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PM Lee shares childhood memories of parents at Lee & Lee’s anniversary celebrations

SINGAPORE — As a child, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was fascinated by the legal documents his mother used to bring home from work. But it wasn’t what was in the documents that the young Mr Lee was interested in. He was instead fascinated by the $500 and $1,000 stamps pasted on those documents.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at Lee and Lee’s 60th anniversary celebrations on 15 Oct, 2015. Photo: Terence Tan/MCI

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at Lee and Lee’s 60th anniversary celebrations on 15 Oct, 2015. Photo: Terence Tan/MCI

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SINGAPORE — As a child, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was fascinated by the legal documents his mother used to bring home from work. But it wasn’t what was in the documents that the young Mr Lee was interested in. He was instead fascinated by the $500 and $1,000 stamps pasted on those documents.

Then, Mr Lee recalled: “My mother would look at me and say these are not postage stamps but revenue stamps, you don’t put them on envelopes!”

As a child, Mr Lee was an avid stamp collector and some of those large denomination stamps he had come across dated as far back as the the reigns of King Edward VII and Queen Victoria. “I used to collect stamps – these were 10-cents stamps, 50-cents stamps – and you would be very lucky to find a $5 postage stamp, and here were $500 stamps.”

Mr Lee shared this childhood memory at the 60th anniversary dinner of Lee and Lee, the law firm founded by his late parents, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mdm Mdm Kwa Geok Choo, and uncle Dennis Lee.

Among guests at the dinner last night (Oct 15) were past and present lawyers and staff of the firm, including Justice Goh Joon Seng, Justice Andrew Ang and member of parliament Christopher de Souza. Also present were Dick Lee with his father Mr Lee Kip Lee, who was one of the firm’s first clients.

The late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mdm Kwa Geok Choo had co-founded the firm together with the late Mr Dennis Lee, on Sep 1, 1955.

In his speech at the firm’s anniversary dinner, Mr Lee thanked lawyers and staff of Lee and Lee for their contributions and told of how the firm started 60 years ago.

“My father had started off at Laycock & Ong. He spent a lot of his time representing trade unions, working often pro bono — so much time that John Laycock wrote him a letter, expressing his displeasure but in typical British understated style,” said Mr Lee.

Eventually, the late Mr Lee moved next door and took on cases ranging from divorces, “chap jee kee runners”, to routine debt collection to make a living while being active in the unions and politics, he said.

With the late Mr Lee’s increased involvement in politics, he left the firm’s affairs to his wife and Mr Lee’s uncle, Dennis Lee.

Describing his mother as a lady who regarded her husband and children as her first priority, Mr Lee said his mother had chosen to do mainly solicitors’ work and had also advised women who joined the firm – including current managing partner Kwa Kim Li – not to do litigation.

Mr Lee said his mother had advised Mdm Kwa that “women should not do litigation because that would make them argumentative, and more difficult to find husbands!”

But he quipped: “But of course I would never venture to offer any such advice to anybody.”

Under the early stewardship of his parents and uncle, Lee and Lee has since grown to become a full service law firm with more than 100 lawyers and over 200 staff.

Mr Lee said the firm was an important part of his parents’ and uncle’s lives and represented their legacies as lawyers in different ways.

“My parents and Dennis Lee would have been very proud to see what Lee and Lee has become today. 

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