It was eye-opening to read Justice Choo Han Teck’s grounds of decision regarding the issue of the lawyer who was unqualified to supervise legal trainees on their journey to be called to the Singapore Bar.
The incident has exposed a literal lacuna in the law, when it comes to learning and development in Singapore’s legal fraternity.
As Justice Choo Han Teck said in his introduction, this case really raises more questions than answers.
Personally, I’m curious to know:
- How the supervisor was allowed to supervise the trainee, despite the former not being qualified to do so;
- If there were similar cases prior to this one – i.e. a trainee being called to the bar despite having an unqualified supervisor – that have gone under the radar; and
- What safeguards will be put in place to prevent this from happening again.
On the same topic about lacunae and that law, I was pleasantly surprised to hear about Lacuna Training Solutions!
Founded in 2017 by Sim Khadijah Binte Mohammed, Lacuna is Singapore’s first dedicated legal skills training firm with a special focus on developing young lawyers.
For laymen like me with a soft-spot for puns and aptly-named businesses or products, a “lacuna in the law” is a form of jargon specific to the legal industry.
The phrase refers to gaps or imperfections in the law, where loopholes may exist or exploitations may occur.
It’s a delightful company name in the context of legal training, given the core business of people development: identifying learning needs and addressing them for individual and organisational growth.
