Dennis read law at the University of Nottingham and later did his LL.M in Maritime Law at the University of Southampton. He qualified as a Barrister-at-Law (Middle Temple) in 1996, was called to the Singapore Bar in 1997, and re-qualified as a Solicitor, England & Wales in 1999. He is a partner in DennisMathiew, a shipping law firm which he co-founded in 2005. He has been a shipping lawyer since he qualified in 1997, having worked previously in various Singapore and English shipping practices. He is also currently the Workers’ Party Member of Parliament for Hougang SMC and was previously a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament.

This letter is addressed to his 21-year-old self, just before entering law school.

Dear Dennis,

At 21, fresh out of National Service and with many good friends from college in the local law school, it would never have been an easy decision to heed your father’s advice to quit NUS and enrol into a university in the UK (even if finances would be tight). You won’t regret the chance to open up your mind and intellect, to live in a different world and to look after yourself. Neither will you regret spending less time on black letter law subjects (for you will learn in England that a good basic training will always enable you to pick these up later on in practice). After all, you will be an undergraduate but only once, and as you become a firm believer of The Idea of a University[1], you will appreciate the time spent in the sociological aspects of law and learning about the politics of the law. You will have a truly liberating intellectual experience as an undergraduate, and you will always look back and appreciate the healthy cynicism gained in these early years of legal education. Even your choice to read a module or two of theology, which was much harder to fathom than even the most profound of legal subjects, will provide you with a constant reminder that we live in a fallen and cruel world, and faith in God rather than self will be paramount.

At 26, you will stumble onto your area of specialization in an incidental way, diving into and enjoying shipping law practice for what it is. You will enjoy the vast network of friends in the international maritime law community. You will later set up your own firm and really enjoy the different areas of shipping practice. You will work for clients big or small, but always commercial. You will respond when your clients say it is urgent, even outside of office hours, even during Christmas or Chinese New Year, even if it may not always be appreciated.

At 45, you may ask yourself: is there any meaning beyond your knowledge and practice of the law, beyond making money from it? You would have made a simple and comfortable life for yourself, moving between the simple stresses of your clients’ cases and paying your bills. But as a commercial lawyer, you will have little to do with helping those in need beyond commercial troubles – you would not have saved someone from the gallows or represented someone who could not afford bail. 

You will have seen the legal practice through different lenses. In your early years in law, you learnt about the profession being honourable, about upholding integrity as officers of the court, and about the cab-rank rule. Sadly, in real life, you will see that winning is everything to many, regardless of the merits of the case at hand.

Some lawyers will say no to everything, fighting cases to the bitter end and causing their clients to incur heavy legal expenses. Some file counterclaims just to put pressure on the other side. Some will misquote fellow counsel’s submissions during hearings. Others may make submissions and impute intentions on opponents’ witnesses without the factual basis to do so, merely hoping that something damaging will stick in the eyes of the judge or the media. Lawyers in some bigger firms will make numerous interlocutory applications to wear out their smaller firm opponents. Not all clients will get representation, especially those who can’t afford it.

So, Dennis, as you walk the path before you, consider the meaning and purpose of your existence as a lawyer and the ostensible nobility of our profession. Why do you do what you do?  How do you work as a lawyer? Do you follow others blindly, or do you follow your conscience or your God? How do you use your skills to help those in need to make their lives better? Do you care to seek the welfare of the city, as the prophet Jeremiah exhorted?[2] Only you can decide.

Your friend,

Dennis 

[1] By Cardinal Newman

[2] Jeremiah 29:7