Doing Pro Bono Work from the Heart

Ahead of the mandatory pro bono programme which will be implemented in May 2014, three students have chosen to embark on a personal project to help the elderly with their legal needs. Having started his first semester at NUS Law, Clement Lin who was from Hwa Chong Institution, thought of the idea during a chance encounter with the elderly at a local food centre: “Sometimes when I eat at the hawker centre, I get to see the elderly people and they are the ones who are clearing the dishes. I felt a sense of pity for them so that’s how it fashioned the way I thought about this project.” Realising that his Hwa Chong classmate Jerrold Soh and friend James Kwong, from Raffles Junior College, shared the same mindset regarding the pro bono idea, they decided to come together to start this.

“We are thinking of producing an information package which would detail and list down all the important information relevant to the elderly with respect to the Central Provident Fund and housing”, Clement Lin said. The team is hoping that with this information package, it will encourage more lawyers to volunteer to do more pro bono work in this area.

When asked about how they intend to find the time to commit to this project, Jerrold feels “it’s a matter of prioritising because with proper time management, you will definitely find time to commit to these endeavours. It doesn’t need to be a mutually exclusive thing. You can do your studies well and you can invest your efforts on the pro bono project. It should not be such a big factor if you can do it right.”

If you are interested to know more or get in touch with the team for their pro bono project kindly contact the NUS Pro Bono office at probono@nus.edu.sg.