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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.

Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Finance Indranee Rajah speaking during a during a press conference to announce the establishment of UniSIM Law School. Photo: Don Wong/TODAY

Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Finance Indranee Rajah speaking during a during a press conference to announce the establishment of UniSIM Law School. Photo: Don Wong/TODAY

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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.

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.

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