A Chat with our Alumni - Careers Beyond Singapore

THE 5TH NUS LAW PRO BONO AWARDS

Ms Indranee Rajah ’86 with Natania Peh Hui-Ting ’22 (left) and Toh Ding Jun ’22 (right), who received the Project Legal Awareness (PLAY) Mentorship Award

The NUS Law Centre for Pro Bono & Clinical Legal Education (CPBCLE) organises an awards ceremony annually, which allows us to formally celebrate and recognise outstanding student leadership in pro bono at NUS, and award financial grants towards worthy student pro bono projects.

The 5th Pro Bono Awards Ceremony was held on 24 March 2021 at the Wee Chong Jin Moot Court. The event was graced by Ms Indranee Rajah ’86, Minister (Prime Minister’s Office) and Second Minister for Finance and National Development, who was the Guest-of-Honour. The event was also live-streamed over Zoom.

All pro bono award recipients, who were recognized for their outstanding commitment and passion for pro bono work, often went beyond their call of duty and expectation. Notwithstanding the trying times brought about by COVID-19, these students continued to ensure that access to justice was not denied for needy beneficiaries. They persevered and came up with creative ways to overcome it, and also helped others deal with the challenges posed by the pandemic.

For any pro bono or clinical legal education queries, you may reach out to CPBCLE at probono@nus.edu.sg.

AWARDS

Three categories of awards were presented – the Pro Bono Special Recognition Award, the Pro Bono Mentor Award and the Pro Bono Innovation Award.

The Pro Bono Special Recognition Awards

COV-AID

• Anders Seah Nanjie ’22 • Mark Tang Yu Zhong ’22

PLAY Mentorship

• Toh Ding Jun ’22 • Natania Peh Hui-Ting ’22

Law & You

• Shyrie Chopra ’22 • Andrew Ng Jun De ’22 • Shanon Kua Yan Yu ’22

State Courts Representatives Programme

• Wong Weitao ’22 • Alvina Chitra Logan ’22

Migrant/Domestic Workers’ COVID-19 Guide

• Charlene Tan ’23 • Ryan Young Wei Jie ’23

NUS PBO In-Person Deputyship Project

• Sandra Faith Angelica Tan Wan Lin ’20 • Benjamin Ho Kok Hean ’21

The Pro Bono Mentor Awards

• Professor Alan Tan Khee-Jin ’93 (COV-AID) • Mr Allen Sng Kiat Peng ’18 (NUS PBO In-Person Deputyship Project)

The Pro Bono Innovation Award

• Anders Seah Nanjie ’22 (COV-AID)

NUS LAW ESTABLISHED COV-AID

CONGRATULATIONS TO 2021 JUSTICES’ LAW CLERKS

Bottom row (L-R): Ashleigh Gan ’22, Mark Tang ’22 (Co-Founder), Anders Seah ’22 (Founder), Ryan Teo ’22 Middle row: Cheyenne Lim ’23, Professor Alan Tan ’93 (Advisor), Alex Chia ’22 Top row: Cheung Chun Man ’23, Bryan Foo ’23, Thomas Toh ’23

NUS Law proudly celebrates our students’ efforts to establish the pro bono project, COV-AID. COV-AID was born out of our students’ desire to play their part in helping the public comprehend the vast array of laws, regulations and legal issues arising from the pandemic. Launched on National Day on 9th August 2020, COVAID pays tribute to our frontliners who are leading Singapore’s fight against the pandemic.

The COV-AID website serves as a comprehensive one-stop portal presenting explanations on navigating COVID-19related laws, government grants and relief programmes. Another unique feature is Academics on Pandemics, which showcases thought leadership essays authored by NUS Law academics and guest professors on how COVID-19 has disrupted lives and the economy. The third flagship feature is Conversations with Lawyers, presenting interviews with top lawyers on how the pandemic affects their work and the future of legal practice.

The team behind COV-AID comprises the founder Anders Seah ’22, co-founder Mark Tang ’22 and a core team of dedicated members advised by Professor Alan Tan ’93. The team, in turn, supervises nearly 80 law students involved in a variety of tasks. Professor Alan Tan, shared: “This project harnesses the amazing talent and energy of our NUS Law students, who have in turn tapped on the expertise of our professors, alumni and friends in the legal and academic communities to make an enduring contribution to the national

Congratulations to seven of our alumni from the Class of 2021, who have been appointed as Justices’ Law Clerks (JLC) at the Singapore Supreme Court.

As JLCs, Ong Kye Jing, Ryan Kwan, Jasmine Goh, Jerry Wang, Gwendolyn Oh, Wee Jong Xuan, and Lai Weng Han will undertake legal research, draft and global fight against this crisis of our times.”

The COV-AID Project received The Pro Bono Special Recognition Award and The Pro Bono Innovation Award at the NUS Law 5th Pro Bono Awards Ceremony in March 2021.

Follow COV-AID on social media for updates:

www.nus-covaid.com

facebook.com/nus.covaid.sg

linkedin.com/company/nus-covaid

instagram.com/nus.covaid/covaid

(Top L-R) Ong Kye Jing, Ryan Kwan, Jasmine Goh (Bottom L-R) Jerry Wang, Gwendolyn Oh, Wee Jong Xuan, Lai Weng Han bench memorandums and provide hearing-related assistance to Judges of the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

We congratulate them for having earned their places in the JLC programme with outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements.

NUS LAW STUDENTS CREATE CHARITY GUIDE FOR DONORS – TRANSPARENCY FOR GOOD

What started as a class project under the Business and Finance for Lawyers module has morphed into an enterprising endeavour with beneficial real-world impact. The team of six law students created the initiative Transparency for Good to educate the public on understanding the inner workings of charities, specifically on how finances are managed.

One of the team members, Jolena Ang, a part-time student under the NUS Graduate Certificate in Business and Financial Services Law programme, said, “The Business and Finance for Lawyers module taught us skills on how to read and interpret financial statements, so we thought that it would be meaningful to apply what we learned in the module for a good cause.”

The other team members include Chester Chin ’22, Arumugham Aishwarya ’23, Byrna Tan ’23, Qian Yan Shan ’23, and Reeve Chia ’23.

The team had initially considered more conventional service learning projects such as fundraising for a worthy cause; however, when ideas started bouncing back and forth with Associate Professor Stephen Phua ’88, they were motivated to steer towards a more ambitious goal. “Prof Stephen Phua pushed us to aim high and dream big with our project. He strongly encouraged us to reach out to organisations that we would not have thought of reaching out to, such as the Commissioner of Charities and The Straits Times,” said Jolena. With those teething steps, Transparency for Good was born.

The plan is to get charities on board to see the value of transparency in good governance, which in turn could inspire greater public trust and garner more donors to their respective causes. To achieve this objective, the team devised a simple process to examine and interpret the financial statements of charities.

Intuitively named “7 Vital Signs”, the guide analyses seven key areas of a charity, namely its financial health, sources of income, expenditure, fundraising efficiency, proportion of cash going towards direct outcomes, benefit received per beneficiary, and non-financial needs.

The idea is to provide a platform for potential donors to make informed decisions about whether their donations will make an impact. Donors would also be connected directly to a charity should they wish to make contributions.

Transparency for Good launched a contemporary website with intuitive user interface, but its creation got off to a rocky start when the team’s volunteer coder unexpectedly dropped out of the project because of work commitments.

There was doubt over whether the website would become a reality, as none of the team members was skilled in web designing and coding. The team had to overcome this setback by scouting for and learning to use freely available online tools. In addition, they pooled together their diverse skill sets and knowledge to pull off the launch of the website. Some team members used their extensive network of contacts to connect with various charities and reach out to web coders for help. Legal training, too, played a part in exercising due diligence and mitigating risks.

“It was encouraging to see how all members of the team worked together to build the website,” said Jolena. “It was a long and tedious process, but once we saw the launch of our website to the public, it was very rewarding.”

On top of devoting time to such a laborious undertaking, other challenges include juggling between work and school commitments. Most of the time, the team held meetings online after office hours and during weekends. To work more efficiently, they divided themselves into subgroups to handle different aspects of the project.

While pitching their project to various charities, the team faced some resistance from charities who were wary of disclosing their financial statements. There were fears that finances could be misinterpreted and doubts about the benefits of participating in such a novel initiative. To assuage their concerns, the team assured that charities would get to scrutinise their reports.

On the future of Transparency for Good, Jolena shared her team’s aspiration: “We hope that our project will reach a scale where it becomes a well-adopted standard for charities, and a recognised reference point for members of the public to understand the strengths, weaknesses, and needs of a charity before donating.”

To find out more about Transparency for Good, visit:

transparencyforgood.org

CONGRATULATIONS TO CLASS OF 2020 AND 2021

Congratulations to the graduates of NUS Law’s Class of 2020 and 2021! After having virtual Commencement ceremonies earlier this year, our graduates were finally able to celebrate their achievements with inperson Commencement ceremonies on 15 October 2021. As Safe Management Measures (SMM) were implemented to ensure the health and safety of all participants, three separate ceremonies were held at the NUS University Cultural Centre, with over 300 students from the LLB, LLM and PhD programmes graduating from the faculty.

This year’s Commencement ceremony featured guest speaker, Mr Tan MinLiang ’02, Co-Founder and CEO of Razer Inc. The NUS Law alumnus debunked a common trope that he was disillusioned with his law career and gave it up to start Razer, and shared how studying law and his early years as a lawyer made a profound impact on his subsequent career in computer gaming. “Just remember, as you step out to the world, you will meet the people who will matter to you. Life is short and you should pursue your passion. Despite all these difficult times, you will find opportunity and you will succeed!” he said. Tay Wei Xuan ’20, who graduated as the Valedictorian of the Class of 2020, gave an inspirational speech from the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He said, “The courage to pursue what I love found me after two years into law school. I chose to save up to take a gap year feeding koalas in Brisbane. I chose to pursue my interest in the less conventional field of international law. And, in what was the most frightening moment of my parents’ lives, I chose, not to get a Training Contract (TC). I do not doubt most of us worked hard, even struggled, to be here. We can be so incredibly proud – those late nights, forfeiting recess weeks, Wikipedia-ing answers to tutorials. Still, it is difficult not to recognise the privilege we now have. NUS Law has privileged us with a legal education which, among many things, equipped us with the skills to stand up for others and ourselves.”

Quoting Oscar Wilde, he added, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that’s all”. I encourage all of us to value ourselves, and head out into the world to live.” The Valedictorian of the Class of 2021, Jerry Wang Qiyu ’21, was awarded the Chief Justice Prize, Leo Chia Heng Prize, and Lee Kuan Yew Gold Medal. He was also awarded the Law Society Book Prize for Top 2 Students consecutively in AY18/19 and AY19/20, as well as subject prizes – the Rajah & Tann Tax Prize, Lucien Wong Corporate Finance Law Prize, and Tan Sook Yee Property Law Prize. He was also the Champion for the Attorney General Cup 2019 and represented New York University (NYU) in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot during his Master of Laws at NYU.

He shared in his speech that, “Our sense of duty and responsibility to society must always remain unchanged. Our legal training has equipped us with the ability to look at issues from a different perspective, to understand issues from a legal standpoint. Such skill is truly a privilege, empowering us to help people in society who may not know about their rights; who may not how to defend themselves in law. Let us muster our courage to step into our careers, be open-minded and flexible to adapt to the changing times but at the same time, never forget our duty and responsibility.”