New leadership for the NUS Law PBCLE

(L-R) Sonita Jeyapathy ’03, Eleanor Wong ’85 and Benny Tan ‘12

With effect from July 2020, Associate Professor Eleanor Wong ‘85 will be appointed Director of the NUS Law Centre for Pro Bono & Clinical Legal Education (PBCLE). She will be supported in this role by Sonita Jeyapathy ‘03 and Benny Tan ‘12 who will serve as Deputy Directors.

Under new leadership, PBCLE will broaden and deepen the experiential learning opportunities for NUS Law’s students in both the pro bono and clinical programmes, and will build on administrative synergies between the Student Affairs and PBCLE missions. Eleanor, who has been serving as Vice Dean for Student Affairs and Global Relations since January 2015, is well-known in the legal community in Singapore. Concurrently the Director of the Legal Skills Programme at NUS Law, Eleanor will be able to realise significant synergies in moots, externships, pro bono service and other aspects of clinical education. Among other achievements, she has transformed NUS Law’s approach to career services, creating new ways for students to develop professional experience while at law school through initiatives like TalentConnect and Attorney Assessment.

Already a familiar face at PBCLE, having run several corporate legal clinics as electives for third and final year law students, Sonita will have primary oversight for administering the Centre’s corporate clinical programmes. She has served as Deputy Director of the Legal Skills Programme since January 2013 and has been actively involved in the full spectrum of offerings in the Legal Skills Programme. This includes the foundational first-year legal analysis, research and communication module and Corporate Deals, the second-year transactional skills module.

Benny was an adjunct instructor for Legal Analysis, Research and Communication (LARC) before joining the faculty where he, today, focuses on criminal and sentencing law, and criminal evidence and procedure. Drawing on his past experience as Deputy Public Prosecutor with the Attorney General’s Chambers, and also having since acted, on an ad hoc and pro bono basis, as defence counsel in criminal cases, Benny’s main role will be overseeing the compulsory pro bono programme for the students, as well as coordinating contentious and litigation-based clinics.