SINGAPORE : Between the five of them, there is a hefty amount of legal experience. Now, these top legal eagles, most of whom head departments in a range of areas, are walking out on their law firm, Harry Elias Partnership.
MediaCorp has learnt that managing partner Latiff Ibrahim, head
of intellectual property practice; Shanti Jaganathan, head of the
criminal litigation practice group; Shashi Nathan, head of insurance
Lynette Chew; and senior partner in construction and infrastructure
practice Kelvin Aw - have tendered their resignations.
A source told this newspaper that the group are exiting the company
because "there has been unhappiness brewing among the partners for some
time now".
It remains unclear what led to the fallout, though.
It is understood that they will serve their notice with the company and will exit in the next few months.
Attempts to contact the law firm proved to be unsuccessful, as
managing partner Philip Fong did not respond to MediaCorp's queries at
press time.
The five lawyers also could not be contacted for a comment.
Mr Latiff, the brother of Environment and Water Resources Minister
Yaacob Ibrahim, is the second managing partner to leave the company in
the past three years following the departure of Senior Counsel Tan Chee
Meng in 2006.
Mr Latiff has been a litigator in many construction and engineering
disputes, such as the Nicoll Highway collapse, and other disputes
between big developers, owners, contractors and management corporations
here and in the region.
Mr Shashi, a founding member and past vice-president of the Association
of Criminal Lawyers in Singapore, has appeared in numerous high-profile
criminal cases, ranging from murder to kidnapping and drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, Ms Chew has handled contracts for the Marina Bay Sands
Integrated Resort project, among other matters for the private and
public sector.
Their law firm was established in 1988 by Senior Counsel Harry
Elias and currently has more than 60 lawyers in various legal
disciplines.
- TODAY/il