My call was in September 2026. It was a culmination of over five and a half years of work. Four years of law school, 6 months of the bar course and examinations, a year of being a practice trainee and finally attending the hearing to be called as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore.

This is a picture of my wife and younger daughter in front of the Supreme Court. Coincidentally my younger daughter had home-based learning so I guess she went on an excursion to see how a court looked like.

My wife has been extremely supportive of my studies. I could not have spent the time I did on my studies without her understanding. As a side note, my business partners have been looking after my businesses well. As a side note, it pays to choose a good spouse and to work with capable and responsible people.

This photo was taken by Mr Loh. Mr Loh was my tutor in law school. He is also a fervent supporter of the SUSS School of Law football team. Was rather cool to have a tutor show up for your call. This is his LinkedIn post I got from a school mate. Oh yes, I think I need to update my LinkedIn. If anyone searches for me on social media, please note that I do not  access social media platforms often.

In the same vein, it pays to go to a good law school. I will get back to this a while later.

There were thirteen other people called to the bar on the same day. The hearing was before Justice Vinodh. During the call, he spoke about what it was to be an advocate. It kinda struck a chord. This is what I had been looking forward to. Advocating. Which is why I am taking this current path that I am on. When I first entered law school, I declared that my goal was to start my own law practice. This was the only way I could merge two interests of mine. A great interest in the law and the desire to manage my own business. My call to the bar was never the goal. It was the midway point, a necessary punctuation, towards the eventual goal of running a successful law business. It would be easy to say that I want to have a successful law business. But quantifying and qualifying that goal is different from verbalising it. While I was in law school, I encountered many who remarked that they would be interested in working together to start a law firm. So how do you quantify and qualify such a goal. Well to quantify would be to place numerical numbers to this goal. How much money do we have to make to make this business sustainable? How do we go about working towards this sustainable number? This is the reason why I decided to start blogging in the first place. It allows be a public platform to share what I am doing, my thoughts and beliefs and also to let the general public, anyone who can do a search online, to chance upon my blog. This is also the reason why I decided to have the arrangement I have with the law firm I am at now. I am with RLC Law Corporation. I am not drawing a salary. I am bringing in my own files and I bill according to certain parameters that the firm has set for me. The firm takes a share of my billings. Every month I start from zero. On top of having to do legal work, I need to manage my finances, my billings, service clients and look for new work. If I do not work, I will not get paid. Is that scary? For others, perhaps. For me, I find it exhilarating. I need to work backwards. Quantifying is all about numbers. You work backwards. The more you put yourself out there, the better people will look for you and give you work.

So how do I qualify the goal? If it is all about numbers, it would be reducing the legal practice to something that is purely profit driven. It is not wrong and in fact essential, to see law as a business that needs to be sustained. Even if you are not a rain maker, I believe it would be crystal clear to you that you need someone in the firm to bring in work so that the firm can bill and sustain its expenses, one of it being your salary. Qualifying is where being a good lawyer comes in. You need to be good at the law. Most of my clients are corporate clients. This is a result of my corporate background. I founded and am still a part owner of a corporate secretarial firm. A lot of my clients have been referring me corporate work. However, I long to advocate in court. I want to be someone that is comfortable with advocating for others. Qualifying this goal would be more difficult. What is comfortable? I cannot put it in words. I would like to be someone who individuals and companies can approach to give them a balanced and well though out solution to their issues. This is why I want to do my own files. I want to walk into court and address the court on behalf of my client.

So you know what? I went for a hearing at the Family Justice Courts two days after getting called. Oh and I did submissions for and attended a High Court hearing on my own. On the day of the hearing I was called to the bar for less than two weeks.

That’s Mr Ravi with me and the redacted clients. Oh another side note. Train at a good firm and get a good firm to do your practice. I trained at Meritus Law and it opened up my eyes to what is the gold standard when it comes to legal work. Every email is scrutinised, every submission is well thought through, every point of law well researched. Trust me, in my past work before becoming a lawyer, I’ve worked with lawyers from firms larger and perhaps with a better reputation. It was not so much the training. It was the chance to see what constitutes good work ethic and very good legal work. I had to leave for some reasons but perhaps if I were much younger and if I was ok to work as an associate I would have returned to the firm.

Then there is choosing a good firm to practice in. What is good for me may not be good for you. For me, I want to do my own files. Learn to bill, deal with clients on my own. I only need some support whenever I am unsure about certain matters. Corporate work is perhaps the best lane for my legal career. So how have I been doing since I got called? To date, I have 22 files of my own. I have another 29 leads which I am following up with for them to engage me for legal work. Most of these are corporate work. MAS applications, share transfers, reviewing contracts. I have clients who have me on a retainer as well. I am working on contractual claims and also a matter where a director breached duties. But you know what? I would like to be a good criminal lawyer. I attended a mention in the Youth Court this morning. Without counsel, the client would be lost. I visited the youth in the Boys’ Home. He needed me to explain what he was going through, what can he do and what was next. According to him, it made him calm down and feel better. I remember one of my criminal law tutors, Prof Ferlin, asking me what the issue was with my criminal law assignments. I told him that I was perhaps trying to hard for the accused. He remarked, “is that not what a defence lawyer should do?”. I am sure he was trying to encourage me and tell me that we should try our best within the limits of the law. It kinda stuck. Oh and when it comes to family law, making a therapeutic justice submission does pay dividends. At my first FJC hearing, I actually submitted that while the parties are no longer husband and wife due to their divorce, they never ceased to be parents to their son. The father, my client, should be given the right to see his son but we are amenable to any arrangement that may allay the mother’s concerns. Immediately the tone in chambers took a turn for the better. My client got what he was willing to accept and the mother was less acrimonious post hearing (My family law tutor Ms Ruth Yeo would be so pleased to know this).  In the same vein, picking a good law school is important. I could not do the JD programmes in NUS and SMU. My first degree was a degree with merit from NUS as I chose not to complete my fourth year. However, everything turned out fine. My law degree from SUSS is more than decent. I got to know fantastic people and lecturers who have stayed supportive even after I graduated from the law school.

We get to places in life not merely by our own merit. The path we walk on was laid out for us by others. Sometimes people give themselves too much credit for their own achievements, negating the contributions of others. It takes a whole kampong to produce a decent lawyer. To my kampong, my wife, my family, my law school, the people at the firms I trained and am practicing, my business partners, my friends and my clients, post and present and everyone who has my back, I hope I turn out to be a more than decent lawyer.

In the meantime, keep calm and do yoga…

Yours sincerely,

Daryl