SINGAPORE: The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) needs lawyers who will look beyond financial gains, and attracting such lawyers is one of the priorities of the new man in charge, Professor Walter Woon.

The new Attorney-General, who has assumed the post this month, also wants to enhance the work of international law within the AGC.

Prof Woon said: "What we hope to engage is altruism and a sense of public duty that some students and lawyers would have. (In) the criminal justice division, we are chronically short. It is hard work and they are under-appreciated by the public."

Another challenge facing the legal sector in Singapore is that of professional upgrading and retraining.

In fact, Prof Woon has been heading a committee that is looking into this area after wide-ranging recommendations were put forth by Judge of Appeal Justice V K Rajah's committee, which looked at further enhancing legal education and the legal sector in Singapore.

The Attorney-General said: "The days when you can pick up an ancient English case and say this is the law in Singapore are long gone. For the lawyers of my vintage where we didn't have computers, we were used to books.

"For the new ones who know how to use IT, they have an advantage but they have to sift out information that is useful - and that requires you to be learning every year, every week."

Prof Woon added that the practice of law also depends a lot on trust, which is why the law must come down hard on errant lawyers.

He said: "There is also a problem of greed. It is a perennial problem. If you have greed, you have this abuse of trust. You can't have a commissar sitting down there and double checking everything that you do. You have got to balance practicality with protection of the public.

"We have tightened up, hoping we will head off the next scandal. But humanly speaking, I don't think it is possible – whatever rules you put in, there will always be the possibility of circumventure."

To study the problem of errant lawyers, a working committee that is headed by Justice Rajah has been formed. This committee will release its recommendations within five months.


- CNA/so