Practice Tips & Pitfalls

Register of Practitioners

Under s 27 of the Legal Profession Act (Cap 161), the Registrar of the Supreme Court is required to enter in an annual register the particulars of an advocate and solicitor in practice. The particulars are the solicitor’s full name, the name under which he practices and the principal and any other address at which he practices. The register is open for public inspection.

If there is any change to a solicitor’s particulars, s 27(2) of the Act requires the solicitor to notify the Registrar and the Law Society’s Council of the change so that the register can be updated. The solicitor must notify the necessary parties within a week of the change.

Regrettably, the Registrar and the Law Society have noted that many practitioners do not comply with s 27.

To ensure compliance, the Registry of the Supreme Court has designed a form which members who have ceased practice or who have joined another law firm or law corporation can complete, called the ‘Notification of Change of Particulars’ form and deliver to the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

The Law Society Secretariat will remind members to complete the relevant form when they write to inform the Society of any change of particulars. A softcopy of the form can be found on the Law Society’s homepage at www.lawsociety.org.sg under the icon ‘Practice’.

Employment of Staff

Pursuant to s 78 of the Legal Profession Act, there are certain categories of persons a law practice cannot employ without the leave of the High Court. An application for leave to employ such individuals must be served on the Law Society and the Attorney-General’s Chambers as they have a right to be heard on the matter.

Section 78 imposes various obligations on members to submit to the Law Society certified true copies of statutory declarations affirmed by their employees (other than advocates and solicitors or qualified persons). The statutory declarations must be submitted to the Law Society within 14 days of commencement of the employees’ employment.

The employee is required to affirm in the statutory declaration that he/she is not a person:

• who is an undischarged bankrupt;

• who has been struck off a roll of legal practitioners in Singapore, Malaysia or any other jurisdiction;;

• who has been suspended from practising as an advocate and solicitor in Singapore, Malaysia or any other jurisdiction and remains suspended;

• who has been convicted of an offence under s 33 of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act (Cap 184) or under any provision of the Act;

• who has been listed as a tout under s 73 of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Cap 322) or s 62 of the Subordinate Courts Act (Cap 321);

• who has been employed as a public officer.

A common misconception amongst law practices about the obligations imposed by s 78 is that they are only applicable to the employment of clerks. In fact, the section requires a law firm or law corporation to obtain a statutory declaration from any person who is employed or remunerated by the firm or law corporation. Therefore, members are reminded to obtain statutory declarations from all employees, whether secretaries, accountants or para-legals. This requirement is also applicable to foreign lawyers employed by firms or law corporations.

With regard to foreign legal practitioners, the employee is required to affirm that he has not been struck off or suspended from practising as an advocate and solicitor in any jurisdiction.

Any member of the Singapore Bar who has been suspended or struck off cannot be employed or remunerated by a law firm or law corporation without the leave of the court.

Another category of persons a law firm or law corporation cannot employ is a person against whom an order has been made under s 78(4). Section 78(4) enables the Attorney-General or the Law Society to apply for an order directing that no solicitor shall employ or remunerate the following persons:

• a person who has been party to any act or default of a solicitor in respect of which a complaint has been made or might properly have been made; or

• a person who has so conducted himself while employed by a solicitor that, had he himself been a solicitor, his conduct might have formed the subject of a complaint under the Act against him.

Therefore, if any member of your staff does an act or default in respect of which a complaint could have been properly made if it was done by a solicitor, the information must be brought to the attention of the Law Society.

Applications Under Section 78

Applications under s 78 are made by way of Originating Summons and must be supported by an affidavit from the sole proprietor, partner or managing director and an affidavit from the person whom the law practice intends to employ. The affidavit of the employer must include the following particulars:

• Job title or designation of the employee-to-be (‘employee’)..

• The scope of duties or work of the employee.

• Employment history of the employee.

The employer is also required to give the following undertakings in his/her affidavit which are to be included in the Order of Court, a draft of which is shown on this page:

• to ensure that the employee will perform only the scope of work set out in the affidavits of the employer and employee and such work to be duly supervised by the firm’s or law corporation’s lawyers; and

• to ensure the employee will not have any dealings with the firm’s money, whether it be in respect of the office accounts or otherwise.

The employee’s affidavit should include the following information:

• circumstances leading to the bankruptcy, conviction or suspension;;

• in the case of a bankrupt, to set out the amount of debts owed and to whom together with the relevant supporting documents as exhibits;

• in the case of a criminal conviction, particulars such as the charge sheets, whether he/she pleaded guilty or claimed trial, whether represented by counsel or unrepresented, the date of the conviction, the sentence meted out and mitigation plea, if applicable;

• the job designation and scope of job.

Therefore if any member of your staff becomes a bankrupt or is convicted in the course of employment, he/she must cease employment immediately. If you wish to continue to employ this former staff the law practice must then take out the necessary application under s 78 and obtain the consent of the court to employ that particular staff. The application is for leave to employ and remunerate a particular person and not for leave to ‘continue to employ’ that employee.

Yasho Dhoraisingam and Chu Sooi Yoon

The Law Society of Singaporee
E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected]