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Singapore’s
languishing lawyers
Jed
Yoong
Asia Sentinel
19 Mar
08
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task...
Few
people want to be called to the bar in the Lion City
Although
many countries, particularly the United States, might look upon
it as a blessing, Singapore is facing a growing shortage of
lawyers and is trying to find ways to increase their numbers even
as they leave the profession in droves, driven out partly by low
pay, long hours and, critics say, a legal straitjacket that
prevents them from the effective practice of the law.
On
balance, only about 75 additional lawyers have been added to
Singapore’s legal system since 1999. According to the Law
Society of Singapore, some 3,401 lawyers were practicing in the
island republic in 1999. By March 2006, the last year for which
the Law Society maintains figures on its website, only 3,476
lawyers were practicing, a 2 percent increase despite an 11
percent rise in population to 4.4 million. Singapore has only one
lawyer per 1,136 people. By comparison, the state of California
in the United States, with a population of about 38 million –
a place many say is over-lawyered – has more than 200,000
lawyers, or 1 per 190 people, according to the state bar
association.
"I think the younger generation does
not fancy law as a subject anymore," said one lawyer. "They
prefer graphics and computer studies. The legal profession is
essentially a service industry. That means you get paid for hard
work and most Singaporeans I believe either prefer business or
government jobs, not dry boring stressful legal work."
Exorbitant legal costs also have caused litigants to
resort to other means of settling disputes, according to Gopalan
Singh, a longtime critic of the system who is now practicing law
in California. Legal aid, he says, is only available in criminal
cases for social welfare recipients. That has led to convicted
offenders who are appearing in High Court appeals without
lawyers. "People are resorting to unconventional methods to
settle scores, such as paying gangsters to recover debts,"
Gopalan says.
Singapore Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong
attributes the lack of lawyers to the low salaries and suggests
an upward review. Local media reported last year that junior
lawyers are paid more than double in Hong Kong, about S$11,650 a
month compared to about S$4,000 in Singapore. According to the
Singapore Department of Statistics, the average monthly income
among employed residents was S$6,830.
A doctorate in law
in Singapore takes anywhere from two to five years, according to
the National University of Singapore. At an average salary of
S$8,775 a month, the legal profession ranks 11th among
professions in Singapore, according to the Ministry of Manpower,
well behind such occupations as financial futures dealer, at
S$13,449 a month (although far above journalists, a profession
relatively despised by the Singapore government, and ranked 104th
at S$3,711 per month).
"Pay them well," Chan
said. "Greed works most of the time, even for the large
majority of people in affluent societies."
But there
are other reasons as well, says a Kuala Lumpur-based lawyer.
"Many of my lawyer friends there who have been in practice
for yonks (a long time) have very little work. Corporate work
goes mainly to the big connected firms, like those connected to
the (family of Singapore patriarch Lee Kuan Yew) or the bigger
names with lots of influence. The medium and smaller firms chase
after the scraps."
In addition, he says, Singapore’s
judicial system is so efficient that everything is done by email.
"That means documents and filing papers are done at
lightning speed. So when you strike an action you file in your
basic documents along with every other legal form from A to Z in
one go. Within two days you may get a trial date. All this speed
means fantastic stress for lawyers. Justice rushed is justice
denied."
While these are certainly reasons for a
languishing legal profession, the courts are probably at least a
partial cause of the hemorrhage, while lawyers say the
emasculation of the Law Society of Singapore in the mid 1980s has
contributed. Francis Seow, who became a vocal critic of Lee Kuan
Yew, was ultimately elected president of the law society in 1986
and ran for public office only to be arrested and accused, among
other things, of taking money from American political interests.
He fled the country but was later convicted in absentia of tax
evasion. It is not advisable, lawyers say, to practice any kind
of law that brings lawyers into conflict with the government. To
date, no major judgment has ever gone against them. To be sued in
Singapore is as good as being convicted.
The Singapore
government is attempting to address the issue with moves like
setting up a new law school within the Singapore Management
University, increasing the intake for the National University of
Singapore (NUS) law faculty and allowing foreign firms and
lawyers to practice in the country. Courses include business and
corporate law, intellectual property law, financial law and
regulation and a variety of others including a course in ethics
and social responsibility. The first students were accepted last
August.
Local media reported earlier this month that Law
Minister S Jayakumar is confident that the measures would "ease
the supply crunch. " He announced that he expects "an
almost 70 percent increase in the number of law graduates in two
to three years' time." He emphasized that "while we may
need more lawyers, I would like to stress that it cannot be at
the expense of quality."
The
question of quality is one that Gopalan Singh snorts at. "The
law is being routinely and blatantly abused for political
purposes," he wrote in his blog,
singaporedissident.blogspot.com.
Singapore, he says, "has turned into a lawless country, a
country run according to the pleasure of Lee Kuan Yew; not
according to law. A legal system where if you knew the identities
of the litigants, you can predict the outcome of the trial with
absolute accuracy. That is if Lee Kuan Yew or his family were
parties to an action, the outcome of the litigation is known even
before you step into court! Lee wins. Hapless opponent loses."
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