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The Legal Profession
The Singapore legal profession encompasses two areas, that of the lives and work of lawyers and the system in which they worked. The history of the profession spans the first entry of law agents or semi-lawyers at the time when Singapore was an outpost of the East India Company to the admission of formally trained lawyers and the “Singaporeanisation” of the legal profession.

The First Decades
From the beginning of the founding of Singapore in 1819 to the introduction of the Second Charter of Justice in 1826, Singapore was not governed by any regulation of law and order. Administration of justice was left to the different ethnic groups on the island. British civilians were not themselves subjected to any legal regime. Legal services were in most part provided by law agents.

The Second Charter provided for the appointment of advocate, solicitor, attorney, proctor and agent. Law agents were licensed to provide legal services but were not subjected to any formal qualifications. They were essentially part timers drawn largely from the merchant class. Although the law agents performed effectively, Singapore’s growth and increasing political maturity made it imperative for legal services to be professionalised.

The Beginnings of Professionalism
In 1852, Sir William Jeffcott made the first attempts to introduce special qualifications and examinations aimed at putting the legal profession on a firmer footing. The Third Charter of Justice introduced in 1855 did not alter the status quo and comprehensive changes only came about with the establishment of the Straits Settlement and the Supreme Court of Judicature in 1867. Although law agents remained, the Ordinance recognised professional qualifications obtained in the United Kingdom. This was finally followed by the Courts Ordinance of 1873 which restricted admission to those who qualified as barristers or solicitors in the United Kingdom or had passed a local examination, thus ending the era of amateur lawyers. Through the Ordinance No III of 1878, lawyers became known as advocates and solicitors, terms which remained up to the present.