TEMASEK LAUNCHES SUSTAINABILITY GUIDELINES FOR LAWYERS
New guidelines help promote a healthy and sustainable workplace environment for lawyers.
BY JOSHUA NEOH
Being “on call” after hours and even on weekends is unfortunately a common feature in practice today, says Mr Gregory Tan (Joint Head of Legal & Regulatory at Temasek). This explains why Temasek’s new guidelines for sustainability in the profession include a pillar aptly titled “respecting rest periods”, calling on managers to respect the right to personal downtime.
The pillar is one of four guidelines, each designed to enhance the profession's well-being and contribute to maintaining a continuous pipeline of legal talent in Singapore. The guidelines were launched on 15 July at an event attended by over 100 representatives from the Judiciary, Attorney-General’s Chambers, Singapore Academy of Law, Law Society of Singapore, Singapore Corporate Counsel Association, Mindful Business Singapore, and partners and associates of international and local law firms.
The Honourable Justice Valerie Thean, who co-chairs the Judiciary’s Ethics and Professional Standards Committee, spoke at the event. She welcomed the guidelines, noting that they addressed several issues raised by a survey of young lawyers that the Committee and SAL conducted last year. “We found that the top three enablers of conducive work culture were a balanced lifestyle, reasonable workload, and good leadership. On the other hand, the top three things that affected them severely were harassment, excessive workload, and the culture of unethical behaviour. Not paying sufficient attention to the mental wellness of employees also increases the risk of unethical conduct.”
The guidelines address many of these points in its pillars:
Ms Png Chin Yee, Chief Financial Officer at Temasek, welcomed the guidelines and what it signified. “We have to appreciate that each successive generation is shaped by their own experiences, and is different. We all need to develop new ways of nurturing our juniors in order to realise their talent and their potential.” To prevent young legal professionals from burning out, it is crucial to take positive steps towards creating a positive work environment. She also added that the sustainability of the legal profession is good business as high rates of attrition and a constant churn create costs, ranging from the costs of foregone training and mentoring to the loss of valuable client knowledge and relationships. This generates time, resource, and cost inefficiencies.
Preventing young lawyers from burning out is especially crucial not just at the individual level, but also for the entire legal community. Mr Gregory Tan stressed the need to retain legal talent in the profession for Singapore to remain and thrive as a legal hub. “We will always need capable and talented legal minds to advise companies, businesses, and individuals. As a consumer of legal services, Temasek is very conscious of the need to ensure that we not only have access to the best legal talent, but that law firms we work with have resilient teams.” He further emphasised that it is imperative for legal teams to know their clients’ business well and understand their risk appetites, which can only be achieved through sustained engagement and a stable client service team.
At the close of the event, Mr Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara, Temasek’s Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, highlighted that a sustainable profession is not simply essential for the success of legal practices and their clients, but for its “public function in society, whether it be in the social space, or the economic space”. Sustainability of the profession will depend on people, and by introducing the right values, the right culture can be put in place in the profession. Indeed, the influence of the legal community stretches into many other areas of society. Hence, it is crucial to focus on the sustainability and health of our legal workforce.
The conversation on championing sustainability in the legal profession continues at SAL’s upcoming Legal Profession Symposium, where speakers include Justice Thean, Dr Stanley Lai SC, Mr Jason Chan SC and Mr Siraj Omar SC. The event is C$-redeemable and limited slots are available; register here.
