Opening Address by Minister for Law and Second Minister Edwin Tong SC at SMU Yong Pung How School of Law’s Badge Pinning Ceremony
Prof Lee Pey Woan, Dean of SMU Yong Pung How School of Law
Our distinguished guests
Law students and your parents
Ladies and gentlemen
Introduction
1. A very good evening to all of you.
2. Let me start by warmly congratulating all of you on earning your place at SMU Law. It is today one of Asia’s leading law schools, which is all the more remarkable considering how young the law school is. In just under two decades, SMU Law has built an outstanding reputation for academic excellence, innovative teaching, and producing graduates who are highly sought after.
3. But tonight is not just your achievement. Let me also congratulate parents, families, teachers and mentors who are here this evening. You have heard the saying, “it takes a village”, and tonight we have this village with us.
4. Standing here this evening brought back some memories for me. I was just telling Dean as I was walking in that I was just thinking back to my first day in law school 35 years ago. I was in your position, about to begin law school, and probably like many of you, excited, a little nervous, anxious, and curious about what lies ahead.
5. But now looking back, 30 over years later, choosing to read law was one of the best decisions I ever made. It gave me 25 fulfilling years in practice, lifelong friendships, and numerous opportunities that I could never have imagined when I sat where you are sitting now, as a first-year law student.
6. Now, each of you is about to begin on your own journey. Over the next four years, you will be preparing yourselves to enter what I believe is the noblest of all professions.
Law: A Noble Profession
7. Why do I say that?
8. To me, it is because lawyers have the responsibility that go beyond serving their clients. You will all graduate, find a place to practise, and you will serve clients. But the profession requires you to go beyond serving your clients.
9. Of course, we owe our clients loyalty. We must give them the very best advice, represent their interests to the absolute best of our ability, but always within the bounds of the law.
10. That is because our duties do not end with our clients. We owe duties to the court, and overall, to the administration of justice. We are expected to act with integrity even when it is inconvenient, to uphold the rule of law even when it might be unpopular, and never ever to mislead the court, even if doing so, might compromise our client’s interests, or otherwise.
11. This is what makes our profession different. At its heart, law is about trust. When you buy a home, you trust that your ownership will be protected. When you sign a contract, you trust that it will be honoured. When you walk into a courtroom, you trust that everyone will get a fair hearing, and they do.
12. That trust which Singapore enjoys today, is something that we sometimes take for granted. It has been built over generations by people who believed in doing the right thing, even when it might be difficult. In a few years’ time, each of you will inherit the responsibility of continuing to uphold that trust. That is both a privilege but also an obligation.
SGLaw200
13. This year – 2026 – is a particularly meaningful one in which to begin your legal education.
14. Singapore is commemorating the bicentennial of the Second Charter of Justice. 200 years ago, the Second Charter of Justice introduced the English common law system to Singapore, and laid the foundations of the legal system that we know it today.
15. But over time, of course, we did not keep still. We made it our own. We developed our own jurisprudence. We enacted laws that reflect our own society, our own circumstances, our own needs, and our own cultural nuances. We built courts and institutions that are respected today around the world.
16. But institutions do not uphold themselves. They do not generate trust in themselves, but people do. Every generation that has inherited this legal system, has worked hard to strengthen it, and to pass it on from one to another. Now, it is your turn.
Opportunities Ahead
17. So I believe, overall, looking back in my legal career 35 years ago, compared to where it is today, I think there is never been a more exciting time to enter the legal profession. Let me explain why.
18. When I entered law school in 1990, the profession looked very different. Career paths then, were quite straightforward. If you did well, you might become a Justices’ Law Clerk (JLC). If not, you found a place in one of the law firms, as I did, or you joined the Government, as a Government lawyer. The work was also quite different then too. When I first started practice, much of it was domestic work. We did contracts domestically, we argued over cases domestically, we advised Singapore clients on largely Singapore matters. There was cross-border work, but it was not the norm; it was probably the exception.
19. Over the next 25 years that I was in practice, I watched that change bit by bit. By the time I left practice to join the Government in 2018, I was handling litigation, international arbitration, restructuring and insolvency cases, involving clients, counterparties and lawyers from different jurisdictions, including from civil law jurisdictions. I found myself travelling across the region and beyond, advising clients on increasingly international matters. In fact, on several matters, there was not even a Singapore connection. There were parties who wanted to make the contract based on Singapore law, and they had to get Singapore lawyers. The substance of the contract has got nothing to do with Singapore.
20. My own experience was really just a small reflection of what was already a much larger shift. One objective indicator of that transformation was of course our legal services exports. We started tracking our legal services exports in 2003. In 2003, it was S$231 million. Last year, we exceeded S$1.7 billion. That shows you the trajectory – that it has been growing quickly year on year.
21. That growth mirrors what has happened to Singapore more broadly. Today, our leading Singapore law practices have many regional offices spread across ASEAN, some even beyond, in China and other places. More than 150 foreign law practices have now established a presence right here in Singapore. More than 7,000 multinational companies (MNCs) have chosen Singapore as a base either for their regional or in some cases, even their global operations.
22. So when you go through law school and graduate, your opportunities will be far broader than they were for my generation, as they should be. You can choose to join a Singapore law practice or an international law firm. You can go in-house and be part of an in-house legal team. You can join the Government, the Legal Service or the Judiciary. You can join a legal technology company. Or you can go into academia.
23. A law degree today opens far more doors for you than it did when I graduated.
24. The reason is quite simple: the centre of gravity of the global economy has shifted, and that is another advantage that you will inherit when you graduate.
25. 35 years ago, Asia was only beginning its economic transformation. But today, Asia generates around 60% of global growth, and accounts for almost 40% of world trade. You take ASEAN alone – the region that we are in – it is home to more than 660 million people, with a combined economy of over US$4 trillion and growing. It is already the world’s 5th largest economic bloc, and predicted to be the 4th largest in a few years’ time.
26. As businesses invest, expand and trade across the region, they will increasingly need lawyers to structure transactions, negotiate contracts, manage risks and resolve disputes. That means that your opportunities will not be limited by the size of Singapore. They will increasingly be regional, if not global.
27. At the same time, it will not be without challenges. Legal services is what economists call a derived demand. The demand for lawyers ultimately depends on whether economies are growing, and whether businesses will choose Singapore lawyers, or Singapore law for their needs. It will really depend on how Singapore is doing. And then of course, there is the big disruptor – AI – which is evolving at breakneck, astonishing speed. You would have read articles, suggesting that AI may replace lawyers, or at least significantly reshape legal work. You would also have seen the discussions around the Legal Profession Sustainability Report, and perhaps asked yourself: Can I still build a long, meaningful, and sustainable career in the law?
28. I understand all these concerns.
29. But let me assure you that we are not standing still. In fact, just last week, the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) convened the Legal Profession Symposium to discuss many of these issues. After the Symposium, I met with senior members of the judiciary (and that includes the incoming Chief Justice), SAL, the Law Society, the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association (because in-house counsel is a big part of our profession), as well as the senior partners from law firms from around Singapore (including the top four largest law firms in Singapore) and in-house counsel teams, to discuss previous days’ findings and learnings, and to agree on next steps. I can tell you there was a very strong commitment from all parties to work together. Some of the takeaways from that meeting includes the following:
(a) Giving students a more structured and substantive exposure to legal practice.
(b) Encouraging our law firms to expand overseas, to build more regional offices, to have a stronger ASEAN presence, to serve ASEAN from Singapore, or maybe serve the broader Asia from Singapore. That itself will also give you more opportunities.
(c) Building stronger links between Singapore lawyers and our Singapore companies who venture outside Singapore to expand, to invest, and to build businesses.
(d) Providing training in AI and leadership. AI is a phenomenon. It will impact the way you study. It will impact your curriculum and pedagogy in law schools. It will also impact the way in which you learn and continue to learn whilst in practice.
(e) Developing clearer workplace code of conduct that will govern behaviour and conduct, and set a benchmark and standard that which we must comply with, that we should aspire towards, and that we will work at ensuring that the legal profession will not be tarnished by those who display abusive or demeaning behaviour. Likewise, the judiciary, moving in tandem, made clear that such behaviour will not be tolerated.
30. So there is much to do. But I am optimistic, because when I was in the room, there was a very clear and distinct sense of shared commitment and determination to not just address the issues, but to find viable solutions.
31. But for each of you here, I think the more immediate question is: how do I make the most of my next four years? I hope you’re asking that question.
32. I thought I’ll just share five thoughts with you.
Thoughts for Journey Ahead
33. First, I think it’s important to find your purpose.
34. Why are you in law school? What is the cause you want to achieve? What is it that you want to serve?
35. Much has been said about why people leave the profession: long hours, relentless pressures, difficult workplace culture, experiences in court, and so on.
36. These are all are important conversations to have, as I said.
37. But I think we should also ask ourselves: why do people stay in the profession? Why are there senior lawyers in the profession?
38. The legal profession has never been, and will never be, an easy profession.
39. That is because the responsibilities that you will carry are simply far too great and grave. People entrust us with their liberty, their businesses, their homes, their life savings and, quite often, their lives as they battle or fight a capital case. Society recognises that weight, but with that privilege comes an expectation on each of us – that we will earn and keep that trust through excellence, integrity and service.
40. I do not think most people choose law because they believe it will be easy. I think many choose it because they want to work in an environment that makes a difference. They want to be challenged. They want to be of service, and they want to add value to society.
41. Now I appreciate that, at your age, first couple of days in law school, you might not yet know what that means for you. That is fine, because I certainly didn’t know when I entered law school.
42. For many lawyers, that sense of purpose really only became clearer after they began to practise. It may be when you meet your very first client and realise that what looks like just another file that is a piece of work on your desk, is really for your client, their business, their family or their future. Or it may be when you help someone through one of the most difficult moments of their life – I can tell you that will make a strong impact on you – in the way in which you see yourself of service, and the difference you can make to someone’s life – them and their families.
43. Once you find that sense of purpose, something will change in you. The long hours will not just disappear. The difficult cases will not become easier. But then you begin to understand why the work matters. What once felt like sacrifices will begin to feel like service. That sense of purpose is what I believe carries many lawyers through long and fulfilling careers.
44. At the same time, we must ensure lawyers are not driven out of the practice by attitudes that should never be accepted in the first place: poor supervision, needlessly demeaning behaviour, or a culture where people are afraid to ask questions or learn from mistakes.
45. As I mentioned, there is a genuine commitment across the profession to stamp out such behaviours, and it is simply not professional conduct. We will start with the practical changes we can make now and then continue to build from there.
46. But my hope is that, by the time you graduate four years from now, you will be entering a profession that may be as demanding as ever, or maybe even more demanding – but one that is stronger, more cohesive, more collegiate, more supportive and more sustainable than the one we have today. We will certainly work towards that.
47. Second, build your community.
48. The friendships that you will have in law school over the next four years may become some of the most important relationships of your entire professional life. You will study together, support one another through difficult semesters, and there will be those moments, and also celebrate each other’s successes.
49. Stay close to your seniors as well. They have been through what you are about to experience, and often they can offer you some advice and assistance to avoid the mistakes that they themselves made. And when your time comes, do the same for your juniors. Pay it forward, so that one generation helps another.
50. The profession that you will enter is a relatively small profession. We have about 6,400 practising lawyers in the whole of Singapore, and about 5,000 other Singapore-qualified in-house counsel. It is not a very big community. It is a small community, but one that I think is tight, collegiate, with a strong sense of camaraderie. The classmates you have may one day become your opposing counsel, your client, your judge, or maybe even at some point your Minister for Law.
51. I hope that we have a profession that is not only excellent at what we do – technically excellent and competent – but one that is collegiate. A profession where lawyers compete fiercely in the courtroom or across the negotiating table, but never ever lose respect for one another. Always see the value of a fellow lawyer, whom you will call “my learned friend”.
52. If we can build that kind of profession, I think we will continue to attract as well as retain the world’s best talent in the legal profession.
53. Third, step outside the classroom.
54. The classroom is important, so do not tell your lecturers that “Minister said no need to go to the classroom”. It is important, but your legal education should not begin and end with lectures, tutorials, examinations and moots.
55. Take every opportunity that you can to see the law in action. Because the law is dynamic, it is living. Intern with law firms, but do not spend your whole holiday doing so. Spend time with in-house legal teams. Experience the Government, the Legal Service and the Judiciary. Volunteer at legal clinics. And if you have the opportunity, spend some time overseas as well – not just in the traditional legal hubs like the UK or the US, but also in ASEAN, China and India, where much of Asia’s future growth will be taking place.
56. Because every experience will teach you something different, and more importantly, every experience will broaden your perspective.
57. Because clients do not come to lawyers asking, “What is the law?” They do not want to know what the law is. They come to you because they have a problem for which they need a solution. And to give that solution, you need to understand the business, sometimes public policy, and oftentimes the broader forces that shape our world. The better you understand these issues, the better your judgment as a lawyer will become.
58. Law increasingly sits at the intersection of so many other disciplines. A lawyer advising an AI company must understand AI and know how to ask the right questions. A lawyer working on renewable energy projects must understand climate policy and energy markets. A lawyer acting for a biotechnology company needs to understand science to follow the issues and maybe in some cases, challenge assumptions. So it does not operate in isolation. The law touches on so many other disciplines, and so neither should lawyers. We should not just be staying in our lane; we should understand what is happening around us.
59. Whatever you choose to do, be fully present. I am not against flexible work arrangements, including working from home. They bring real benefits. But when you are just starting out in any profession, when you are a young intern, apprentice or employee, there are some things that will be difficult to learn across a screen.
60. I have always believed that law, in a way, is a special profession. As a young lawyer, it is an apprenticeship that you enter. That is why when I came out of law school, I was not a trainee but a pupil, and my senior partner was not a supervising solicitor, but the pupil master. That system was what engendered that ethos, and there is a valuable lesson in the training period. It is not about teaching you the law. Rather, it is about teaching you how to be a lawyer and I think there is a world of difference there.
61. You become a lawyer by working alongside other lawyers, just watching them and listening to them. Someone used the word “osmosis” today, just by sitting down and absorbing it in – what they say to clients, what they choose not to say to clients. Likewise with the judge, see how they negotiate with opposing counsel, and how they conduct themselves in court. Looking back, some of the most important lessons that I learned came not from formal training, but from simply being present in the office.
62. Of course, in my time and generation, there was no work from home, there was no Zoom. A partner who walked past my cubicle can sometimes say, “Oh, you are here. I’m about to go to a meeting. Why not join me?” And it opens up doors to a new opportunity to learn. Or sometimes overhearing colleagues debate a difficult issue, and then realise that it applies to a case that I am also confronting, and then you perk up and join in on the conversation. Or leaning over to a colleague, and asking what feels like a basic 101 question, which of course today you can ask ChatGPT but sometimes it is better to ask a senior.
63. I asked a senior once when I was in practice, and was about to get called. I asked: “Do you put on your robe before you enter the courtroom, or do you go in and then put on your robe?” You know the answer? You cannot put on your robe while the court is in session. You cannot wear your robe while the judge is there. I did not know this until someone told me this, and you will not find this in textbooks. You will not find this in your manuals or your law school guides. You find this out from lawyers in practice. In the Criminal Mentions Court, do you wait for more senior lawyers to finish whenever they arrive or do you just stand up when you think it is your turn and mention the case? Well, I can tell you, if you just stand up whenever you like, even when there are senior lawyers there, you will get a very bad reputation. I think this is part of our decorum. We show respect to our senior lawyers, and the more senior you are, the more priority they get. So they get to cut queue. It is a tradition. But you need to be there to know this.
64. So my advice: be present. Be in the room. And there is a lot of the legal education that you can learn by simply being present in person.
65. Fourth, embrace technology.
66. It is important. It will be part of your life. Someone said to me that AI does not just change one thing; it changes everything because it is like electricity. Your entire paradigm will change. So embrace it, but never outsource your judgment and your empathy. Those are the two most important qualities that you have as a lawyer.
67. By the time you graduate, AI will simply be a part of legal practice. I am sure of it. So learn how to use it well. It will make you faster, more efficient, more productive.
68. But never stop thinking because there is AI.
69. The greatest risk with AI is not that it becomes smarter. The greatest risk is that we become lazier. That we stop asking questions. That we stop exercising our own judgment.
70. I am sure many of you saw the recent incident where a Canadian politician was reading out all his AI prompts as part of his speech. I hope that does not happen to any of us. Thankfully, my team has not put my prompts in here, not that this is AI-drafted. But that lesson holds a serious point.
71. Because when you read a draft that has been generated almost entirely by AI, you can usually tell. It will be grammatically correct, well structured. Everything sounds very reasonable. Yet despite all that, it says very little. It does not tell you much. It lacks judgment. It lacks conviction. It lacks empathy. It really lacks the benefit of lived experience. It is clearly drafted by someone who has understood the textbook but has not lived it.
72. I think the same is true, or will be true, for you in legal practice. AI can find precedents and summarise hundreds of cases within seconds. It can draft contracts and submissions for you. It can suggest arguments, pointers. It can even predict the likely outcome of a case if you feed it enough information and tell them who the judge is going to be. But it cannot judge when a dispute is better settled rather than fought in court. It cannot judge that for you. It cannot know when preserving a business relationship might matter much more than winning a contractual point in court. It cannot tell a client, “You can do this in law, but I don’t think you should.” These are all human judgments, and these are all important skills and qualities that you as lawyers must possess: judgement, intuition, instinct, empathy. These are not matters which AI can generate for you, whatever prompt you might put in.
73. That is where your value will increasingly lie. The best lawyers of your generation will not be those who reject AI. Nor will they be those who rely on it blindly. They will be those who know how to use technology wisely whilst continuing to think critically for themselves.
74. Finally, hold fast to the ethics and values of the legal profession. I think it is the most important one.
75. As I said at the start, technical excellence will always matter. But what ultimately defines a lawyer is character.
76. Your clients, your opposing counsel, the judge will place extraordinary trust in you. What you say in court is your word, and most times, no one will second guess it because you are a lawyer standing there, making submissions. Clients will tell us things they will tell almost no one else. Businesses will entrust you with their most commercially sensitive information because they need help. The courts rely on each of us to assist them in coming to the right position. The right position does not mean that you win the case. The right position in law.
77. That trust is not given lightly. It has to be earned, but it can also be lost in an instant.
78. Throughout your career, there will be moments when nobody is watching. A client may ask you to cut a corner. Someone may suggest taking a shortcut, taking just a little bit of a risk. You may be tempted to stay silent because on that occasion, speaking up could cost your client the case, or maybe cost you the client.
79. Those will be the moments that will define you. It will not be the deals that you closed. It will not be the cases that you won in court. Not the number of billable hours that you recorded. But the choices you made when doing the right thing has come at a personal cost to you.
80. But it is the right call to make and that is what integrity looks like. That is what earns trust. And ultimately, that is what makes someone not just a successful lawyer, but really a a worthy member of this noble profession.
81. In a few moments, you will take the ethics pledge. I hope that you will not just treat it as a formality that you have got to go through before you take a badge, but look at it as a promise – to your future clients, to the courts, to one another as fellow members of the Bar, and above all, to yourselves. Because long after people have forgotten the cases that you argued, they will remember the kind of lawyer – and the kind of person – you were or you are.
Conclusion
82. So as I wrap up, over the next four years, you will be confronted with a range of different experiences and emotions. You will learn the law. You will learn how to analyse, to be critical, to persuade, how to think and argue like a lawyer.
83. But the most important question you will answer is not one that will appear in an examination. It will be: What kind of lawyer do I want to be? The answer to that question will shape your career.
84. I hope that, four years from now, you will leave not only with a law degree, but with character, judgment, integrity, compassion, empathy, as well as sharp instincts, judgement and intuition, worthy of this noble profession.
85. I wish all of you success. I hope to, four years later, welcome you as members of the legal profession. I wish you all the very best. Go out there, enjoy the four years, serve society, do what you can, because ultimately when you qualify, you are not just called lawyers, but also counsel. Not just counsel in that you can speak on behalf of someone, but you are counsel because you hold that special quality to be able to counsel someone – to be that confidant, that friend, that advisor, and that is a very cherished position.
86. So on that note, congratulations once again. Thank you for having me.
Last updated on 4 August 2026