They need to submit a list of cases they have handled, along with the arguments they made, to a Selection Committee comprising the Chief Justice, the Attorney-General and two Court of Appeal judges.
Law academics are also eligible to apply.
It is the consensus among academics and lawyers that this system - as opposed to one in which SC are appointed - works.
Law professor Eugene Tan of the Singapore Management University said the system allows any lawyer who thinks he can make the cut to be considered.
Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, in an interview with Inter Se, a publication of the Singapore Academy of Law, said while there was no particular reason for not taking the appointment route, the application method could not be criticised.
'I do not see how an application system has prevented due credit from being given to the deserving,' he said.
England also uses the application method for its Queen's Counsel.
KHUSHWANT SINGH