Project Law Care is an initiative by the Law Awareness Committee to reach out to the elderly regarding legal matters. This consisted of a fact-finding session and legal clinic at Assisi Hospice and Ren Ci Nursing Home, as well as a Law Care Conference.  Students from NUS Pro Bono and SMU were involved in each of the events.

As Project Law Care drew to a close, we received thoughts and reflections from our members on their experience of volunteering with the elderly:

“The elderly client I spoke to while fact-finding told us that she had been thinking of settling a will and an AMD for some time, but put it off for a long time because legal services were costly. “

“Whether watching the residents laugh during the games, or sitting in as they received help from the volunteer lawyers, we were reminded of how privileged we are both as people and as law students – and how much we can do.”

Read on for more:

Chua Zhi Wei, 1st year law student

During the Law Awareness visits to Ren Ci Nursing Home, the volunteers helped out at events such as pre-clinic interview sessions with the old folks at Ren Ci Hospital, followed by the Legal Clinics. During the interview sessions, we took down notes pertaining to each client’s case, which would then be passed on to lawyers handling the cases during the Legal Clinics. At the clinics, we facilitated the discussion between the clients and lawyers regarding their cases. We also aimed to educate elderly folks on their basic legal rights through the performance of a skit. For myself, I was more involved with helping to conduct games and karaoke sessions for the elderly residents of the home during the second visit.

Jian Kai with the mic

The visits drove home a message that I felt was rather important—as mentioned by a lawyer who spoke to us at the clinics, it could be easy in the course of our careers to lose sight of the purpose of our work. Legal private practice has become commercialised that we could become conditioned into thinking that working is for the profits, the remunerations, and the favours of our bosses. Years of toiling in firms could make us so jaded that we may forget how privileged we are to possess legal knowledge, and how to use it to “better society” as many of us once so innocently proclaimed. The Law Awareness campaigns by the Law Society seems to be a good reminder that there is indeed a way we can put our knowledge to good use to better society. The elderly client I spoke to while fact-finding told us that she had been thinking of settling a will and an AMD for some time, but put it off for a long time because legal services were costly. Being able to help (albeit still in a very small way currently), was something I found meaningful, and will continue to find meaningful in the future.

Chan Yun Wen Charmaine, 1st year law student

Project Law Care 2011 saw students from the Pro Bono Group visit Ren Ci Nursing Home, first for a preliminary fact-finding session and later for Law Care Clinic. At the first session, we registered residents and their family members for the Law Care Clinic and interviewed them to ascertain what legal issues they needed help with. Topics they raised ranged from more straightforward ones like CPF transfers to complicated cases involving competing wills and advanced medical directives.

Karaoke in Session!

At the Law Care Clinic event, a games and karaoke session for the residents was held concurrently with the legal clinic. RELAC started us off with a skit. We interacted closely with the resident throughout: first wheeling them from their wards, then playing games like Pass-the-Parcel with them before accompanying them in singing karaoke. Meanwhile, half the students were involved in the running of the legal clinic. They had the benefit of listening in on the advice offered by lawyers as well as the opportunity to speak with them. Whether watching the residents laugh during the games, or sitting in as they received help from the volunteer lawyers, we were reminded of how privileged we are both as people and as law students – and how much we can do.

Taking a break.

Kwek Linli, 1st year law student

As part of the NUS Pro bono Club, a group of 5 of us went down to SMU on the early morning of 1^st October 2011. Our role was to act as support crew with a couple other SMU students for the event. The conference was about encouraging the elderly to prepare for legal issues they would face as their time drew near. Other than the stakeholders such as the voluntary welfare organisations and the hospices, there were also judges and registrars invited. We had the rare opportunity to see Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, who was there to make the opening speech. It was pretty ironic that the SMU Year 1 students had been mugging in the library for a Spandeck Test that same day!

Image Credits: Singapore Law Society

The following presentations were of a candid and largely informal nature. Besides a short presentation on the medical aspect of aging (such as symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease), there were also presentations by the Office of the Public Guardian and the Commissioner for the Maintenance of Parents on their work and a simple overview of the application processes. These were rounded off by a short talk on the importance and advantages of creating a will, which tied in with the themes of legal guardianship and the social redistribution of assets.

After a short break, the audience was split up into three concurrent sessions and we went to the session concerning liabilities for caregivers. Amongst the panel were familiar faces such as Mr Lim Tanguy, Director of Pro Bono Services and Mr Cyril Chua who had graced our Pro Bono Seminars a few weeks earlier. The session largely revolved around the avenues for free legal advice for both individuals and corporate bodies, as well as the various ways for volunteer work organisations as well as caregiving homes to manage their contractual, tortious and statutory liability.

It was an interesting session because the dialogue with the practitioners and social organisations showed us how our classroom doctrines applied to the real world (with varying degrees of ease). To some of us, it was almost like a tutorial when members of the audience asked for advice based on their individual experiences, almost like the factual scenarios but with much more nuance and realism. The members of the panel showed great clarity and directness in handling these issues, which reminded us that at the end of the day, lawyers provide services to laymen who have little grasp of legal issues and need to understand their options simply and quickly in order to act on pressing problems. Giving them a clear picture of their possible solutions creates confidence in lawyers as well as improve accessibility to the judicial system.

Related Links:

Before We Forget - a youth-led initiative to foster conversations about dementia in Asia, and is supported by the Lien Foundation’s Life Before Death campaign.

Image Credits: anankkml / FreeDigitalPhotos.net and Singapore Law Society

Through a simple majority of the valid votes, we welcome

Thiam Jia Min as Liaison Officer in charge of RELAC (Liaison), and

Heidi Tan as RELAC Co-Head in charge of RELAC (Northlight).

We thank all members for participating in the voting process.

The welcome session started off with an opening address by our President, Chan Yi Cheng, where an overview of the Group was provided. The freshmen were introduced to the various milestones of the Group as well as the current members of the Executive Committee. Next, the project Heads took the stand and briefed the freshmen on the requirements of their respective projects and shared their myriad experiences while on the job.

After the talks, the freshmen mingled with the seniors over a spread of delicious food and drinks contributing to a lively atmosphere in the room. Lines formed as the freshmen queued to sign up for the various projects in which they were interested in.

In all, 150 students signed up across 6 projects as well as to be part of the Events and Publicity committees. It was a good start to the academic year of 2011/2012.

[Erratum: We previously posted that 79 students signed up for the projects. The correct figure is 150 students.]

This Seminar Series is an initiative to gather both young and experienced lawyers together to discuss various issues concerning the local pro bono scene. At the heart of providing pro bono services lies in making justice accessible to all, and thus ensuring that the legal system does not become a rich man’s game.

All law students are invited to sign up at  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDBwSkJUaU9LN1NMdEVKUzNHd1M1TVE6MQ and join us in a pre-seminar discussion on the Seminar Facebook page.

There are 2 seminars in this series:

Seminar 1 –  DOING GOOD While DOING WELL

7 September 2011

1 – 3pm

SR-3

What does it mean to ‘do good’ while ‘doing well’ in practice? We will be focusing on 2 key issues:

1.The challenges faced by lawyers in juggling practice and pro bono work, from the perspectives of young and experienced lawyers and from law firms ranging from small, medium to large-sized firms.

2.Whether doing good while doing well should be a compulsory part of each and every lawyer’s work-life balance.
I.e. Should pro bono work be mandatory?

Speakers:

Mr. Lim Tanguy, Director of the Law Society Pro Bono Services Office (Moderator)

Lim Tanguy is the Director of the Law Society Pro Bono Services Office which administers all of the Law Society of Singapore’s free legal assistance schemes for individuals and non profit organizations. Its mandate is also to promote a vibrant and dynamic culture of volunteering among lawyers in Singapore. Prior to joining the Law Society, Tanguy was a practising lawyer for 12 years. He currently serves on the policy committee of “The Light”, Singapore’s cross sector non profit leadership network.

Mr. N. Sreenivasan, Managing Director, Straits Law Practice LLC

Sreeni is presently a member of the Pro Bono and Learning Services Management Committee of the Law Society and its Pro Bono Ambassador for 2011. He has piously served as Chairman of the Law Awareness Committee and the Law Help Committee. Sreeni is also a past Treasurer, ExCo member and Council member of the Law Society.

Sreeni is a litigation lawyer with and managing director of Straits Law Practice LLC. He claims no area of special knowledge and enjoys learning, from case to case.

Mr. Chan Hian Young, Partner, Allen & Gledhill LLP

Hian Young graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1986. Prior to joining Allen & Gledhill in 1993 and practising as a litigation lawyer, he was in the Singapore Legal Service.
He is in charge of A&G’s pro bono programme, which was formally launched in January 2008.

The focus of A&G’s pro bono programme is charities. Most of the pro bono initiatives in Singapore are targeted at helping individuals. The firm believes that there is a need for pro bono assistance and support for charities and that one way to help individuals is to help charities that help them. It is an area in which the firm has the expertise to advise and assist. A&G has one equity partner (Hian Young) and one associate working full-time on the firm’s pro bono programme and they are supported by volunteers whenever needed. Charities have been in the limelight recently and A&G advises them on governance, fundraising regulations and other matters. Further, the firm helps international charities to set up a presence in Singapore in response to the Singapore government’s plans to make Singapore a philanthropic hub. In addition to helping charities, A&G also helps individuals through existing pro bono initiatives: the firm’s lawyers volunteer at the Law Society’s Community Legal Clinics (advising individuals who may not otherwise be able to afford legal advice) and the Subordinate Courts’ HELP Centre (helping litigants-in-persons); the firm’s lawyers also take on criminal cases through the Law Society’s Criminal Legal Aid Scheme and civil cases involving points of law or complex facts from the Legal Aid Bureau, charging only disbursements.

In his role as the partner in charge of A&G’s pro bono programme, Hian Young oversees the administration and undertakes the legal work as well. The purpose of having a full-time pro bono partner is to provide continuity and depth whereas the volunteers provide breadth of participation.

Ms. June Lim, Associate, Eldan Law LLP

June is currently an Associate at Eldan Law LLP, and a member of the Law Society’s Law Awareness and CLAS Committees. She is also a former President of the NUS Pro Bono Group and spent the best years of her law school life being involved in various pro bono initiatives. June now juggles practice, pro bono work, sleep and a social life all at the same time, and can only claim to do two out of four well at any one time.

Seminar 2 – Doing Good Well

14 September 2011

1-3pm

SR-3

What does it mean to do pro bono work with high service standards, professionalism and passion?
Distinguished lawyers are invited to discuss the challenges faced by lawyers in each area of law (eg family law, criminal law etc) and how each lawyer overcomes these challenges to serve with pride and dignity.

Speakers:

Mr. Thio Shen Yi  SC, TSMP Law Corporation

Shen Yi is the Joint Managing Director and Head Dispute Resolution at TSMP Law Corporation, a medium sized commercial law practice. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1991 and was called to the Singapore Bar in 1993. His areas of practice include corporate and commercial disputes, financial and securities litigation, construction and engineering law, restructuring and insolvency, and disputes involving Information Technology projects. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2008. He is active in Law Society, Singapore Academy of Law and Singapore Institute of Legal Education committees; and served as a Council member of the Law Society for 4 years.
TSMP believes that giving back to the community contributes to the foundation of a responsible and ethically driven practice. The focus of TSMP’s community efforts are Community Outreach programmes for children, the sick and the old; Pro Bono programmes; and charitable giving. To this end, a certain percentage of shareholder profits are irrevocably earmarked every year to support these initiatives or to be donated to charities supported by TSMP. In respect of Pro Bono work, TSMP supports the Law Society’s initiatives and is an anchor participant in the Law Society’s legal clinics. TSMP also supports the work done by Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) and Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), and provides migrant workers such as domestic helpers and foreign construction workers with legal advice and representation. The philosophy behind this is that Singapore owes much to these foreigners, who shoulder many of the burdens that Singaporeans choose not to undertake. However, without the provision of pro bono assistance, they have effectively no access to legal representation; no protection against a cynical employer, or no voice against the machinery of the state. On the basis of facilitating access to justice, TSMP works to redress the balance so that cases are fully and fairly heard.

Mr Gregory Vijayendran, Equity Partner, Rajah & Tann LLP

Gregory Vijayendran is a partner in the Commercial Litigation Practice Group in Rajah & Tann. His practice, for more than 18 years, encompasses a wide range of areas including banking, company and shareholder disputes, charities governance, corporate and personal insolvency, tenancy and land law disputes, employment law, defamation, negligence, contentious probate and other tort claims.

Gregory was the inaugural pro bono ambassador of the Law Society in 2010. He co-facilitates Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in his firm. He is also actively involved in community-based legal clinics, as facilitator and volunteer. He is on the Panel of the Legal Aid Bureau and Office of Public Guardian. In addition to access to justice, he has had a long-standing direct involvement as a volunteer in various children’s charities for close to two decades including presently serving as President of Club Rainbow (Singapore) as well as serving on the Board of the Centre for Enabled Living Ltd. He also gives pro bono advice in appropriate matters relating to various Voluntary Welfare Organizations and charities (including religious bodies) on different aspects of contentious and non-contentious charities’ governance.

Ms. Malathi Das, Partner, Joyce A Tan & Partners

Malathi Das is a commercial litigation lawyer and heads the litigation and dispute resolution department of boutique firm, Joyce A Tan & Partners. Malathi Das is no stranger to the pro bono scene. She is currently President-elect of International law organsiation LAWASIA and will be its first woman and Singaporean President when she takes office in October 2011. She is also a member of the Singapore Academy of Law and Singapore’s representative on the Bar Issues Committee on Pro Bono and Access to Justice at the International Bar Association (IBA). She is a member of the Law Society of Singapore’s Publications and Family Practices Committees and its representative on the Ministry of Law’s Steering Committee on Pro Bono Services.

In the field of community work, Malathi Das speaks and writes extensively on legal ethics, gender, women, children and elder issues and pro bono. She also conducts training and gives free legal awarenss talks to voluntary organizations (VWOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Mr Cyril Chua, Partner, ATMD Bird and Bird LLP

Cyril is a partner of ATMD Bird and Bird LLP and has been practising in the area of intellectual property for more than 10 years. He has consistently been recognised for his expertise in Intellectual Property In AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers and serves as a member of the Asian Patent Attorneys Association. He has conducted many seminars on intellectual property enforcement and has appeared in Channel NewsAsia and CNBC on IP protection.

Cyril’s involvement in the charity sector is extensive: he is currently the Vice-President of the National Council of Social Services, the Chairman of Ang Mo Kio Family Services Centres and Family Services Centre Advisory Council, a director of the Special Needs Trust Company and Chairman of the Project Law Help Committee.

Mr Sheik Mustafa Abu Hassan, Senior Assistant Director of Legal Aid, Legal Aid Bureau, Ministry of Law

As the Senior Assistant Director of Legal Aid, Mr Sheik represents impecunious persons in court proceedings and manages some cases which are assigned to volunteer private lawyers. His former appointments were in private practice (KhattarWong & Partners, Mas & Partners), in the AGC as a Deputy Public Prosecutor and as a Registrar in the Syariah Court.

Asst. Prof. Helena Whalen-Bridge, Faculty Advisor to Pro Bono Group, NUS Faculty of Law (Moderator)

Helena Whalen-Bridge is an Assistant Professor with the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. She teaches upper level and graduate skills courses and convenes courses in Legal Ethics and the Common Law Legal System of Singapore. Her research interests include legal ethics and pro bono. She is an invited speaker in the area of pro bono and has published articles on non-profit pro bono (Legal Ethics 2010) and the connection between ethics and legal narrative (Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors 2010). She is a founding member of the Law Society of Singapore’s Project Law Help, and is the Faculty Advisor the Law Faculty’s student Pro Bono Group.

Check back for further updates!

[bios and moderators updated]

]]> http://nusprobono.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/nus-pro-bono-seminar-series-2011-all-about-doing-good/feed/ 0 nusprobono All About Doing Good Seminar Series http://nusprobono.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/project-sign-ups-201112-2/ http://nusprobono.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/project-sign-ups-201112-2/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:58:15 +0000 nusprobono http://nusprobono.wordpress.com/?p=611 Continue reading →]]> [EDIT: Sign ups are now closed]

Dear all,

Please follow the link below and sign up for your projects.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDhhT0FjZVhNZy1Vc0FTeTl1R1JxR1E6MQ

The sign ups will close on Sunday, 21 August, 2359. You will be informed of the results in the following week.

In the mean time, at SR 2-2, representatives from the sub-clubs held talks to explain to the freshies what each sub-club does. For Pro Bono Group, our President, Chan Yi Cheng, gave the talk. He briefly outlined the projects undertaken by our group such as RELAC and UCF. More importantly, he emphasized the significance of doing pro bono work, which is that it helps a law student to not lose focus of the reason for studying law: to help people, to do good.

Yi Cheng gives a talk about NUS Pro Bono

At the end of the day, it was estimated that approximately 120 students signed up at our booth. The high number of students who registered must be reflective of the general agreement with our catchphrase (“It feels good to do good”) and willingness of the freshies to do good. If this enthusiasm lives on till Welcome Tea and then the various projects, the future of Pro Bono Group is surely bright!

Written by: Lee In Hae

Coming soon: Welcome Tea - All students are welcome to join us in various projects and activities!

RSVP here.   Check back for an announcement of the date and time.

A group of us from the Exco 2011/12 went down to the Pines on the afternoon of 9 July (Saturday) to put up a skit for the Secondary school girls attending the Lifeskills Workshop organised under Zonta Club’s Project Pari. Our skit tied in with the Teens and the Law presentation by Ms Lim Hui Min for this workshop. Adapted from a RELAC script, our skit shows how shoptheft and vandalism does not pay for the perpetrator and his or her accomplices, and the negative aspects of peer pressure .

The Zonta Club is formed by professional  women for the advancement of the status of women worldwide by improving their legal, political, economic, educational, health and professional status. It  has a worldwide presence and seeks to at the global and local levels through service and advocacy. The Singapore limb of the Zonta Club was established in 1971. Through its Project Pari, promising Secondary school girls from disadvantaged financial backgrounds benefit both from special programmes and monthly pocket money allowances.

After rehearsals at NUS, we set off for the Pines with our props and presentation slides. The sunny afternoon was well spent bringing laughter and an important legal message to the girls. We had fun ourselves in preparing this performance, and we even enjoyed a buffet lunch courtesy of our hosts ;)

Useful links:

Zonta International

Zonta Singapore and Project Pari