Elite Lawyers Spent Only 12 Days in Court Last Year
By K. C. Vijayan, Mavis Toh 4 January 2009
Each Senior Counsel spent, on average, just one day in the Court of Appeal last year and another 11 days arguing a trial in court.
This, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong said, differs greatly from other countries where Senior Counsel dominate appeal hearings.
In his speech at the opening of the legal year yesterday, CJ Chan also said he is deciding whether to put on the Supreme Court website and the Singapore Academy of Law website information about the amount of time each Senior Counsel spent in court.
He said clients looking to engage a Senior Counsel ‘should know whether the counsel they wish to retain are still active or have retired or are just tired’.
This is the second time Singapore’s head of judiciary has raised questions about the state of the elite group of lawyers in Singapore.
In January last year, he said in an interview with Inter Se, a Singapore Academy of Law publication, that lawyers awarded the coveted title may, in future, have to meet certain practice considerations to keep earning the right to use it.
The Senior Counsel scheme was started in 1997 to recognise the best and most skilful advocates in the profession, the same way top British lawyers become Queen’s Counsel. They are picked by a panel consisting of the CJ, the Attorney-General and two Court of Appeal judges.
Four more Senior Counsel were appointed yesterday, bringing the total to 53.
CJ Chan noted last January that a Senior Counsel appointment now was for life and did not require ‘regular re-appraisals or re-accreditation’.
He said Senior Counsel here seem to drift into corporate work rather than argue cases in court and fewer of them were being seen in court, thus leaving a fundamental purpose of the scheme unfulfilled.
The CJ said in the Inter Se article that he will set up a committee to see if there is a need to impose conditions for future appointments.
Asked about the lack of court appearances by Senior Counsel yesterday, Senior Counsel Vinodh Coomara- swamy, 44, said: ‘One reason is we are a fused profession and many of us don’t just do advocacy alone but are involved in strategising and preparatory work as well. We also do a lot of arbitration work and this involves advocacy which is not reflected in the court statistics.’
One of the newly appointed Senior Counsel, Mr. Ang Cheng Hock, said it could be a case of senior lawyers allowing younger ones to get more experience arguing in court.
Mr. Ang, 38, said: ‘I foresee that I’ll still be quite active as I have quite a number of cases to take care of this year. But whenever the opportunity arises, if younger lawyers are up to it, I’ll be more than happy to let them take over.’
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Elite Lawyers Spent Only 12 Days in Court Last Year
By K. C. Vijayan, Mavis Toh
4 January 2009
Each Senior Counsel spent, on average, just one day in the Court of Appeal last year and another 11 days arguing a trial in court.
This, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong said, differs greatly from other countries where Senior Counsel dominate appeal hearings.
In his speech at the opening of the legal year yesterday, CJ Chan also said he is deciding whether to put on the Supreme Court website and the Singapore Academy of Law website information about the amount of time each Senior Counsel spent in court.
He said clients looking to engage a Senior Counsel ‘should know whether the counsel they wish to retain are still active or have retired or are just tired’.
This is the second time Singapore’s head of judiciary has raised questions about the state of the elite group of lawyers in Singapore.
In January last year, he said in an interview with Inter Se, a Singapore Academy of Law publication, that lawyers awarded the coveted title may, in future, have to meet certain practice considerations to keep earning the right to use it.
The Senior Counsel scheme was started in 1997 to recognise the best and most skilful advocates in the profession, the same way top British lawyers become Queen’s Counsel. They are picked by a panel consisting of the CJ, the Attorney-General and two Court of Appeal judges.
Four more Senior Counsel were appointed yesterday, bringing the total to 53.
CJ Chan noted last January that a Senior Counsel appointment now was for life and did not require ‘regular re-appraisals or re-accreditation’.
He said Senior Counsel here seem to drift into corporate work rather than argue cases in court and fewer of them were being seen in court, thus leaving a fundamental purpose of the scheme unfulfilled.
The CJ said in the Inter Se article that he will set up a committee to see if there is a need to impose conditions for future appointments.
Asked about the lack of court appearances by Senior Counsel yesterday, Senior Counsel Vinodh Coomara- swamy, 44, said: ‘One reason is we are a fused profession and many of us don’t just do advocacy alone but are involved in strategising and preparatory work as well. We also do a lot of arbitration work and this involves advocacy which is not reflected in the court statistics.’
One of the newly appointed Senior Counsel, Mr. Ang Cheng Hock, said it could be a case of senior lawyers allowing younger ones to get more experience arguing in court.
Mr. Ang, 38, said: ‘I foresee that I’ll still be quite active as I have quite a number of cases to take care of this year. But whenever the opportunity arises, if younger lawyers are up to it, I’ll be more than happy to let them take over.’
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