December 2012 ISSN: 0219-6441 Chan Sek Keong The Accidental Lawyer Against All Odds Interview with Nicholas Aw Be The Change Sustainable Development from Scraps THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE FACULTY OF LAW Contents DEAN’S MESSAGE A law school, more so than most professional schools at a university, is people. We have no laboratories; our research does not depend on expensive equipment. In our classes we use our share of information technology, but the primary means of instruction is the interaction between individuals. This includes teacher and student interaction, of course, but as we expand our project- based and clinical education programmes, it also includes student-student and student-client interactions. 03 Message From The Dean MESSAGE FROM The reputation of a law school depends, almost entirely, on the reputation of its people — its faculty LAW SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS THE DEAN and staff, its students, and its alumni — and their 05 Benefactors impact on the world. 06 Class Action As a result of the efforts of all these people, NUS 07 NUS Law in the World’s Top Ten Schools Law has risen through the ranks of our peer law 08 NUS Law Establishes Centre for Asian Legal Studies schools to consolidate our reputation as Asia’s leading law school, ranked by London’s QS Rankings as the 10 th p12 09 Asian Law Institute Conference 10 NUS Law Alumni Mentor Programme best in the world. 11 Scholarships in Honour of Singapore’s First CJ Let me share with you just a few examples of some of the achievements this year by our faculty, our a LAWMNUS FEATURES students, and our alumni. 12 Chan Sek Keong ’61: The Accidental Lawyer 15 AG Steven Chong ’82: The Art & Craft of Litigation OUTSTANDING FACULTY 18 Priscilla Shunmugam ’06: Dressed For Success Our faculty continues to grow in number and prestige. 20 Nicholas Aw ’97: Against All Odds In 2012, we launched the new Centre for Asian 22 Pamela Yeo ’11: Be the Change — Legal Studies, which is fast becoming a global centre Sustainable Development from Scraps of excellence for the study of law in Asia. Our aim is p18 nothing less than to move the focus of Asian legal CLASS REUNIONS studies as a discipline from Europe and North America 24 Homecoming Dinner@BTC: to Singapore. A Reunion for the Classes of 1974 – 77 NUS Law faculty, in addition to teaching, produced 26 Class of ’92 Reunion: The Event Worth Waiting For impactful scholarship — ranging from textbooks 28 Alumni Day 2012 at Bukit Timah Campus that define a field to insightful articles that reshape 29 NUS International Business Law LL.M. thinking about an issue. We continued to engage Alumni Reception directly with the profession, notably through pro bono work that frequently involves students, but also “A LAW SCHOOL, MORE SO on issues of law reform where our views are sought THAN MOST PROFESSIONAL by government. p22 FACULTY FEATURE 30 Long Service Award Tribute SCHOOLS AT A UNIVERSITY, IS PEOPLE.” Do you have news that you would like to share with us, or have an announcement you want to make to your old schoolmates? We want to hear from you! Write to us at: email: [email protected] Golden Years Project — Helping those in need tel: (65) 6516 3616 HIGH-ACHIEVING STUDENTS Our students continued to excel both in the classroom fax: (65) 6779 0979 and beyond. Among many academic prize winners, this year’s Update your personal particulars at: valedictorian, Amos Toh ’12, topped the first class www.law.nus.edu.sg/alumni/update_particulars.asp honours list at NUS Law and then found out the next week that he had also come first in the Traditional LawLink. NUS Faculty of Law LL.M. at NYU, where he completed his NUS LL.B. under 469G Bukit Timah Road, Eu Tong Sen Building, our concurrent degree programme with NYU. Singapore 259776 website: www.nuslawlink.com www.law.nus.edu.sg/alumni 3 Law School Highlights Other prizes established this year include the David Ernest S. Chelliah Medal and Prize and the Roger Fisher Prize in Negotiation. Such awards encourage our students to ever greater achievements, as well as honouring the names of individuals who offer role models and inspiration to us all. ENGAGED ALUMNI BENEFACTORS Valedictorian Amos Toh delivers his moving Our alumni continued to make us proud, with many speech at this year’s commencement. From January 2012 – October 2012 achievements worthy of recognition. Among these, we Our students also had great success in mooting and celebrated with former Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong other international competitions. Among other ’61 the end of an illustrious career on the bench. achievements, Benjamin Moh ’12 and Eddy Hirono He is succeeded by another alumnus, Chief Justice ’13 won the International Negotiation Competition Sundaresh Menon ’86. Another senior appointment (INC) in Belfast, UK; second year LL.B. students Trent was that of Attorney-General Steven Chong ’82, who DEAN’S CIRCLE — ALUMNI CIRCLE — FACULTY CIRCLE — Ng ’15, Ramandeep Kaur ’15 and Larisa Cheng ’15 also serves on our new Advisory Council, chaired by ABOVE $1,000 UP TO $1,000 UP TO $500 came in tops at the inaugural International Banking former Deputy Prime Minister Prof S. Jayakumar ’63. Allen & Gledhill Scholarship Asia-Pacific Centre For Environmental Law (APCEL) Class of 1995 Award and Investment Law (IBAIL) Moot Court Competition Alumni contribute to the life of NUS Law in many Allen & Gledhill LLP Lye Lin Heng, Irene ’73 Quark Kok Sin, David ’95 2012, held at Jaipur, India; while Kelvin Chong ’15 ways. In November we launched a new NUS Law Class of 1986 Bennett Lam Scholarship Fund APAA Book Prize Faculty of Law General Account and Xiao Hongyu ’14 won the Asian British Alumni Mentor Programme (“LAMP”). This initiative Chang Cheng Mei, Caroline ’86 Asian Patent Attorneys Association — Kwek Jin Peng, Yvonne ’06 Parliamentary Debating Championships 2012, held in links first and second year students with recent alumni, Lee Ho Wah ’86 Singapore Group Tan Wei Chean, Paul ’10 Jakarta, Indonesia. who can provide insights and guidance to the practice Sundaresh Menon ’86 Yeap Poh Leong, Andre ’86 Class of 1992 Pro Bono Grant Kwa Geok Choo Bursary of law. At the same time, we hope the programme will Liow Wang Wu ’92 Ang Carolyn provide an opportunity for greater engagement with David Ernest S. Chelliah Prize Yip Hsien Chang ’92 Annaik Limited our alumni. Jazmyn Chelliah JS Process System Pte Ltd Law Club Book Grant L & P Blasting & Coating Co Kwa Geok Choo Bursary Allen & Gledhill LLP Topsteel Solutions Asia Pte Ltd Aranda Investments Pte Ltd Chew Sui Gek, Magdalene ’95 Drew & Napier LLC Harry Elias Partnership LLP Lee Sheridan Legal Education Fund Heat Exchangers Specialist (S) Pte Ltd HOH Law Corporation A Navanitha ’12 Lee & Lee NUS Law Students Ang Wei Ming, Gregory ’12 Lee Hsien Loong Shook Lin & Bok LLP Chan Mei Sum ’12 Coach Associate Professor Joel Lee, Benjamin Tan Kwang Hwee Straits Law Practice LLC Chen De Zhi, Daniel ’12 Moh ’12, Eddy Hirono ’13, INC Exco member Wong Boon Huat Chen Jing LLM ’12 Professor Nancy Schultz. Lionel A. Sheridan Professorship of Law Cheow Jing Xuan ’12 Kwa Geok Choo Distinguished Visitor Yusuf Jumabhoy Dilip s/o Vasu Theavan ’12 We also had the opportunity to award new prizes Mentors and Mentees get a chance to meet Wing Tai Foundation Er Ewen ’12 WongPartnership LLP Kwa Geok Choo Bursary Fatin Nadiah Bte Masud ’12 and scholarships, notably our first Wee Chong Jin each other at the recent official launch of the programme on campus. Allalloy Dynaweld Pte Ltd Gatot Prasetyo Soemartono PHD ’12 Scholarship in Law. The award is to support law Kwa Geok Choo Professorship in Property Law Chia Kuan Wee Jikku Seban George LLM ’12 students pursuing their undergraduate studies at Another way in which alumni can contribute is through Rajah & Tann LLP Ho Gim Hai, Sam Johannus Houston Tian Jin ’12 Ngee Ann Kongsi Mclink Asia Pte Ltd Koh Rui Zhen, Clara ’12 NUS Law who embody similar values to the late Mr donating to NUS Law. We are lucky to have the support Singapore Press Holdings Limited Rotating Offshore Systems Pte Ltd Lee Jian Le, Marcus ’11 Wee. In celebration of their 110 th anniversary, Allen of government in offering a solid foundation for our Lee Ming-Le, Jonathan ’10 & Gledhill also made a generous contribution to activities. But to reach the very top tier of law schools Kwa Geok Choo Scholarship Shook Lin & Bok Fund for Annual Maintenance Li Weiduo ’12 Tote Board of Undergraduate and Graduate Student Lounges Lim Ruo Lin ’12 support academically outstanding but financially in the world — and to ensure that in doing so we do Aranda Investments Pte Ltd Shook Lin & Bok LLP Lim Xinxuan, Bernice ’12 needy students. not leave deserving students behind — we must seek Stamford Law Corporation Lim Zi Yao ’12 additional support from the wider community. Muhammad Asfian Bin Mohaimi ’12 Lee Sheridan Legal Education Fund NUS America Foundation, Inc The Class of 1992 offers an example of how much of Foo Tuat Yien ’76 Poh Zi Mi, Charmaine ’12 a difference this can make. At their 20 th year reunion, KhattarWong LLP Poon Kal-Lynn ’12 they established a new Pro Bono Fund, which will Kronenburg Edmund Jerome ’96 Poon Pui Yee ’12 Lai Siu Chiu ’72 Prateek Sharma LLM ’12 encourage and support the pro bono activities of NUS Law School Class of 1991 Quek Jun Haw, Joey ’12 future generations of students. Other alumni support Teoh Su-Ling, Linda ’90 Quek Wei Bin ’12 enables needy students to attend law school with less Tnee Zixian, Keith ’10 Shen Haoyu LLM ’09 Wu Di Tan Xiang Yun, Brenda ’12 worry about the financial impact on their families, Tan Yee Kiat ’12 Mrs Cecilia Wee Chong Jin (centre) introducing or enables us to expand our academic offerings by Lionel A.