SINGAPORE, Jan 8 — To ensure that lawyers and law students remain up-to-date with their ethical obligations, a report by a working group has recommended that ethics modules become a mandatory part of the bar exam and in continuing education modules for lawyers.

Referencing the report in his speech at the opening of the legal year on Monday (Jan 8), Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said that the move, which is being considered by a standing committee of legal representatives from relevant agencies, would address “notable gaps” in ethics education within the profession.

These gaps include young lawyers who may be exempted from Part B of the bar examinations, which lists ethics as a compulsory subject.

This typically applies to students who are admitted to practise here with an approved law degree from a recognised Singapore university, and have at least two years of relevant legal training.

“Each practitioner must have a strong foundation of legal ethics... Ethics education must be a mandatory component of continuous learning,” said Chief Justice Menon, who said he accepted the recommednations.

His address also touched on moves to bring in initiatives relating to other aspects of the legal profession.

These include simplifying the process for civil and family court proceedings as well as recommendations on the reform of legal education to support Singapore’s aspirations for the legal services sector.

Strengthen ethical and professional standards

The legal profession has faced some ethical issues in recent years.

In April 2022, 11 trainee lawyers were found to have cheated in the Part B Bar exams in 2020, which graduates have to pass in order to be qualified to practise law in Singapore.

At the opening of the last legal year, the Chief Justice had spoken about the need to re-affirm values and ethical standards for legal practice so that Singapore could thrive as an excellent centre for law.

In his address then, he brought up how the pandemic had caused the loss of mentoring opportunities which could have some serious and lasting ramifications, including “a degradation in ethics and professional standards”.

He referred to the rise in disciplinary tribunals then where there seemed to be a drop in client care standards, poor professional standards, and a disregard for the court process.

To guard against this, he established the Ethics and Professional Standards Committee, co-chaired by Justice Valerie Thean and Senior Counsel Jimmy Yim, to study this issue and develop a strategy aimed at re-establishing the moral centre and values of the profession.

“The committee has done much work last year — conducting focus group discussions with the wider legal community to better understand the issues, analysing statistics of complaints made to the Law Society, and commissioned a survey of young lawyers,” said Chief Justice Menon.

While disciplinary violations have risen from 2018 to 2022, the number is still quite small in comparison with the growing numbers of legal professionals, he said.

The majority of these cases concern professional standards issue which can often be addressed with training and mentorship.

Of complaints filed between Sept 1, 2018, and Aug 31, 2020, more than 70 per cent were dismissed.

Despite the Chief Justice noting that this suggests the legal profession is in reasonably good ethical health, more can be done.

“Accordingly, ethics education should be a focus beginning in law school, continuing in Part A and Part B of the qualifying process, and on through the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme, certification programmes, and specialist accreditation schemes.

“It must be a mandatory component of continuous learning,” he said.

Part A and B refers to the exams, legal training and practice training that a law graduate will need to undertake to qualify for the bar.

Among the recommendations is a new Ethics Line managed by the Law Society, with support from senior lawyers including members of the Senior Counsel Forum, to provide a less formal but more responsive guidance on the ethical issues that lawyers may face.

Reform of legal education

Addressing how the legal education and training regime needs to meet the modern demands of legal practice, Chief Justice Menon highlighted a report prepared by the Working Group for the Reform of Legal Education, co-chaired by Justice Audrey Lim and Permanent Secretary of Law Luke Goh.

Some of the key recommendations the Chief Justice referred to included how professional ethics and conduct standards need to be a part of the mandatory law school curriculum.

“Law schools should continue to expressly teach professional ethics and conduct standards in the context of legal practice through discrete modules and/or as applied ethics within existing substantive law course,” said the report.

Another key recommendation is making legal internships compulsory for all Singapore law school students.

“This is especially given that the practice of law is increasingly multi-disciplinary and cannot be fully conveyed through law modules in school.

“Experiential learning in this form would allow students to make better informed career decisions about entering the legal profession, and even if a student does not eventually enter the legal profession, the internship would have given them the opportunity to acquire some soft skills for work readiness,” the report said.

Other recommendations include broadening the law curriculum to equip law students with substantive civil law concepts, strengthen essential skills to meet client’s requirements, and institutionalise exposure to legal work in the public sector.

A Standing Committee will be established to guide the implementation of the recommendations.

This committee will comprise a number of key representatives which include the Judiciary, law schools, the Singapore Institute of Legal Education, the Law Society of Singapore, the Singapore Academy of Law, the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association, and relevant government agencies.

No appointment of senior counsel

Chief Justice Menon also addressed the appointment of senior counsel, stating that the selection committee had decided that it would not appoint any for this year.

“As the appointment opens the door to many opportunities including the practice of advocacy at international forums, we have also refined the appointment criteria, as part of our continuing effort to ensure that the persons we appoint compare favourably with international counterparts,” he said.

Moving forward, greater emphasis will be placed on an applicant’s work that has contributed to the development of Singapore law, and on their contributions to the profession.

Senior counsel are appointed once a year by a committee that includes the Chief Justice, Attorney-General and various judges.

According to the Singapore Academy of Law’s website, the appointment is “an accolade given to those who possess outstanding ability as advocates, extensive knowledge of the law and the highest professional standing”.

Family justice initiatives

To continue efforts to better provide access to justice in the Family Justice Courts (FJC), the new Family Justice Rules are slated to come into effect in 2024.

The rules have a simplified structure to ease navigation and also adopt a simpler terminology which will be especially useful for individuals representing themselves in court.

Under the rules, more commonly used court forms will also be completely digitalised with a step-by-step process with guides to prompt users on what they need to submit.

FJC aims to also introduce a triage process to apply a therapeutic, problem-solving approach to fresh divorce and guardianship matters.

“This will help to identify high-needs and high-conflict cases early, and these will be typically handled by a multi-disciplinary team, comprising the hearing judge, a mediator and a counsellor or psychologist,” said Chief Justice Menon.

The aim is to find durable solutions addressing the particular needs of each case through a firm judge-led process and help avoid unnecessary court proceedings and the escalation of acrimony.

Civil justice initiatives

Another key move is to extend the simplified process for Magistrate’s Courts to District Court proceedings, which will allow individuals to disclose their documents upfront with early and active case management that will not only help save time and costs but enhance access to justice.

This is in addition to a possible implementation of an express track scheme for a more expedited resolution to civil proceedings.

Cost guidelines for civil cases at the District Courts are also being developed to promote transparency on the likely costs that will be awarded.

“The Singapore Mediation Centre also introduces a new alternative civil dispute resolution service known as the Integraf or the Integrated Appropriate Dispute Resolution Framework.

“This will enable parties to apply one or more dispute resolution solutions, such as mediation and neutral evaluation, to different aspects of a dispute,” said Chief Justice Menon.

Integraf will be suitable for civil proceedings involving long-term complex commercial projects with multiple stakeholders and international or cross border contracts across various industries which include building and construction, technology and infrastructure, and joint ventures.

Mandatory check-ins for prosecutors handling death penalty cases: attorney-general

Another speaker at the opening of the legal year, Attorney-General Lucien Wong touched on how the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) has helped its officers engage in self-care in an effort to ensure a “fair, thriving, resilient and united” legal service.

Among the initiatives launched by the AGC is the establishment of a Resiliency Team, led by an in-house psychologist.

“Having our own in-house psychologist means that we have a mental well-being professional who is available to provide direct support to our officers, and develop a more comprehensive approach to address the needs that may arise,” said Mr Wong.

He added that prosecutors who are handling cases involving the death penalty are some who are scheduled for mandatory check-ins with the in-house psychologist.

AGC also established the Crime Resiliency Team and Ombudspersons Team to provide additional avenues for support, should officers require a listening ear.

The Crime Resiliency Team is made up of AGC officers who receive training as para-counsellors so that they are equipped to act as the first line of support when prosecutors are faced with traumatic incidents during work.

Addressing why the AGC is focusing on prosecutors, Mr Wong said that these are the individuals who are most exposed to the trauma of victims, and to the mental health and social issues faced by accused persons.

“It is therefore important that we support our prosecutors’ mental well-being, by de-stigmatising mental health issues and encouraging the seeking of help for such issues.” — TODAY