He needs fame in order to perpetuate the illusion that he is a lawyer, and a successful one.
In Singapore, if you are not backed by the establishment you have to decide if you want to continue practicing or eat off the crumbs that fall from the table, mostly cases assigned by CLAS masquerading as pro bono. You don't see big firms doing pro bono work. Pro bono is not free. They are still paid by CLAS, but not much. But their names get mentioned in the papers when the case is high profile. This is how from defending drug mules who had no money to pay his fees he mutated and marketed himself as human rights lawyer.
Fame is very important for this group of gian png lawyers.