Nus law dean: Singapore actually has a shortage of lawyers

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

NUS LAW DEAN: SINGAPORE ACTUALLY HAS A SHORTAGE OF LAWYERS

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5 Nov 2014 - 6:43pm








Earlier this year, Law Minister K Shanmugam raised the alarm about an apparent “glut” of law graduates who are finding it difficult to find training contract and move on to securing a job as a lawyer.

(See: Shanmugam: There May Not Be Enough Law Jobs for Overseas Graduates)

He blamed the situation on the large number of Singaporeans going overseas to study law and coming back and expecting to be able to get a law job here.

Shanmugam gave the statistics that 90% of local law grads are able to secure training contracts while only 70% of overseas grads are able to do the same.
While Shanmugam insisted that he didn’t want to be discouraging people from studying law, it is clear that the hint was that we may have too many law graduates in Singapore, especially from overseas.

(See also: Shanmugam: Shortage of Law Jobs Due to Overseas S'porean Graduates, Not Foreigners
However, the NUS Dean of the Law Faculty, Simon Chesterman, recently wrote in to Straits Times saying that the suggestion that Singapore has too many law graduates is actually wrong.

Mr Chesterman pointed to the fact that Singapore has very low numbers of lawyers compared to some other developed nations.

He wrote that in Singapore, there is less than 1 lawyer to every 1000 people. In Hong Kong, the number is slightly more than 1 while in London it was 2.5 and in New York, it was well over 8.

Mr Chesterman suggested that Shanmugam was wrong to imply that Singapore has too many law graduates and he suggested instead that we should be allowing more lawyers to start practice.

He suggested that more training contract should be made available citing the shortage of lawyers that Singapore currently sees in certain areas including criminal law, family practice and probate.







Mr Chesterman also pointed out that the current glut is likely just a short term problem as the number of training contracts is at a mismatch with the number of graduates but in the long run, Singapore will need more lawyers.

It certainly seems that Shanmugam may have the situation wrong as Singapore does have very few lawyers compared to other countries and by going to the media and talking about the “shortage of law jobs for Singaporeans”, he is undoubtedly influencing some young Singaporeans to decide not to study law.

If the NUS Law Dean is right in pointing out the shortage of lawyers in certain areas, such suggestions by the law minister based on short-term trends will only serve to exacerbate the problem in the long run.

What do you think?

Related:
Glut Of Lawyers: A Case Of Miscalculation?


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