The Law Society of Singapore: Community Legal Clinics

The Law Society of Singapore runs the Community Legal Clinics (“clinics”), which assist needy Singaporeans and Permanent Residents facing legal issues on personal matters where they are not represented by a lawyer. At the clinics, applicants will be able to consult a qualified lawyer in a one-off, 20-minute session for basic legal advice and guidance. 

An applicant must register with the Pro Bono Service Office (“PBSO”) before an appointment is made for one of the above clinics. During the registration, which is usually conducted over the telephone, the applicant will be screened for eligibility. If the applicant qualifies for assistance, his or her particulars will then be taken down. A preliminary interview will also be conducted to obtain the salient facts of the case and the queries of the applicant. All this information will be compiled into case lists, which are provided to the volunteer lawyers prior to the clinic sessions so that they may conduct conflict checks as well as prepare accordingly.

 

Community Legal Clinic Network 
 

Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with the Mayors of the North West, South West, South East and Central Community Development Councils (“CDCs”) on 12 September 2014, PBSO is expanding its Community Legal Clinic Network (the “Network”) by inviting non-PBSO administered clinics (“independent clinics”) to join the Network. Currently, there are over 50 independent clinics operating across the island.

By joining the Network, volunteer lawyers would be afforded professional indemnity insurance coverage when conducting pro bono legal clinics within the community. In addition, we have put in place an improved support structure for lawyers who are running the clinics within our Network. Other benefits for Network members include:

1. Access to a larger resource pool of volunteers where PBSO helps with recruitment whilst clinics retain discretion to accept/reject proposed volunteers.

 

2. Capacity building materials and reference guides such as the Community Legal Clinic Network manual, English to Malay/Mandarin Legal Glossary and pro bono practice newsletter. 

 

3. Paralegal support from law students (there is greater interest among students if the clinic is registered with the Singapore Institute of Legal Education (“SILE”) so they receive hours accredited). 

 

4. Training for clinic managers and call centre based on our current model.

 

5. Standard Operating Procedures and disclaimer of liability forms and feedback form.

 

6. Freedom to continue with current mode of operations and systems in place.

 

7. IT system to help track appointments and flag applicants who have sought legal advice elsewhere in the network.

 

8. Volunteer Clinic Managers.

 

9. Onward referrals to sources of legal aid and social service support. 

Mr Cyril Chua, Chairperson of the Community Legal Clinic Committee (“CLC Committee”) which oversees the Community Legal Clinic initiative, shared that one of the main obstacles in setting up the Network is that many of the existing independent clinics are an extension of the services offered by community centres. These independent clinics report to the management committees of the respective community centres and would require the latter’s permission to join the Network. In order to overcome this, the CLC Committee has engaged in dialogues with various stakeholders, including the mayor’s representatives as well as the management committee of the community centres.

As a result of the CLC Committee’s efforts, to date, around 10 clinics have signed MOU to be in the Network. We are confident that with more clinics joining the Network, we will be able to better reach out to deserving and needy individuals in the community requiring legal advice and guidance.

Clinics that are interested to be part of this Network or who wish to find out more, may e-mail us at volunteer_pbso@lawsoc.org.sg with the subject header “NETWORK”.

 

Mentoring Programme
 

The CLC Committee plans to conduct outreach to new members of the Bar to get more lawyers involved in the community legal clinics. In order to nurture new volunteer lawyers, the CLC Committee will also be introducing a mentoring programme for junior lawyers. This could take the form of on-site monitoring of junior lawyers by senior practitioners, or a roster of senior practitioners that junior lawyers can call during clinic sessions for guidance. In addition, the CLC Committee is also looking at establishing Centres of Mentoring, which are clinics with senior volunteers who are willing to take new volunteer lawyers as understudies.

 

Volunteer Clinic Management Programme
 

Under the Volunteer Clinic Management programme, volunteers will receive training on clinic operations, including setting up of premises, managing volunteer students, lawyers and applicants, ensuring compliance with standard operating procedures, as well as other administrative duties. Once they have completed the training and assessment, these volunteer clinic managers will be equipped to run clinic operations independently and can then be deployed to assist at legal clinics across the island.

Potential volunteers include law students, administrators of non-PBSO clinics and paralegals. This programme is not open to the general public due to the sensitive and confidential nature of the information accessible to the clinic manager, in particular the case lists.

Volunteer clinic managers will be exposed to the various legal issues faced by the man on the street, thereby gaining a more holistic understanding of the legal landscape in Singapore. At the same time, they will also develop soft skills, such as time and crisis management, service recovery and leadership. 

Law firms and in-house counsel teams who wish to include their support staff in pro bono work may wish to sign up for this programme. The in-house legal team at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, for example, is one of the pioneers of this programme. 

 

Clinic Volunteer Lawyers Referral Directory
 

After receiving legal advice at the clinics, applicants often require further assistance. In such cases, the clinic lawyers would usually refer the applicants to the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, Legal Aid Bureau or the Primary Justice Project, depending on the nature of their case. However, it has been noted that the clinics are seeing a large number of applicants in the “sandwich class”, who are not able to afford legal services but yet do not qualify for assistance under these schemes.

To address this issue, the CLC Committee is working on compiling a referral directory, which would contain a list of law firms and/or lawyers, categorised by the various areas of specialty, who are willing to charge lower fees for deserving applicants. The list may then be provided to needy applicants who require further assistance but are unable to engage a lawyer at the full market rate. 

 

Conclusion
 

The CLC Committee’s goal for 2016 is to have at least 70per cent of all lawyers providing pro bono legal advice in the community to be working under the umbrella of the Law Society’s Clinic Network by the end of the year. To achieve this, members of the CLC Committee will be stepping up their efforts to reach out to more independent clinics.

Moving forward, the CLC Committee hopes to set up centres of excellence where specialised clinics covering matrimonial and employment issues will be held.

Ultimately, Cyril sees the Community Legal Clinic initiative as an opportunity for all stakeholders involved to journey together to strengthen our community.

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