed a skew in the Singapore legal market towards larger and larger firms, while at the same time, small firms or sole proprietors were finding it especially difficult to survive. Speaking to a Singapore young lawyer who had established his own sole proprietorship about four years ago, after just one year into practice, he agreed that it took a great deal of courage to take the plunge and it was especially tough during the first year. However, he enjoyed his work thus far.
The second session then started with the chair of the panel, Francis Xavier. He co–heads the Commercial Litigation Practice Group of Rajah & Tann. Speaking on work–life balance, he stated that you must be committed enough to yourself to achieve this balance. You must make proper scheduling of your vacation time and also ensure that you have a daily balance of your time and shared some of the techniques that he used. Our next speaker Sylvia Lim, a law lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic, gave us a glimpse as to how the public perceived lawyers, whether good or bad, and how such perceptions were influenced through the mass media or through their own personal experiences with lawyers.
We then had the Honourable Judicial Commissioner Sundaresh Menon share with us the importance of legal pro bono work, and the initiatives the Law Society in Singapore was taking in working out a pro bono scheme. Our final speaker, Christopher De Souza, a Singapore young lawyer, emphasised that one must have passion for the work you do, as well as build up rapport with your clients.
After a final tea break, we then engaged in a short working group meeting, where the Malaysian National Young Lawyers Committee put forward two core proposals in order forge a closer working relationship between the two Bars. The first involved the ongoing plans for the survey to be carried out amongst the Malaysian young lawyers. Such a survey could be adapted to be used in Singapore as well, and both Committees could compare the results of a Malaysia–Singapore survey. With a copy of the survey, the representatives of the Singapore YLC agreed in principle, that they would bring this survey back to its YLC. Some appropriate changes could be made to the survey questions to fit the Singapore context, and such a survey would be important in creating a sense of awareness. The Singapore YLC did note however that apathy level amongst the young lawyers in Singapore could be a problem in filling up the survey.
The second proposal by the Malaysian NYLC was for an exchange programme between lawyers and/or pupils of both countries. The Singapore YLC was open to the idea, however, suggested that a more detailed proposal was required in order for it to take it up to its Council. It would have to detail the proposed practice areas, duration of the exchange, whether it was confined to only lawyers or included pupils, and the level of seniority of the lawyer. The Singapore YLC stated that there was a similar attachment programme which the National University of Singapore has with the Santa Clare University for a number of years now. A copy of the concept paper for this program would be passed to the Malaysian NYLC.
One further suggestion made by the Malaysian NYLC at this meeting was for the inclusion of a mini–column on the Malaysian Bar website, for Singapore young lawyers to contribute articles to.
With that, the Young Lawyers Forum 2006 came to a close. Our gracious hosts then brought us to the Ancient Civilization Museum for a wonderful buffet dinner, where young lawyers from both sides of the causeway continued to banter and strengthen our ties of friendship.
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