KShanmugam is not only a man of many titles but also one of many pleasant contradictions, says MICHELLE QUAH
 |
| 'As
a Minister, you can make a far greater contribution to society then you
can as a lawyer in private practice, helping individual clients. It is
a privilege to serve society in a meaningful way.' |
As a reporter who's followed his cases and career closely in the last
few years, I thought I had a handle on the man; but he still manages to
surprise me every time.
Part of this is due to the fact that
very little is known about the 49-year-old, personally, given his
intensely private nature - which is, already, a contradiction for so
public a figure.
His preference for only letting his work speak
for him has meant not only that it was no mean feat getting him to
agree to this interview - but also that few people, save for friends
and colleagues, really know what makes the man tick.
Most of us
know him as one of Singapore's most fearsome litigators, who has been
described as one of the country's 'twin titans' of litigation alongside
Senior Counsel Davinder Singh of Drew & Napier.
Mr
Shanmugam's list of legal victories and contributions to the local
litigation scene runs long - as does the list of awards and accolades
accorded to him.
His public image can be a forbidding one. Those
who've witnessed him tearing apart his opponents, skilful argument by
skilful argument - in his calm, yet menacing way - understand why he's
also known as the 'Silent Killer'.
In fact, some have wondered
if it was because of those very accomplishments that he was picked as
Singapore's new Law Minister. In a word, the answer must be 'yes' - but
those who know him know that he will also bring a great many other
qualities to the job.
And that's where those contradictions I'd mentioned earlier come in.
Watching Mr Shanmugam in action - his thoughts and arguments flow with
a speed that leaves the rest of us mere mortals gasping for breath,
struggling to keep up - one would think he's simply wired that way.
Well, he is. But he is also not one who's content to rely solely on his
brilliant brain. He is a litigator who's also an extremely thorough
researcher.
It's a trait that not many are aware of, especially
if one has only ever encountered him in the courtroom. But there's much
preparation work that goes before each riveting cross-examination, as
the man himself explains.
'I'm not the sort of litigator who
lets his team do all the groundwork, and then comes in just to argue
the case. I'm involved from the very beginning. When we get a case,
especially a major one, I sit down with my fellow partners and our team
of lawyers and decide on how we're going to tackle it - I look at the
key issues, the bases of action, how we're going to argue the case. I
set out the roadmap for them.'
And he regularly updates himself
on the progress of his team's preparations by meeting them to discuss
the handling of a case. During these meetings, the work done is
considered in detail, and the roadmap ahead as well as new ideas are
discussed. And he reads every piece of evidence used in a case.
'I read every single document - every memo, every letter, every e-mail,
every spreadsheet - and I read everything at least three times to
completely absorb and analyse the evidence from several angles. I have
one set of documents in the office and one set at home. I make sure I'm
so familiar with them that nothing can throw me off.'
This
familiarity manifested itself in the high profile court case involving
the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), where Mr Shanmugam represented
the new board in its claims against former officers of the charity.
The Senior Counsel was able to trap former chairman Richard Yong on
numerous occasions, by pulling out evidence from documents dating 10
years back which contradicted Yong's testimony.
'You can only do
that when you truly understand the entire sequence of events in a case.
You can't be debating evidence with witnesses - you have to know
exactly what you want to get from them,' he tells me.
His
ability to absorb that amount of information for each case is possible
because the man works at an almost super-human pace. Allen &
Gledhill (A&G) partner Edwin Tong - who is one of Mr Shanmugam's
right-hand men in the litigation department, having worked with him for
14 years (and who also worked with him on the NKF trial) - describes it
as such: 'He works faster than anyone I've ever known. He reads a
document in a third the amount of time it would take the rest of us to.
And, by that time, he would also have absorbed, digested and understood
it. He also has an uncanny ability to size up the facts and then
present them in a clear, concise and logical manner. When
cross-examining, that's a devastating quality.'
That brings us
to the most difficult job of a litigator, after the prep work: the
court appearance. Which is where Mr Shanmugam has earned much of his
fame, ripping apart the arguments of his opponents with his stinging
interrogatory style.
Again, using the example of the NKF trial -
which many in the public are familiar with - Mr Shanmugam got Yong to
admit, in cross-examination, that a letter he claimed to have written
to former CEO T T Durai, which praised Durai's work and offered him an
eight-month bonus, was actually drafted by Durai himself. Taking apart
the letter word by word, he showed the court that Yong could not have
written it - as the former chairman did not even understand some of the
words used.
The unrelenting scrutiny Mr Shanmugam subjected Yong
to, throughout the trial, eventually led the former chairman to admit
that he had breached his duties as a board member. It's a skill which
not many possess.
Mr Shanmugam explains what he considers to be
some of the key factors in handling court work: 'The difference between
a good and an excellent litigator is the ability to draw out such
admissions from the witness and to prepare the trap in such a way that
there is no escape from the facts which have been established.'
'You need to know how to counter answers that you weren't looking for.
You have to be very quick. You have to be several steps ahead of the
witnesses and be aware of all their escape routes. And, through it all,
you must remain cool. Never show fear or weakness. You have to have the
stomach to take the pressure. And then turn the pressure onto your
opponents,' he says.
That ability has seen him turn impossible cases into victories and difficult situations into triumphs.
The latter instance was illustrated, this time outside the courtroom,
in another high-profile dispute - between the owners of Horizon Towers
and Mr Shanmugam's client, Hotel Properties Ltd (HPL).
HPL's
plans to buy Horizon Towers seemed to have been completely scuppered
when the Strata Titles Board (STB) rejected the sale in August 2007.
HPL could not appeal the decision, having earlier been denied access to
the hearing. The minority owners, who opposed the sale, were delighted.
And the majority owners, given that property prices had risen very
substantially, had no commercial interest in appealing the STB's
decision. Some of them were in fact lobbying for the sale to be
aborted. The deal may well have collapsed - if not for Mr Shanmugam's
quick thinking.
'Most people thought that the deal was off. Many
lawyers were saying that was the end. But we didn't sit back and accept
it. We decided immediately, within a few days, to sue the majority
owners for $1 billion, for breach of contract. That sort of move
requires a clear and objective analysis of the situation - and a lot of
guts. The client got out of a situation that looked lost,' he says.
As he puts it: 'The $1-billion lawsuit focused minds and reminded
people of their obligations. The majority owners had a choice - they
could appeal to try and get the STB decision reversed and, after that,
do their best to get the STB to approve the sale; or they could take
their chances with the lawsuit. If our lawsuit was frivolous, they may
well have been tempted to take the latter course.'
After the
lawsuit, the majority owners decided to appeal the STB's decision. Upon
appeal, the High Court overturned STB's dismissal of the sale - and the
case went back to the board, where the sale was eventually approved.
The minorities owners are now appealing that decision. And Mr Shanmugam
will make his last and final appearance in court as a litigator at this
Horizon Towers appeal on April 30 - just a day before he assumes office
as Law Minister.
That brings us to the other seeming dichotomy
about the man: The wildly successful private-sector lawyer versus the
inspired public servant.
While many were not surprised with the
choice of Mr Shanmugam as Singapore's new Law Minister - Davinder Singh
says his first-rate mind and analytical skills would be a boon to the
country - many were surprised he would be willing to give up a
lucrative and high-profile career to serve in public office.
The
pay issue aside, the change would also mean that Mr Shanmugam would
have to give up more of his closely guarded privacy and free time with
his family.
Why do it?
Mr Shanmugam says: 'I would point
to two factors. First, as a Minister, you can make a far greater
contribution to society then you can as a lawyer in private practice,
helping individual clients. It is a privilege to serve society in a
meaningful way. Second, look at the people we have in Cabinet now -
they're outstanding. Compare this Cabinet to any Cabinet in the world.
It is second to none and it is a privilege to be asked to work with
them. These were real motivating factors for me.'
It's
important, at this juncture, to touch on a third seeming contradiction
about the man: That the stern, ruthless litigator is also a sensitive
soul.
The persona one sees in court is reserved strictly for
work. Off duty, the Senior Counsel is personable, surprisingly
soft-spoken, even shy, at times. I remember the trepidation with which
I approached him the first time for a quote, after watching him reduce
a confident witness to a nervous wreck on the stand. Since then,
through our numerous encounters, I've learnt that the man may be tough
and driven - but he's also down-to-earth, sensitive and funny.
And this interview, our last as reporter and lawyer, was a memorable
affair - with Mr Shanmugam candidly sharing with me his hopes and
dreams, and even regrets.
One lies in the knowledge that he will
be leaving a seeming vacuum at A&G's litigation department. With
his departure, the firm will be without a high-profile litigator or a
Senior Counsel (SC) to lead the team - which may affect the perception
of some clients.
Mr Shanmugam doesn't shy away from admitting
the impact this will have on the department. But he believes his work
over the past 15 years, building up a group of young litigators -
almost from scratch - will pay off soon.
'I've been at A&G
for 17 years. From the beginning, I have worked hard - recruiting
exceptionally bright young people and training them to be the sort of
litigators I want them to be, to have all the necessary skills. It
takes about 15 to 17 years to train a lawyer from scratch until he
becomes an SC. But not everyone you recruit is going to be an SC. Of
the several lawyers I have recruited over the years, there are some
who, I believe, can be SCs soon. It would've helped if I could have
stayed on until that happened. But the team, without me, will have to
tough it out for a while. The market will appreciate their quality
soon. My firm has every confidence in them. They are, in my view, as
good as SCs are in Singapore and in time to come, some of them will be
right at the top.'
Andrew Yeo has been named as Mr Shanmugam's
replacement, as the head of litigation. 'Andrew was picked because he's
a good lawyer and quite senior. He and Edwin Tong have been running the
department very efficiently for three years. I was training them. I
asked the partners to pick a new leader among them, and they picked
Andrew.'
The efforts he spent breeding a second tier of top
lawyers at A&G will now be channelled towards beefing up the talent
pool of lawyers in Singapore.
'There are a number of perennial
issues. These need to be constantly reviewed. One of them is the issue
of the general supply shortage of lawyers, from the universities - as
well as the need to beef up the depth of talent in the industry. But
that's also a chicken-and-egg problem: if we don't get the deals and
the business, we don't develop the talent. We have really good people,
but I feel that the talent pool is not deep.'
'Still, I believe
the issue will be partly addressed in seven to 10 years' time, when we
will see more law school graduates entering the market - which will
raise the level of talent we have. I believe we could do with more
talent across-the-board, whether it be in the areas of litigation,
corporate or corporate finance work,' he said.
So, while some
might think of his new appointment as being a change of pace for the
legal titan, it's clear to others who know him better that there'll be
no easing off the throttle for Mr Shanmugam. No contradiction there, I
think.
Recent Comments