This is the first publication by Academy Publishing, a new division of the Singapore Academy of Law

Singapore, 18 May 2007 – Lawyers in Singapore will now have a manual to guide them through the many ethical issues that they will inevitably face in their professional life.

Ethics and Professional Responsibility: A Code for the Advocate and Solicitor, by Dr Jeffrey Pinsler, is a work that was specially commissioned by the Honourable the Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong. 

Dr Pinsler, Professor of law at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore took just one year to review the various rules and principles of legal professional conduct to compile the code and complete the book.

CJ Chan who launched the book today said, “In view of the long-standing ethical problems faced by the legal profession, and in particular by a section of the Bar currently, it seemed somehow odd to me that we did not have a convenient and accessible source, such as a code, of the principles of professional ethics and conduct that our lawyers have to follow and live by everyday of their professional lives.”

“Each practitioner should have a copy of this book on his table at all times to remind him of the high ethical standards the profession demands from him.”

To raise the standard of legal knowledge and practice of our future lawyers, the Academy will be presenting newly admitted advocates and solicitors at the coming Mass Call on 26 May 2007 with a complimentary copy of the book to encourage them to start their careers as ethical and responsible lawyers.

Launch of Academy Publishing (新加坡法律学会出版部)

Ethics and Professional Responsibility: A Code for the Advocate and Solicitor is the first publication by Academy Publishing, a new division under the Singapore Academy of Law.

CJ Chan who also launched Academy Publishing today said that it is not the intention for Academy Publishing to become a purely commercial publishing house. The priority of Academy Publishing in the next few years will be to publish books on areas of law that fulfil practice and student needs. 

The aims of this new division are threefold: to provide affordable legal materials to the legal profession and law students; to provide an alternative avenue to academics in the two law schools in Singapore to publish their writings; and to disseminate the laws of Singapore to a wider public in the region or internationally.

In line with the third objective, CJ Chan announced that, “In future, we, the Judges, would like counsel who wish to cite court decisions in support of their arguments to give priority to Singapore court decisions if the relevant points of law have already been considered by our courts.”  He said that this practice would help to build up, over the years, a large body of local jurisprudence.

To encourage lawyers, students and the public to own and refer to more law books, Academy Publishing aims to price its books at least 50% lower than most comparable law text books currently in the market. These publications will be made available at major stores and through the Academy’s website.

A Commissioning Panel has been set up to identify the titles that the Academy should publish in the near term. The Panel is chaired by the Honourable Justice Andrew Phang Boon Leong, himself an established and respected author of many leading text books.

Academy Publishing will produce two series of books: the Law Practice Series and the Monographs Series. It expects to bring out at least 15 new titles over the next two to three years. The authors of these books will include judges, legal academics and senior counsel.

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About the author

Dr Jeffrey Pinsler is Professor of law at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore specialising in civil justice, civil and criminal evidence, procedure and dispute resolution. He is an advocate and solicitor, barrister-at-law, a member of the regional panel of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, a Fellow of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, an accredited mediator of the Singapore Mediation Centre, and also a member of various professional committees of legal and governmental institutions including the Singapore Academy of Law and the Supreme Court. He has appeared as amicus curiae before the Court of Appeal and has spoken at, and contributed to, conferences and reform programmes in various countries. He is currently an ad hoc Deputy Registrar of the Subordinate Courts.

Dr Pinsler published his first book (Evidence, Advocacy and the Litigation Process) in 1992 and his second (Civil Procedure) in 1994. Both were instantly hailed as ground-breaking works in their respective areas. He has since earned a reputation as a leading author in the fields of Evidence and Procedure. He has produced thirteen major works to date in his capacity as writer and/or general editor. Several of these are core references for practitioners and are also regularly cited by the courts. In 2004, he was conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D) for his contributions to learning.

About SAL

The Singapore Academy of Law is the umbrella membership body of the legal profession in Singapore.  Our members include the Judiciary, private practitioners, the Government Legal Service, corporate lawyers and faculty members of law schools. The Honourable the Chief Justice of Singapore is the President of the Academy.

The Academy’s activities are driven by three strategic priorities – enhancing legal knowledge, improving efficiency of legal practice through the use of technology, and supporting the legal industry. The work in each of these areas is directed towards raising the standards and quality of legal practice and building a strong legal community in Singapore.

Members are kept updated on the latest developments impacting the profession, through a series of continuing legal education programmes which the Academy organises every year. The Academy also supports research into law reform and legal heritage, is the official law reporting agency in Singapore and is actively engaged in the publishing of other legal texts. On the technology front, the Academy is responsible for the development and management of LawNet, an IT portal which provides users instant access to a wide range of legal information and transactional databases.

Under its SingaporeLaw initiative, the Academy actively promotes the use of Singapore’s legal and dispute resolution services to the region. A subsidiary of the Academy, The Singapore Mediation Centre, focuses on providing commercial mediation services and conducts mediation training workshops regionally. The newly formed Academy Publishing aims to provide affordable legal materials to practitioners and students, to offer an alternative avenue to academics to publish their works; and to disseminate the laws of Singapore to a wider public.

More information can be found at www.sal.org.sg]