Non-practising lawyers also play role in upholding trust in legal system, rule of law: Chief Justice

All lawyers, even non-practising ones who do not appear in court, play a crucial role in the healthy functioning of the rule of law, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said on April 21.

Missteps or errors of judgment can affect public trust and confidence in legal professionals and in the legal system as a whole, he said.

A non-practising lawyer cannot appear in court or give advice to clients, but can take different career pathways, such as joining a company as in-house counsel or going into academia.

Chief Justice Menon emphasised the need to uphold trust in the legal profession, given that the concept of the rule of law has come under notable strain in recent times.

He was speaking on April 21 to the first cohort of lawyers to be admitted to the Bar as non-practising lawyers under a new framework that provides greater career flexibility for law graduates.

Previously, law graduates had to pass the Bar exam and complete six months of practice training at a law firm before they could be admitted to the Bar as practising lawyers.

Under the new framework, law graduates can be admitted to the Bar as non-practising lawyers after passing the Bar exam.

Only those who wish to become practising lawyers have to undergo a period of practice training, which has now been lengthened to a year.

In his speech, Chief Justice Menon said the new framework was part of a more intentional and structured approach to the way young lawyers undergo training.

He traced the framework to the report of a committee that was set up in 2016 to review the professional training regime for young lawyers. One of the committee’s key structural recommendations was to separate admission to the Bar from the completion of a practice training contract.

Chief Justice Menon said this provides law graduates with greater flexibility over their career paths.

The other recommendations were to raise the standard and stringency of the Bar exam, and to lengthen the practice training period from six months to a year.

He noted that the Law Society of Singapore and the Singapore Academy of Law have also been working on initiatives to help young lawyers build successful, sustainable and fulfilling careers.

While the new professional training regime represents a fundamental systemic change, Chief Justice Menon emphasised that non-practising lawyers remain officers of the court who play a role in the administration of justice.

In carrying out this role, they owe an overriding duty to the court, to the standards of the profession and to the public, he said.

He demonstrated this in the context of the in-house counsel community, which comprises a sizeable group numbering about 4,800 as at April 2024.

In comparison, the number of lawyers in private practice stood at 6,348 in 2024.

Chief Justice Menon said in-house counsel can have a very direct impact on the day-to-day operations of the entities that they work in.

“The advice they give and the decisions they make – or, indeed, fail to make – have the real potential to impact not only their companies, but also society at large,” he said.

He gave two examples from other countries to illustrate the point.

The first involved a scandal over an information technology system used in post offices across Britain, which inaccurately recorded losses and missing money at branches.

Over the years, the faulty system resulted in hundreds of post office operators being convicted of offences such as theft, fraud and false accounting.

In an unprecedented move, the British government passed a law in 2024 to quash the convictions of those who had been wrongly convicted.

Chief Justice Menon said questions have been raised about whether lawyers, in particular the in-house team, should have acted when it became clear that errors in the IT system could have accounted for the monetary shortfalls.

He also gave the example of a scandal in Australia over the Robodebt scheme, an automated system that was designed to recover overpayments to social welfare recipients.

It was later revealed that the system not only produced inaccurate results, but was also not programmed in compliance with the relevant statutory provisions.

A royal commission tasked to investigate the scheme found that the “professional independence” of the in-house legal teams at the relevant government agencies was “compromised”.

Chief Justice Menon said incidents like these can clearly potentially damage and destabilise trust in the legal profession and, indeed, in the rule of law.

“More than ever, there is a need for all of us – lawyers and judges alike – to work towards securing the trust and confidence of the communities we serve, so as to ensure the continued relevance and vitality of the rule of law,” he said.

More than 350 lawyers were slated to be admitted to the Bar over three sessions on April 21 and 22.

Selina Lum is senior law correspondent at The Straits Times.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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