Insights
Interview with Parliamentary Counsel
Newly appointed Chief Knowledge Officer and Parliamentary Counsel (Special Projects) CHARLES LIM (“PC”) gave up the helm of LLRD on 1 June 2013. As understated as the division he led for 5 years (or 8, depending), PC reveals never-before heard insights into the legal profession and his work of the decades past, a surprise relation of DySG’s, and – most importantly – what he thinks of the new National Day song.
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Q: How long have you been a drafter of legislation, and how many of those years were you PC?
A: I started drafting legislation in 1987 but was officially posted to Legislation Division in 1988. Before that I was dealing with civil litigation and advice and international law work in Civil Division.
I became the first and only head of the Law Reform and Revision Division (LRRD) in 2000, which was merged with the Legislation Division in 2008. I was privileged to be appointed PC of the merged division. So I have been PC for 5 years and head of LRRD for 8 years.
Q: How does your new appointment differ from that of PC?
A: I am now able to do more original legislative drafting and interact directly with “clients” instead of mainly reviewing the work of my colleagues. I also enjoy brainstorming with Low Siew Ling (Director KM) and Melvin Tan (AD, KM) the strategies for our re-invented AGC KM system. Legislative drafting and dabbling with IT systems have been my “first loves” in AGC. In other words, I get to do the work I really enjoy. For this, I am grateful to AG and SG.
Q: How has the legal service/industry changed since you joined?
A: Nothing short of revolutionary. When I joined AGC in 1982, we had less than 30 lawyers including the AG and SG. About half were DPPs. Wong Cheng Liang was then the Chief LE of the Crime Division. Today, AGC has grown by 10 times.
The Supreme Court Registry then had 4 lawyers: the Registrar, his Deputy and 2 Assistants. Today there are about 30 LSOs plus a Chief Executive. I was posted to AGC because according to the unsubstantiated rumours circulating then, all overseas law “scholars” were posted to the AGC as they were not welcome in the Supreme Court registry. You can verify this rumour with Dy SG.
I was only one of two overseas scholars from Oxbridge in the Legal Service, so I was initially viewed with suspicion by my colleagues. When they got to know me better, they realised their suspicions were unfounded and I got to know virtually every other legal officer in the whole Legal Service. It wasn’t too difficult as there were only about 100 legal and judicial officers then!
The legal profession was collegial and cosy where most lawyers knew each other – the largest law firms had about 50 lawyers. Running around both the High Court and Subordinate Courts as a young State Counsel, I got to know almost all the litigation lawyers at the Bar.
Another difference was the difficulty in getting lawyers in both AGC and the private sector to embrace the use of IT in the 1980s. The Legislation Division staff officers like Yvette Rodrigues and Jefry Mohd had to manually scour through the statutes to check for consequential amendments arising from amendment Bills. When we first introduced email in AGC in 1989 called All In One, officers preferred to speak over the phone than use emails.