The Law Society of Singapore is seeking to disbar my wife from practicing law. Here are some highlights from the Yahoo News story on the hearing:
"In their submissions to the court, the lawyers argued that the DT’s verdict was “patently unsafe and wrong”. It maintained that the Law Society failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, or that she deserved sanction for any misconduct.
Firstly, they claimed that the DT “cherry-picked” the evidence. For example, it described the late Lee as a 90-year-old man in poor health in its “slanted” characterisation of the context in which the will was signed. However, the DT did not account for the fact that the late Lee was still “very lucid”, even if he was old, and remained a Member of Parliament until his passing on March 2015.
Secondly, it “totally ignored” important evidence favourable to Suet Fern. For example, the DT did not take into account that any dealings between the late Lee and Suet Fern were as between legally trained family members – far removed from any commercial setting."
“Between family members, there is trust, some expectations, but before you are a lawyer, you are a family member. It cannot be that because a lawyer is also a family member, the lawyer should refrain from assisting the family member in any legal matters,” argued Tan.
Woon claimed that it would not have been tenable for Suet Fern to advise her father-in-law, a man used to getting his way, to seek independent legal advice. “This would have implied he did not know what he wanted. He would have exploded, the sound of the explosion would have been heard all the way to the Istana.”
"Hardly a ‘doddering old dotard’
Thirdly, the DT grounded its conclusion on a “plethora of unjustifiable inferences”, said Suet Fern’s lawyers. For example, it wrongly inferred that Suet Fern had hurried her father-in-law to sign the last will without due regard to his wishes. The lawyers noted that the former PM was a “dominating character of sharp intellect who knew exactly what he wanted and was accustomed to having his instructions carried out without delay”.
They added, “The DT sought to convey the impression that Mr Lee Kuan Yew was a doddering old dotard being taken advantage of by his son and daughter-in-law, ignoring evidence of Bernard Lui and Elizabeth Kong that he was lucid and read the last will before initialling on every page.”
This was a “complete perversion” of the facts, claimed Woon, noting that the late Lee was still “very lucid”. He added, “This dishonours the memory of Lee Kuan Yew.”
Fourthly, in reaching its conclusions, the DT failed to call critical witnesses such as the late Lee’s niece Kwa Kim Li, who had acted as his lawyer."
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/lee-kuan-...ring-lee-suet-fern-say-lawyers-083808127.html
