Lawyer Kwa Kim Li to face disciplinary tribunal over LKY's will

Lawyer Kwa Kim Li will face disciplinary proceedings over complaints about her handling of the late founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's wills, in the latest development in the Lee family feud.

The High Court yesterday ruled that a disciplinary tribunal (DT) should be appointed to formally investigate an additional two complaints filed by Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling, overruling the decision by the Law Society to proceed with only one of four complaints.

This means the tribunal will look into whether Ms Kwa had:

• failed to follow the instructions of their father, Mr Lee, to destroy his superseded wills.

• breached her duties of confidentiality in sending records of her communications with Mr Lee to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

• given false and misleading information to the executors of the estate.

A fourth complaint, that Ms Kwa had failed to keep proper contemporaneous notes of all the advice given and instructions received from Mr Lee, was dismissed.

The complaints against Ms Kwa, a managing partner of Lee and Lee, were filed on Sept 15, 2019, by Mr Lee's two younger children, who are executors of his estate.

The Law Society referred the matter to an inquiry committee, then decided to proceed with investigating whether Ms Kwa had breached attorney-client privilege in sending documents to PM Lee.

The two siblings appealed against the decision.

In her judgment, Justice Valerie Thean found there was enough information to establish a prima facie case of an ethical breach or misconduct by Ms Kwa in two other complaints - whether she had followed instructions to destroy the wills and provided false and misleading information.

This was of sufficient gravity to warrant formal investigation and consideration by a disciplinary tribunal, said the judge.

Ms Kwa, who is a cousin of the Lee siblings, had helped the late Mr Lee draft six wills between Aug 20, 2011, and Nov 2, 2012. She did not prepare Mr Lee's earliest will, dated Dec 7, 1995, and his final will, dated Dec 17, 2013.

After Mr Lee Kuan Yew's death on March 23, 2015, PM Lee Hsien Loong and Dr Lee Wei Ling had asked Ms Kwa for records regarding the various wills that he signed prior to his final will.

In her replies on June 4 and 22, 2015, to all three Lee siblings, Ms Kwa had attached - among other documents - copies of Mr Lee's six cancelled wills, as well as e-mail trails from Mrs Lee Suet Fern, Mr Lee Hsien Yang's wife, regarding Mr Lee's last and final will.

Subsequently, the estate's lawyers had written to Ms Kwa noting the confidentiality of the documents and information relating to Mr Lee's past wills, asking her not to send them to any party other than authorised representatives of the estate.

On Feb 25, 2019, the lawyers also asked Ms Kwa for all documents relating to Mr Lee's instructions on the six wills.

After receiving the documents, Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee found a note dated Dec 21, 2011, in which Ms Kwa had recorded that she "tore up" Mr Lee's first will in front of him. This sparked the complaint that Ms Kwa had not followed Mr Lee's instructions to destroy all of his superseded wills.

Justice Thean found that the Law Society had made a procedural error when it decided not to proceed on this complaint.

She noted that the society's inquiry committee had first found that there was a prima facie case, but later found on further investigations that there was not enough evidence to show the late Mr Lee had expressly intended for his prior wills to be torn up.

"As the (inquiry committee) had initially concluded that there was a prima facie case on these issues, their statutory role was not to make a finding on this factual issue, but merely to channel it to the proper fact-finding body: the DT," said the judge.

She added that since the inquiry committee had come to different conclusions in its reports, the Law Society ought to have concluded that a formal investigation by such a tribunal would be necessary.

Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee complained that Ms Kwa had not given them a full picture regarding their family home at 38 Oxley Road in her June 2015 e-mails.

In particular, they took issue with the fact that Ms Kwa had not mentioned her discussions with Mr Lee about how to deal with the escalation of value of the Oxley property in the event that it was de-gazetted and redeveloped. These were mentioned in e-mails between Ms Kwa and Mr Lee between Nov 30 and Dec 13, 2013.

The Law Society's inquiry committee dismissed the complaint on the basis that Ms Kwa's June 4, 2015, e-mail was to act as a summary of Mr Lee's wills based on her "file records". That e-mail had been captioned "Chronology of 6 Wills - my file records with focus on Oxley", and included a 10-point chronological summary of events from Dec 7, 1995, to Nov 2, 2012, among other details.

Justice Thean, in disagreeing with the Law Society, said that taken as a whole, the e-mail's "frame and opening did represent its content to be a comprehensive summary of the work done by Ms Kwa on the first six wills and the Oxley property".

"This could have misled the executors into thinking that the June 4, 2015, e-mail contained everything regarding the first six wills and the Oxley property," she added, in allowing the complaint.

In dismissing another complaint, that Ms Kwa did not keep proper records, Justice Thean said the evidence did not bear this out.

The siblings had complained specifically about the paucity of information on two telephone conversations on Nov 29, 2013, and Dec 12, 2013, relating to the de-gazetting of the Oxley property.

Justice Thean noted that the subject of the discussions was overtaken by events on Dec 17, 2013 - the day Ms Kwa was informed that Mr Lee had signed a new will revoking all previous wills. Mrs Lee Suet Fern and Mr Lee's assistant Wong Lin Hoe had informed Ms Kwa.

"As she was told by Mrs Lee Suet Fern that the new will went back to Mr Lee's 2011 will, Ms Kwa would have realised that the conversation on the potential escalation of the price of the Oxley property was no longer relevant," the judge said.

She noted that the first will did not contain the demolition clause pertaining to the issue. Mr Lee Kuan Yew had also informed Ms Kwa, through Ms Wong, that the contents of the final will reflected "the agreement between the siblings", the judge noted.

She said: "Her client at this point in time was Mr Lee, and by Dec 17, 2013, there was no further interest of his to pursue at that point in relation to the call, if it had taken place. Therefore, not only is there no prima facie case, the matter is of little gravity."