6 trainee lawyers who cheated in Bar exam: Criticisms of Law Society misguided, its president says

This comes after identities of six aspiring lawyers who had cheated in the 2020 Bar examination have been disclosed. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - The criticisms levelled at the Law Society for turning a blind eye to the six trainee lawyers who cheated in their Bar exams are misguided, said the society's president Adrian Tan in this month's Law Gazette.

Mr Tan mounted a defence for the legal profession, against attacks from commentators who he said made criticisms without understanding the background of the events or waiting for matters to be resolved.

High Court judge Choo Han Teck reversed his decision to redact the names of the trainee lawyers on Wednesday (April 27) and an Attorney-General's Chambers spokesman said on Thursday that redacting their names would cast a cloud over the entire batch of candidates.

Emphasising that those who cheated are neither lawyers nor members of the Law Society, Mr Tan added that ethics are important in the legal profession, as in every other profession.

He said: "In general, what this saga reveals is that there are commentators who are quick to condemn lawyers, based on the conduct of non-lawyers... They are in a rush to judge us, practising lawyers, and to urge us to reflect on our own ethics.

"Lawyers pay close attention to ethics. It is an issue that crops up regularly. We guard ourselves, and we also check on each other, as colleagues and opponents. If there is something amiss, we probe and investigate."

In making his clarifications, Mr Tan said that the Part B exams in which the individuals cheated in are not conducted by the Law Society and that it has no authority to punish them for cheating.

He added that, prior to applications to the Bar being heard before the court, the Law Society issues a letter which states that the society does not object to that person's application to the Bar.

Fulfilling its roles as one of the gatekeepers of the legal system, the Law Society will not issue the letter if an applicant is unethical, and in the case of the six individuals who cheated, the letters were not issued because of their actions, Mr Tan said.

Accusations that the society agreed to redact, or conceal, the names of the six people are flatly wrong, Mr Tan said, adding that when the names were first redacted, the Law Society made submissions in Court to overturn that order.

Mr Tan also said it was unfair to criticise law firms that gave the six individuals training contracts, as they had applied before taking their part B exams and there is no suggestion that the contracts were given with the knowledge that they would later cheat.

While the Law Society has not issued the letter of non-objection to the six, Mr Tan did not rule out the possibility of issuing one in the future, saying that there have been criminals who have qualified for the Bar after reforming and are now " upstanding members of the profession".

He added: "(It) is up to each individual to reflect, reform and convince not just the Law Society, but society in general, that he can be trusted, and he has something to contribute, to the nation, as lawyers."

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