Monday 29 December 2008
Convicted Lawyer’s Best Christmas Gift: Getting Re-Employed
Choy Chee Yean, a veteran arbitration lawyer who was convicted of stealing from a Hong Kong hotel room, received his best Christmas gift yesterday. Choy’s former employer Rajah & Tann LLP has re-employed him as a legal executive. However, in this new position, he can only handle administrative work and not legal matters.
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Convicted Lawyer’s Best Christmas Gift: Getting Re-Employed
Poh Lay Hoon, Lianhe Zaobao
25 December 2008
Choy Chee Yean, a veteran arbitration lawyer who was convicted of stealing from a Hong Kong hotel room, received his best Christmas gift yesterday. Choy’s former employer Rajah & Tann LLP has re-employed him as a legal executive. However, in this new position, he can only handle administrative work and not legal matters.
Rajah & Tann’s application to re-employ Choy was submitted to High Court judge Woo Bih Li on Christmas Eve yesterday and approved.
This is a rare instance in which a local law firm has rehired a lawyer who has broken the law in a foreign country.
Representing Rajah & Tann in submitting the application was the firm’s Senior Partner and Senior Counsel Sundaresh Menon.
He told Lianhe Zaobao: “We are very happy to receive the court order today allowing us to reemploy Choy Chee Yean to fill a non-practising post. We have been supportive of him all along and we offer our sincere best wishes to him and his family for his re-employment and starting a new life.”
It is understood that Choy Chee Yean will start work next month. Lianhe Zaobao was unable to contact him yesterday.
Choy Chee Yean, originally a partner at Rajah & Tann, specialised in arbitration, engineering and commercial law and was earning an annual salary of around $700,000. He was an important member of Menon’s team and had worked with him on numerous arbitration cases.
He did not renew his license to practice law upon returning to Singapore in April this year after being found guilty and subsequently resigned from Rajah & Tann.
Choy Chee Yean had been suffering from a major depressive disorder due to overwhelming work pressure over the past few years and the theft he committed was confirmed to be the result of abnormal behaviour associated with the condition.
Lianhe Zaobao examined the application document, which quoted Choy’s psychiatrist as saying that getting a job can help Choy Chee Yean in his long-term recovery. Long-term joblessness would have had an adverse effect on his self-esteem.
Therefore, Rajah & Tann hopes that the new administrative position, which was tailored for Choy Chee Yean, would help him in his recovery.
The law firm intends to deploy Choy in managing its database of expert witnesses and lawyers and assisting other lawyers to check for information. He will not be tasked to meet clients or handle their funds.
Choy Chee Yean will report directly to Managing Partner and Senior Counsel Steven Chong as well as Senior Partner and Senior Counsel Sundaresh Menon. The two Senior Counsels will be responsible for supervising Choy Chee Yean’s duties at work.
The document mentioned that: “The law firm believes that by providing a familiar and friendly environment for Choy Chee Yean to work at his own pace using his legal knowledge, this will help him regain his confidence in the long run.”
Deputy Solicitor-General Jeffrey Chan and lawyer Tan Yanhao represented the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Law Society of Singapore respectively in the court application.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Chambers told Lianhe Zaobao that Rajah & Tann has applied for consent to employ Choy Chee Yean as a legal executive under certain conditions, which includes him not performing duties exclusive to lawyers or presenting himself as being able to handle a lawyer’s work.
The spokesperson said: “The Attorney General’s Chambers accepts the conditions proposed by Rajah & Tann. However, only the High Court can decide whether Choy Chee Yean can be re-employed. If the High Court approves the application by the law firm, Choy Chee Yean will be employed as a legal executive.”
A spokesperson for the Law Society said: “The Law Society does not object to the employment of Choy Chee Yean by Rajah & Tann in accordance with the conditions listed in the court order.”
Sundaresh Menon was a partner at US law firm Jones Day and was appointed Judicial Commissioner in April 2006 before being made Senior Counsel in January this year. Sources say Choy Chee Yean was Menon’s assistant while he was at Jones Day. Menon joined Rajah & Tann in early April last year, a year following his appointment as Judicial Commissioner. His legal team at Jones Day, including Choy, followed him to Rajah & Tann.
Stole while on a business trip to Hong Kong
Choy Chee Yean was arrested for stealing electronic items from the room of another guest while staying at the Novotel Citygate Hong Kong hotel during a business trip in January 17 this year. He was thought to have acted irrationally due to overwhelming work pressure.
Choy later pleaded guilty to stealing items which included a bag, PDA, cellphone, iPod, Bluetooth earpiece and battery charger. The stolen items were worth a total of HKD9,500 (approximately $1,664).
The Hong Kong judge accepted the testimonies of two psychiatrists in April 22 this year which showed that Choy had been suffering from clinical depression for three years before committing the offence and the theft he committed was the result of abnormal behaviour associated with the condition. He was given a suspended 12-month sentence due to his lack of prior convictions and avoided going to jail.
The judge also said that he hopes Choy will seek treatment after returning to Singapore and stressed that he will have to serve out the one-year sentence for the original offence if he commits another crime in Hong Kong within two years.
Choy Chee Yean returned to Singapore on April 23 this year and immediately wrote a letter to inform the Law Society about the circumstances surrounding the incident. He has been receiving mental and psychological treatments.
“The Attorney General’s Chambers accepts the conditions proposed by Rajah & Tann. However, only the High Court can decide whether Choy Chee Yean can be re-employed. If the High Court approves the application by the law firm, Choy Chee Yean will be employed as a legal executive.”
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