SINGAPORE, Jan 8 — To ensure that lawyers and law students remain up to date with ethical obligations, a working group’s report makes ethics modules a mandatory part of bar examinations and continuing education modules for lawyers. He recommended that.
Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon referred to the report in his opening speech for the statutory year on Monday (8 January), saying the measures, which are being considered by a standing committee of statutory representatives of relevant agencies, were “noticeable”. It is intended to address the “gap”. In ethics education within the profession.
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These gaps include young lawyers who may be exempt from Part B of the bar exam, which lists ethics as a required subject.
This typically applies to students who have completed a law degree from a recognized university in Singapore and have completed at least two years of relevant legal training.
Chief Justice Menon said he accepted the recommendation, saying, “Each practitioner must have a strong foundation in legal ethics…Ethics education must be an essential element of continuous learning.”
His speech also touched on moves to introduce initiatives related to other aspects of the legal profession.
These include recommendations on simplifying civil and family court procedures and reforming legal education to support Singapore’s legal services sector aspirations.
Strengthen ethical and professional standards
The legal profession has faced several ethical issues in recent years.
In April 2022, 11 trainee lawyers were found to have cheated on the 2020 Part B bar exam. This exam must be passed by graduates in order to qualify as a barrister in Singapore.
At the beginning of last legal year, the Chief Justice spoke of the need to reaffirm the values and ethical standards in the practice of law so that Singapore can thrive as a center of legal excellence.
In his speech at the time, he highlighted how the pandemic has disrupted leadership opportunities and could have serious and lasting effects, including “deteriorating ethical and professional standards.”
He referred to the proliferation of disciplinary tribunals at the time, which he said showed poor standards of care for clients, inadequate professional standards and a disregard for the court process.
To prevent this, he established an Ethics and Professional Standards Commission, co-chaired by Judge Valerie Thean and Senior Counsel Jimmy Yim, to study the issue and re-establish the moral center and values of the profession. A strategy was developed with the aim of
“Over the last year, the Commission has carried out focus group discussions with the wider legal community to better understand the issues, analyzed statistics on complaints made to the Law Society, commissioned a survey of junior lawyers and much more. ,” Chief Justice Menon said.
Although disciplinary violations increased from 2018 to 2022, the number is still quite small compared to the growing number of legal professionals, he said.
The majority of these cases concern professional standards issues, which can often be addressed through training and guidance.
More than 70 percent of complaints filed between September 1, 2018 and August 31, 2020 were dismissed.
The Chief Justice noted that this suggests the legal profession’s ethical health is fairly good, but more can be done.
“Therefore, ethics education should start at law school, continue through Parts A and B of the qualification process, and be a focus through continuing professional development (CPD) schemes, certificate programs and professional certification schemes.
“It has to be an essential element of continuous learning,” he said.
Part A and Part B refer to the exams, legal training, and on-the-job training that law graduates must take to qualify for the bar exam.
Among the recommendations: the Law Society, with the support of senior lawyers, including members of the Senior Lawyers Forum, to provide less formal but more immediate guidance on ethical issues that lawyers may face. Includes new ethical lines to manage.
Reform of legal education
Chief Justice Menon discussed how legal education and training systems need to respond to the demands of modern legal practice, and spoke to the Legal Education Reform Working Group, co-chaired by Justice Audrey Lim and Deputy Attorney General Luke Goh. highlighted the report prepared by .
Key recommendations mentioned by the Secretary included how professional ethics and standards of conduct should be incorporated as part of the compulsory curriculum of law schools.
“Law schools should continue to explicitly teach professional ethics and standards of conduct relevant to the practice of law, through separate modules and/or as applied ethics within existing substantive law courses,” the report states. There is.
Another important recommendation is to make legal internships compulsory for all students at law schools in Singapore.
“This is particularly given that legal practice is increasingly multidisciplinary and cannot be adequately conveyed in school law modules.
“This form of experiential learning allows students to make better-informed career decisions about entering the legal profession, and even if a student does not end up in the legal profession, the internship will help them “This would have given them the opportunity to acquire soft skills to prepare them for employment,” the report said.
Other recommendations include expanding the legal curriculum to equip law students with substantive civil law concepts, strengthening essential skills to meet client requirements, and institutionalizing exposure to legal work in the public sector. This includes conversion, etc.
A standing committee will be established to guide implementation of the recommendations.
The committee comprises a number of key representatives including the judiciary, law schools, the Singapore Institute of Law Education, the Law Society of Singapore, the Singapore Law Academy, the Singapore Institute of Corporate Advisers, and relevant government agencies.
No senior advisor appointed
Chief Justice Menon also addressed the appointment of senior public prosecutors and said the selection committee had decided not to appoint a senior public prosecutor this year.
He said: “This appointment opens the door to many opportunities, including practicing advocacy in international forums, so we are confident that the person we appoint will compare favorably with their international counterparts. As part of our continued efforts to ensure this, we have also refined our appointment criteria.”
From now on, more emphasis will be placed on the applicant’s achievements that have contributed to the development of Singaporean law and their contribution to the profession.
Senior prosecutors are appointed once a year by a committee that includes the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, and various judges.
According to the Singapore Law Academy’s website, the appointment is “an honor bestowed upon a person with outstanding ability as an advocate, extensive knowledge of the law and the highest professional standing”.
Commitment to family justice
Continuing efforts to improve access to justice in the Family Courts (FJC), new Family Justice Regulations will come into force in 2024.
The Rules have a simplified structure for ease of navigation and also adopt simpler terminology that is particularly useful for individuals defending themselves in court.
Under the rules, more commonly used court forms will also be fully digitalized, with a step-by-step process with guides instructing users on what they need to submit.
FJC also aims to introduce a triage process to apply a therapeutic and problem-solving approach to new divorce and guardianship matters.
“This helps identify high-need and high-conflict cases early on, and these cases are typically handled by multidisciplinary teams consisting of trial judges, mediators, counselors or psychologists. ” said Chief Justice Menon.
The aim is to find durable solutions that address the specific needs of each case through a robust judge-led process, avoiding unnecessary court proceedings and escalation of accusations.
Approach to civil justice
Another important move is to extend the streamlined process in magistrates’ courts to local court proceedings, allowing individuals to proactively disclose documents with early and proactive case management. This not only helps save time and money, but also enhances access to justice.
This is in addition to the possible introduction of an Express Track scheme aimed at faster resolution of civil cases.
Cost guidelines for civil litigation in local courts have also been developed to promote transparency in costs that may be awarded.
“Singapore Mediation Center is also introducing a new alternative civil dispute resolution service known as Integraph or the Integrated Appropriate Dispute Resolution Framework.
Chief Justice Menon said: “This allows parties to apply one or more dispute resolution methods, such as mediation or neutral assessment, to different aspects of a dispute.”
Integraph is well-suited for long-term, complex commercial projects involving multiple stakeholders, as well as civil litigation involving international or cross-border contracts across a variety of industries, including architecture and construction, technology and infrastructure, and joint ventures. I am.
Forced check-in with prosecutors handling death penalty cases: Attorney General
Attorney-General Lucien Wong, another speaker at the start of the legal year, said the Attorney-General’s Chamber (AGC) has been calling on staff to ensure a “fair, prosperous, resilient and unified” justice system. We touched on how we have supported self-care in the past. service.
One of the initiatives initiated by AGC is the establishment of a resilience team led by an in-house psychologist.
“Having an in-house psychologist means we have a mental health professional who can provide direct support to executives and develop a more holistic approach to addressing any needs that may arise. ,” Wong said.
He added that some prosecutors working on cases involving the death penalty are scheduled for mandatory testing by in-house psychologists.
The AGC has also established a Crime Recovery Team and an Ombudsperson Team to provide additional support when officers need a listening ear.
The Crime Recovery Team is made up of AGC personnel trained as para-counselors to act as first aid when prosecutors are faced with traumatic incidents in the line of duty.
Explaining why the AGC focuses on prosecutors, Wong said prosecutors are the ones most exposed to the trauma of victims and the mental health and social issues faced by defendants. .
“Therefore, it is important to support the mental health of prosecutors by removing the stigma around mental health issues and encouraging them to seek help for such issues.” – Today