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December 2017 ISSN: 0219 - 6441 Honouring EW Barker PLUS NUS Law Celebrates Moot Victories Diamond Jubilee New Centre for Pro Bono Efforts Faculty Features Book Launches Pioneer Graduates Welcome New Generation New Masters in International Arbitration REUNIONS! & Dispute Resolution Classes of 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997 & 2007 THE ALUMNI MAGAZINE OF From left: Ambassador-at-Large Professor Tommy Koh ‘61, Dean of NUS Law Professor Simon Chesterman, THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE former Chief Justice Mr Chan Sek Keong ‘61, Emeritus Professor Koh Kheng Lian ‘61, FACULTY OF LAW Ms Tan Leng Fong ‘61 and Mr Amarjeet Singh SC ‘61 PIONEER GRADUATES WELCOME NEXT GENERATION The Class of 1961 joined the Class of 2017 at this year’s Commencement on 8 July at the University Cultural Centre Members of the Class of 1961 at Commencement 2017. Front row (from left): Ms Aileen Lim, Ms Tan Leng Fong, and Emeritus Professor Koh Kheng Lian Back row (from left): Ambassador-at-Large Professor Tommy Koh, Mr Foo Yew Heng, Mr Amarjeet Singh SC, former Chief Justice Mr Chan Sek Keong, and former Solicitor- General Mr Koh Eng Tian This year marked the 60th Anniversary of firms thought that those who qualified As over 300 of this year’s graduates sat the first intake of law students at NUS in England had a superior hallmark. among the faculty’s pioneer batch and and the Faculty was particularly delighted But the Class of 1961 quickly put that renowned members of our alumni, it was to welcome eight members from this misconception right. I would like to a timely reminder of how the Class of 1961 first cohort (the Class of 1961) who were recognise three of them whom as a law set the bar high for all the generations present to share the celebrations! student I looked up to. Chan Sek Keong, that have followed, each breaking the finest legal mind Singapore has down barriers for the next generation of Presiding over the ceremony was former known. Tommy Koh, the finest diplomat legal pioneers. Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, NUS Singapore has produced. T.P.B. Menon ‘61, Pro-Chancellor, and the guest speaker Singapore’s finest Chancery lawyer until Reuben Ong ’17, valedictorian for the was the Honourable V.K. Rajah SC ‘82, he left active practice. Two of them are Class of 2017, thanked professors and former Attorney-General and Judge here today to personally welcome you loved ones. Addressing his classmates, of Appeal. The Class of 1961 was also to the legal fraternity and demonstrably Reuben said, “I’m sure all of us have represented by Ambassador-at-Large show that the legal profession is more experienced moments in law school when Professor Tommy Koh, Emeritus Professor than a business. We are a community we felt that the challenges and difficulties Koh Kheng Lian, Ms Tan Leng Fong, bound together by shared values, ethical that we faced were almost overwhelming Ms Aileen Lim, Mr Amarjeet Singh SC, precepts and common aspirations.” – the weeks were short but days were Mr Foo Yew Heng, and former Solicitor- long, and every moment seemed to General Mr Koh Eng Tian. He also had this advice for the Class of have an opportunity cost attached. In 2017, “You must have a deep appreciation such circumstances, a kind word or In tribute to the pioneer class, that the practice of law is ultimately caring gesture can go a long way, and Mr V.K. Rajah said, “The Class of 1961, about values and that it has a real impact I hope that we will continue as a batch Singapore’s very first law graduates, is on people’s lives. As professionals, we to support one another in this way, even well represented here. Some of them subscribe to higher values that must if we find ourselves seated on opposite initially faced some job discrimination. always include fair play.” ends of the table.” Englishmen who then ran the largest law 02 LAWLINK 2017 CONTENTS 03 CONTENTS 4 8 24 34 44 47 Dean’s Diary 60th Anniversary Special Faculty Highlights Student Features Alumni Spotlight Reunions NUS Law Celebrates 8 Long Service Awards 2017 24 NUS Law Students Launch 34 Kenneth Lim ’04: 44 Class of 1982 47 Diamond Jubilee Guidebook on Practice of Defying Law of the Odds 6 Alan Tan ’93 & Swati Jhaveri Win 25 Muslim Law Class of 1987 48 Home is Where the Heart is 12 Teaching Excellence Award Law Alumni Mentor Programme 46 Benefactors AG Lucien Wong SC ’78 Delivers 37 Class of 1992 49 60th Anniversary Alumni 14 NUS Law Recognises Students’ 26 SLR Annual Lecture Movie Night: Justice League Pro Bono Initiatives Class of 1997 50 Law IV: Judicial Review 38 NUS Law Honours Singapore’s 16 International Advisory Panel 28 Class of 2007 51 Pioneer Law Minister EW Barker Visits NUS Law RAG & Flag 39 Shanghai Reunion 52 New Centre for Pro Bono Efforts 18 5th Asian Law Schools 28 Moot Victories 40 Deans’ Forum London Reunion 53 New at NUS Law: International 20 Arbitration & Dispute Resolution SAL Undergraduate Scholarship 29 LL.M. (IADR) Established for Needy Students 54 Meet the Faculty 22 Kwa Geok Choo Distinguished 30 Visitors Lectures NUS Giving Book Launches 32 Alumni Scholarship a Boon 54 for Law Student Saw Swee Hock Centennial 36 Professorial Lecture Young Alumna Believes in Giving Back Early Alumni Relations & Development NUS Law Eu Tong Sen Building 469G Bukit Timah Road Singapore 259776 Tel: (65) 6516 3616 Fax: (65) 6779 0979 Email: [email protected] www.nuslawlink.com www.law.nus.edu.sg/alumni Please update your particulars at: www.law.nus.edu.sg/alumni/alumni_update_particulars.asp 04 LAWLINK 2017 DEAN’S DIARY 05 supply of lawyers. (I hasten to add that DEAN’S DIARY all of our graduates who seek training contracts continue to get them.) The importance of the rule of law to A diamond jubilee is a time for celebration, to look backwards as well as Singapore is no longer questioned, forwards. This year, we have aimed to do all three of these things in celebration however, and indeed NUS Law is not of sixty years of legal education at NUS Law. only expected to produce highly-qualified graduates, but also help position Singapore as a thought-leader in legal research. We have had parties, as at the 60th Anniversary Celebration Dinner and So, in one sense, a law school is a set of the Alumni Movie Night. We have studied buildings; in another, it is a set of ideas. our history, in the form of a special issue Yet even the finest classrooms and the of the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies richest body of scholarship would be and a commemorative volume written by nothing without the people that pass 60th Anniversary Celebration Dinner. From left: Dean Simon Chesterman, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon ’86, our own Kevin Tan ’86. And we are laying through those halls and engage with Ms Olivia Anne D’Costa ’86, Professor S. Jayakumar ’63 and NUS President Designate Professor Tan Eng Chye the foundation for the future through the that material. And so the history of NUS NUS Law Student Support Fund, to ensure Law is, ultimately, a story of teachers and Singapore on the international stage. Still that all deserving students can take full of students. others use their legal training to start new advantage of a legal education without ventures in the corporate world, or apply regard to their financial circumstances. In six decades, NUS Law has seen their skills with language as playwrights hundreds of full-time and adjunct faculty or actors. For my own part, during this year, I have teach more than ten thousand students. repeatedly come back to a very basic Today, we are widely recognised as the The story of NUS Law is, therefore, question: What is a law school? best law school in Asia. That status is the story of an institution and of its based, to some extent, on the quality of evolving role in Singapore. But the In one sense, a law school is a set of our faculty and the research we produce. richness of that tale lies in the lived buildings. And the history of NUS Law is, experiences of the men and women in part, a tale of architecture. But the rankings that support such a claim who studied and taught, mooted and make clear that our greatest asset is not our published, graduated from and gave The campus on which the first Singaporean facilities or even the knowledge created back to their alma mater — through law students were admitted, sixty years here — it is our students and our alumni. their achievements, their financial Jessup Moot Champions 1982. From left: Former ago, nestles at the edge of the Botanic support, and the opportunities that they Attorney-General V.K. Rajah SC ‘82, Davinder Singh Over sixty years, our alumni have gone create for the next generation of NUS SC ‘82, Judge of Appeal Steven Chong SC ‘82 and Gardens, its whitewashed cloisters Jimmy Yim SC ‘82 chosen from an Empire-wide architectural on to leadership roles in all parts of the Law students. competition. Those students enrolled as Singapore profession, as well as top law over sixty years. Thank you for all your colonial subjects in the new Department firms in New York and London, Shanghai The history of NUS Law is, then, support up to now. And thank you for all of Law of the University of Malaya; they and Hong Kong. your history. that we aspire to do together in the future.