NUS Law School

Most NUS High students would be aiming for Science/ Engineering/ Medicine (I definitely am one of the many who do so) in college, but for the few who want to choose other subjects, here is what I know about NUS Law School. (I know someone who is studying in there).

The application process: NUS law school candidates apply through the regular NUS portal for law. If they are shortlisted, they have to take a law-yi exam for the school to differentiate the candidates, and have two rounds of interviews, where they may ask candidates to analyze a case. As usual, your results are important in the application. Science students can and do become lawyers; my law school contact says they know quite a few science stream students in law school. For SMU, I believe they have an essay to write, and likely an interview as well (not very sure).

Incidentally, it may not be the best thing to apply for both law and medicine to NUS unless you have a good reason to do so; the two courses are quite far apart in terms of the content studied. This part is my personal opinion; I am not interested in either medicine or law and did not apply.

Criteria for NUSH students: get a minimum 4.0 CAP for English, OR a minimum 2.0 CAP for English and at least 700 minimum for the SAT I critical reading. So most people shouldn’t have problems meeting the requirements.

In Singapore, outside of the university itself, so far I’ve seen that PSC and the Defence Merit Scholarship (MINDEF) are two scholarships in Singapore which allow you to do law. Not sure about the others though. And SMU also has law, but I don’t know anyone in there so I can’t comment.

The law campus is set in a different place from the main NUS campus at Bukit Timah, so most of the time the law students don’t interact with the main campus unless they are doing a double degree or have a CCA there. The Bukit Timah campus was built in the old colonial style, so there’s quite a bit of space. The campus usually less crowded than the Kent Ridge “main” one, since there’s only one faculty there.

NUS Law school offers a tough but rewarding course, which most take 4 years to complete. Some people have this impression that you can do well in Law if your English is good, but in truth it involves a lot more than good English to do well.

You need to be able to cross refer to cases, understand how law systems might be different in other countries, do assignments for different mock cases, participate in mock trials and cross examine witnesses for assessments. You must be able to find a clause to help defend your client even if they are obviously in the wrong. There’s a stereotype that many lawyers are also actors. If you’re an actor, it might be an added advantage also as law students often have to role play as witnesses in mock courts. Law is one of the rare subjects where it’s not necessary to have a Ph.D. in it to become a university lecturer.

There are chances for exchange programmes at reputable overseas colleges also, like Kings’ College London, etc. you pay the NUS tution rate for a semester or two at an overseas partner university of NUS Law school. There’s even a chance for you to hold a concurrent degree from NYU and NUS if you make the cut once admitted.

Exams are graded on a bell curve, so only a few people will get their A. of course, since Law is a professional degree, mostly everyone in there is very good and competitive, so to get an A in any course is definitely a great achievement, and if you don’t get an A there’s no need to worry because the courses are really very hard to score in, and Singapore Law firms know it. Law is definitely a full time course, so of course the students are very busy during term time. But you can do a double degree with selected other selected subjects.

There’s a reason why lawyers are needed in almost all legal matters, such as drawing contracts and arguing about court cases, even if person A is suing person B who is obviously in the wrong, A is still advised to find a lawyer or risk B’s defense team finding a loophole in the law to exploit. There are so many variables in law that the average non-lawyer won’t be able to understand it, or know the ways to work around any loopholes, or spot any weaknesses which his opponent can use against him. Lawyers can spend weeks researching on one case, reading up all the similar past cases, in their own country and others, figuring out whether the case would be in the same contest as their case or not, thinking of a good defense, thinking of possible areas their opponents may attack and how to counter attack them, etc. So law is really not easy and not for the faint hearted.

Incidentally, if you do go, here’s one more reason to keep your grades up. The NUS Law website says that “Students who complete the programme are awarded the LL.B. (Honours) degree. With effect from 1997, only graduates holding at least a Second Lower degree are permitted to qualify for legal practice in Singapore.”

Most people like to go for internships because of the potential job offers, so if they have some knowledge of law already they might be asked to help research on cases the law firm is working on. The school will recommend to students some possible options. And all law students have to go to a law firm later on to their pupilage, the law equivalent of the housemanship for medical students, to be able to practice in the bar. So internships are beneficial so they can find out which law firm they want to do their pupilage in.

It’s not true that lawyers only meet people who are injured/ angry and want to sue. If you do corporate law, you’ll be helping to negotiate contracts between companies, or contract lawyers will help draft contracts between, say, a buyer and seller make a fair exchange, or write employment contracts for companies. A lot of lawyers also go into politics, such as many US Presidents and prominent Singaporean politicians.
The pay for lawyers is very good, but you can expect long hours at work, especially at private firms. People can work overnight at the office when they are rushing a case, and come back on weekends as well. However, many other different jobs may also require such commitment anyway, so if you like it, go for it.

Math and science people can like Law also, since you need a lot of analytical thinking. For example, Lord Alfred Deening, one of the most celebrated judges of the 20th century, gained a first at Oxford in Mathematics. He taught Mathematics for a time before returning to Oxford to study Law.

One more advantage to law school is that you’ll know exactly what is legal and what is not. Obviously stuff like robbery isn’t but there are some grey areas that many non-lawyers and non-politicians may not be aware off, such as the fine line between expressing personal opinion and defamation.

People interested in practicing Law in Singapore would find it advantageous to go to local Universities, or they will have to take another test to practice in Singapore if they did their degree overseas. There are differences in law in every country, so this test is quite necessary.

I am not an expert on law, of course, so this is just based on what I can tell. If anyone has insider experience and would like to share it, or thinks that what I said about something isn’t accurate and wants to correct that, it would be much appreciated.