With a disciplinary tribunal (DT) finding prominent lawyer Lee Suet Fern guilty of grossly improper professional conduct, the next step is for the Law Society to apply for a show-cause hearing before a Court of Three Judges.
The tribunal had found Mrs Lee's actions were of sufficient gravity to refer the case to the court, which is the highest disciplinary body to deal with lawyers' misconduct.
The Law Society, which filed the charges against Mrs Lee, has one month from Feb 18 - the day the tribunal issued its verdict - to make its application to the High Court.
Responding to queries, a Law Society spokesman said it could take at least six months from the date of filing for the Court of Three Judges to hear the case, based on experience.
Mrs Lee, the wife of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's younger son Hsien Yang, could be fined, suspended or disbarred as a lawyer if the charges are made out. But the court may exonerate her if the charges are not made out.
During the show-cause hearing, the Court of Three Judges will review the entire proceedings, the spokesman said.
It will be open to Mrs Lee's lawyers to contend that the DT's findings and decision were incorrect.
However, the decision of the Court of Three Judges cannot be appealed, the spokesman noted.
In a statement yesterday, Law Society president Gregory Vijayendran said: "At that hearing, the court is empowered to determine any question necessary for the purpose of doing justice in the case, including any question as to the correctness, legality or propriety of the determination of the DT, or the regularity of the DT proceedings."
Asked if Mrs Lee, 61, could seek a judicial review of the tribunal's verdict, the society's spokesman said under Section 97 of the Legal Professions Act, there is no right to do so for cases considered grave enough to warrant disciplinary action.
"The Court of Three Judges is the only tribunal that will review and impose a sanction if so warranted," she added.
The case centres on the role Mrs Lee played in the preparation and execution of Mr Lee's last will signed on Dec 17, 2013.
Mr Lee died on March 23, 2015, at the age of 91.
In January last year, the Attorney-General's Chambers complained to the Law Society about possible professional misconduct involving Mrs Lee. Deputy Attorney-General Lionel Yee further asked that the case be referred to a disciplinary tribunal.
Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon then appointed a two-man tribunal, comprising Senior Counsel Sarjit Singh Gill and lawyer Leon Yee Kee Shian. Both the Law Society and Mrs Lee's lawyers then made their respective cases in front of them.
The tribunal subsequently found Mrs Lee guilty of grossly improper professional conduct in her handling of the late Mr Lee's last will.
They said the facts exposed an "unsavoury tale" of how Mrs Lee and her husband persuaded the senior Mr Lee - then 90 and in poor health, having been recently hospitalised for serious medical conditions - to sign a new will without his usual lawyer to advise him.
The tribunal described Mrs Lee as a "deceitful witness, who tailored her evidence to portray herself as an innocent victim who had been maligned".
In its 206-page report released last week, the tribunal added that her husband's conduct was "equally deceitful".
In comments that Mr Lee Hsien Yang shared on his Facebook page on Sunday, Mrs Lee said she disagrees with the tribunal's report and intends to "fight this strongly when it is heard in open court".
The Straits Times understands that any member of the public can obtain a record of the closed-door proceedings of the tribunal from the Disciplinary Tribunal Secretariat on payment of a fee.
"I urge the public to look at these and come to their own independent conclusions," Mrs Lee said.
