The issue here is
not about admission of foreign lawyers. Those admitted as "foreign lawyers" are working on transactions governed by English/US law. Adversarial work is typically arbitral and the plan for Singapore to be an arbitration hub is more than a decade in the making. If you look at the list of arbitrators from the SIAC these are the usual bigwigs from Singapore.
The issue is what to do with new Singaporean law graduates who need to fulflll training requirements in order to qualify for admission to the Singapore Bar and what to do with them if they cant get associate roles afterwards.
"A new committee has been set up to review the system by which new lawyers start their careers, in a bid to tackle the oversupply of lawyers here...its task is to do a "root and branch" review of how undergraduates are offered training contracts by local law firms, as well as how they are assessed to be suitable for retention and employment." - See more at:
https://www.gov.sg/news/content/the...versupply-of-new-lawyers#sthash.FB7gLHoR.dpuf
It is not an oversupply of "lawyers" but
an oversupply of law graduates that is the primary issue which then leads of lack of training contracts or even if they have secured a training contract, lack of retention opportunities as newly qualified Associates.
Foreign lawyers (except those who have the requisite years of experience as practising lawyers (typically as partners) who still need to make a formal admission to the Ministry of Law) are not admitted to the Singapore Bar by just turning up here - those foreign lawyers are typically transaction lawyers working on deals governed by English law and do not need Singapore law qualifications to do so.
The challenge seems to be that by expanding the number of local tertiary institutions that offer law as a course of study and recognition of their degrees plus those who study in the UK, US and Australia, the local law firms do not want to give them training contracts/pupillages. Even for those that complete pupillage, there seems to be a reluctance on the part of the law firms to actually give them Associate roles so they can start practising as lawyers. Now depending on the area you end up with, starting out as a junior Associate it is a pretty crappy existence - literally all-nighters, you are at the mercy of the partner/practice and the usual rivalry/envy of other associates and the partners against each other.
If you are in your 20s, you can write off any notion of "me" time because you are worked real and slogged. There is no such thing as finishing at 6,7,8,9pm - weekends are not yours either. Why? Because of the noose known as "billable hours" i.e. your minimum targets of work per month. I've heard of some foreign firm that send a red alert when you don't make the hours for the month. The partners are also pressured to meet their yearly targets and it is in their interests to do so if they already have equity. If they are merely salaried partners it is pretty crappy still because you are still bound by billable targets and no matter how much you bill you get a fixed sum. And you are under constant pressure to bring in a new book of business. And even if you have equity but you are not bringing in the business you can be asked to leave altogether. But this is not the area of concern - it really is the knock on effects of previously policy shifts regarding the profession.
So if the partners can squeeze their associates for every minute of the day in order to meet their targets, their is no real incentive to bring more bodies on board. And obviously the young ones get burnt out and some just leave the profession which is functioning like any other business. The much smaller practices including the one-man shops have no incentive to hire associates either because that means money out of their pocket.
The territoriality of the local firms is on the ability to advice on Singapore law matters and if more foreign companies (not law firms that is) set up here, then there is potential for local work but in reality the mainstay of these firms is regional work using Singapore as a reliably stable services hub. The problem of oversupply of lawyers is not unique to Singapore as the UK also has the same problem. Many study law as a degree, do the professional exams and can't get the training needed so end up with paper qualifications that do not let them enter a career or profession.
The foreign lawyers here are typically UK, US and Aussie qualified and they are not engaged in local work at all. If a local graduate has similar qualifications then they have as much an opportunity but the hours are even worse and the trek to partnership is much longer.
THe irony is that many of those who feel insulted by the notion of working as paralegals will eventually abandon the legal profession altogether and move in-house because they wont be able to adapt to the reality of what the profession actually is.
P.S> About six months ago....makes you wonder how they are going to get all these additional graduates to qualify as practitioners:
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/criminal-family-law-need-more-practitioners-indranee
Criminal, family law need more practitioners to meet demand: Indranee
SINGAPORE — The criminal and family law practice areas are seeing a “hollowing out”, and
more practitioners will be needed to meet the sustained demand, said Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah.
While it has been flagged that the legal sector here faces an impending glut of lawyers because of returning overseas graduates, Ms Indranee trotted out statistics to illustrate the crunch in criminal and family lawyers.
UniSIM law school to enrol first student batch in 2017
There are 1,600 such specialists now, of which roughly 10 per cent (170) are over the age of 65. Over the next decade, an average of 30 each year will be over 65 of age.
Given the upcoming shortage of these practitioners — compounded by the trend of lawyers venturing into other practice areas or leaving legal practice after a few years — there will be a problem if supply is not boosted through the setting up of the third law school, said Ms Indranee, during a press conference on the third law school that will have its first intake next year.
In 2014, Law Minister K Shanmugam asked aspiring lawyers to temper their expectations in terms of pay and job opportunities, noting that the spurt in the number of Singaporeans reading law overseas could result in an oversupply in the coming years. His comments sparked questions on why the Government is still going ahead with setting up the third law school — even though it will be focusing on producing family and criminal lawyers, which is traditionally shunned by graduates because it is harder work and less lucrative.
Each year, the National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and overseas institutions produce over 700 law graduates. Last year, there were 310 overseas law graduates.
In illustrating the demand for criminal and family lawyers today (Feb 16), Ms Indranee, who chaired a committee on the establishment of the third law school, said the enhanced Criminal Legal Aid Scheme benefitted up to 6,000 litigants.
Her committee member, Senior Counsel Narayanan Sreenivasan, also said
graduates from this school will be filling gaps in the criminal and family law practice areas, instead of flooding the market.
"It is a structural issue (and) not just a numbers game,” he added.
Criminal and family lawyers interviewed said it remains to be seen if
the third law school will offset the attrition, citing the demanding nature of such work.
Noting that the school is targetting career switchers as students,
the relatively poorer pay in these practice areas may push these graduates into other areas if they have families to take care of, said Mr Amolat Singh. Anecdotally, graduates typically leave these practice areas after two to four years, lawyers said.
Veteran criminal lawyer Edmond Pereira, 66, who has been practising for the last four decades, said that passion is key to stay the course in criminal law.
“It can be a demanding call ... So you really need to have the passion for criminal law, to want to help and to see justice prevailed for the accused,” he added.
Family lawyer Rajan Chettair of Rajan Chettiar law firm also said these UniSIM graduates may not be immune to competition for jobs.
“It could also be very competitive ...
as an employer, I am uncertain whether to hire the young law graduate or mature law graduate as cost is of concern,” he added.
Nevertheless, Ms Latifah Hassan, 32,
who has been a paralegal for 12 years, is still keen to give it a go at the UniSIM law school. She missed out on applying to read law when she was younger because of financial constraints.
“I see my colleagues and bosses handling these cases while I attend mediation hearings ... I am keen to learn and do more to help families and children to resolve their issues,” she said.
