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Law firms pledge to provide more chances for young lawyers

This article is more than 12 months old

Twenty-one law firms, including Drew & Napier and Tan Rajah & Cheah, have pledged to provide more opportunities for young lawyers to represent their clients in court.

An initiative of the Young Members Chapter under the Singapore Academy of Law's Professional Affairs Committee, the new scheme will see senior lawyers from the firms identify and give their young lawyers the chance to advocate at all stages of a proceeding as lead counsel.

The managing partners of the participating firms signed the pledge at the Supreme Court yesterday. This was witnessed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon.

The judiciary is also supporting the scheme by amending the Supreme Court's Practice Directions to require, among other things, a lead counsel to inform the court "as early as is practicable" whether the advocacy tasks for a trial or a hearing will be shared with junior counsel.

Lawyer Jordan Tan, 35, who co-leads the Young Members Chapter, said young lawyers who do not get the opportunity early on "might get jaded with just playing a supporting role and leave practice mid- career".

In his speech at the signing ceremony, Judge of Appeal Steven Chong, who chairs the Singapore Academy of Law's Professional Affairs Committee, said the unprecedented growth of the profession over the last two decades has come at a cost.

He said: "Almost as a default, clients would typically prefer to use the senior members of the litigation practices.

"This has unfortunately translated into a lack of opportunities for the younger members to cut their teeth in court and has in turn led to a diminishing pool of middle-tier advocates."

The Law Society of Singapore's website shows that 1,825 of the 5,191 practising lawyers last year had less than five years of practice.

The mid-tier lawyers with five to 15 years of experience numbered 1,045 while those with more than 15 years experience numbered 2,321.

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