THE STRENGTH OF ADHD
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often viewed as a handicap, but as these SAL members show, it can be managed and mastered to help one thrive in practice.
BY NICHOLAS YONG
The term ADHD conjures up images of restlessness and students jumping off walls. Given these associations, how would people with the condition fare in the legal profession, long associated with trials, deep reading and a need for great focus? Speaking to SAL members with the condition, it’s clear that it can be managed, and ADHD may even be a tool to help them thrive.
Just ask Mr Wong Siew Hong, a partner at Eldan Law. Perhaps because of his condition, he has always been “restless” and averse to a deskbound, rigid structure. But those very qualities helped him reach a breakthrough in a murder trial early in his career.
Nearly 30 years ago, Siew Hong defended a client accused of handing a chopper to another man, who then used it to slash the victim to death. The star witness in the trial was an elderly woman who claimed to have seen the incident.
Instead of relying on testimony and assumptions, Siew Hong decided to visit the crime scene for himself. He visited the old estate and sketched the HDB blocks in question. Sketching the scene from the place where the witness claimed to have seen the incident allowed him to observe little details, such as the brickwork that partially blocked the view. He also noticed where the shadows lay and how the leaves on a nearby tree obscured the view of the crime scene. He thus concluded it would have been impossible for the witness to have seen what she claimed to have seen.
At the committal hearing, he confronted the witness with the sketch, and she admitted that she had only heard the men and did not actually see the incident as the bricks, shadows and leaves blocked her view. The murder charge was later withdrawn.
“You get to see things that you don’t see on paper,” reflects Siew Hong. “You get hyper-focused, curious and ask ‘How did this thing happen?’ mode. It really made a difference in that case, and many cases subsequently.”
Much later, he would later draw a link between this trait and his ADHD, which he was formally diagnosed with 15 years ago. “The diagnosis was distinguished for me and explained something I have lived with all my life. There are a whole bunch of reactions and emotions I’ve had to struggle and deal with. With the diagnosis, I know what it is.”
He adds, “If I had known what I know today when I was 18 years old, I think the trajectory of my life would be very different because I wouldn’t have gone down so many blind alleys. I was always thinking, ‘Something is wrong with me, I’m a bad person because of my ADHD. And after the diagnosis, I realise I’m not bad. I’m just different.”
“NOT A DEFICIT OF ATTENTION”
While its prevalence in the legal profession is unknown, a 2014 study by the Ministry of Health estimated that nearly 1 in 20 in Singapore have the condition. “ADHD is not a deficit of attention, it’s an issue with the regulation of attention. We can focus when we’re interested, contrary to popular belief,” says Ms Moonlake Lee, who is the founder and Executive Director of Unlocking ADHD.
Moonlake with the tools that help her manage her ADHD symptoms: a visual timer, to-do lists, journals and running
For proof of this, look no further than Moonlake’s career. She started her legal career in Canada, where she was drawn to entertainment law. “But instead, I ended up as a tax lawyer. It just didn’t click and I pursued my Masters of Law part-time while working full time and switched to practising intellectual property law."
"Juggling the workload of legal practice and studies was overwhelming and I left the law shortly after completing my graduate degree,” she says, almost ruefully. “Who knows where I would have ended up had I found my chosen path earlier? That’s the thing with individuals with ADHD: once people find their strengths, they become masters in their field.”
She urges those in a position of authority to help others find those strengths. “You may be a managing partner and have an associate who doesn’t do well with a certain type of file but excels in others. Have a conversation with them about what strengths they can bring; ultimately, it may not be a case of ADHD but such an approach may help the team overall.”
Such thoughtful conversations, instead of mindlessly branding people as “lazy” or “unmotivated” can help with the self-esteem issues that plague many with ADHD. “Kids with ADHD hear negative comments like ‘What’s wrong with you?’ all the time because of how we are: unable to sit still or having minds that go a hundred miles an hour,” recalls Moonlake. “But given the right conditions and support, we can excel and thrive.”
Fellow legal professional Mr Ahmad Nizam Abbas knows these self-esteem issues well. “I used to wonder why I did so badly in some subjects yet so well in others. I kept failing my maths and science tests every month but topped the class in several other subjects. His parents kept asking him how he could finish an entire encyclopaedia set and read the Complete Works of Shakespeare before he was 12, yet not achieve similar grades across all subjects.
It was through a psychiatrist friend that he learnt about the extreme contrast between lack of attentiveness and hyperfocusivity. “If I had no interest in the subject, nothing will go in. But when I am interested in something, there is no stopping me. I would read up anything and everything I could find, well beyond the textbooks.”
Ahmad, who runs Crescent Law Chambers, smiles as he recalls how people reacted to these. “Now when I look back, people would always say, ‘Ahmad, why is it you cannot sit still ?’.” That was certainly the case when he hunkered down during the circuit-breaker in 2020 to finish his chapters for Muslim Family Law in Singapore, which was published earlier this year. “The book was also partly due to ADHD,” he says with a laugh. “I was just so bored during Covid. I was sitting on it for so many years, but when Covid came, I put everything into that book.”
So maybe that’s why he sums up an ADHD diagnosis this way: “You will be surprised at what you discover. There is something you can find there that can be used as a strength.” It’s a view shared by Siew Hong as well: “Know yourself and calibrate how you respond and manage yourself. Don’t label yourself as having something wrong. There is nothing wrong with you.” Adds Moonlake, “Find out as much as you can, get a diagnosis done, find a community (like this). Don’t worry alone. Clarity of diagnosis and early treatment is needed.” And as our interviewees show, go on and live your best life.
Find out more about ADHD at www.unlockingadhd.com. SAL members interested in volunteering with the organisation can reach Moonlake at [email protected]. It welcomes lawyers who would like to volunteer with them in the areas of technology law, corporate law, and other areas of interest.
