Disputes
Disputes Tip 4:
You Are A Lawyer: Reading Your 1,000th Email and Losing Yourself in Disputes Practice
Is this what it means to be a lawyer? You have waded through a thousand documents – from emails about extraordinary general meetings to invoices for the supply of concrete. Discovery of documents feels endless. You try to remember the thrill and challenge of law school, and even the guilty pleasure of legal dramas like “Suits” and “Silk.” Closer to home, the colorful characters of Subhas Anandan and Adrian Tan come to mind. But now, as you glance at your partners’ golf appointment on the shared calendar, you wonder: What defines lawyering?
Our short answer: we are problem-solvers for the ends of justice, and we do it both as a noble profession and as a business (in that order). In our Disputes Practice Tips, we will not resort to the lawyer’s favourite answer of “it depends.” Just as in court (and with your senior!) answer the question directly first, and only then explain.
We now explain the nuances. First, ask 5 senior lawyers what defines a lawyer, and you’ll get 10 different answers. Second, the legal industry itself is changing. Chief Justice Menon has said in his 2024 Opening of the Legal Year speech that the legal industry is at an inflexion point. He has even cited a generational gap between practitioners and the need for future-readiness in the face of technological advancements. Earlier in 2023 in the Mass Call speech, CJ Menon also considered how generative AI may cause the law firms of the future to comprise multi-disciplinary teams of lawyers, legal technologists and allied legal professionals.
What then is the goal for these Dispute Practice Tips? We provide a scaffold – a foundation of mindsets, skills, and habits for effective lawyering. If it is not timeless principles, then it will certainly something you can adapt as a future-ready lawyer.
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Disputes Tip 1: Guidelines on Engaging Expert Witnesses Disputes Tip 2: Why is closing submission the first step in trial preparation? |
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