\n<\/p>\n
But what motivates such professionals in an industry already so notorious for unforgiving workloads as well as high burnout and turnover rates, to carve out otherwise billable hours to provide aid to the needy? Why do some, like Ms Rai and other full-time advocates, forgo more lucrative private practice altogether?<\/p>\n
Quite simply, the answer is: meaning.<\/p>\n
Mr Muslim Albakri, partner at Lighthouse Law, said: “(Pro bono work) helps keep me grounded and allows me to apply my legal expertise to real-world social issues in our community.”<\/p>\n
He makes it a point to take up two to three CLAS cases each year, on top of being involved in Peguam \u2013 a society of Malay-Muslim legal professionals running various initiatives to raise legal awareness and provide legal assistance to the community.<\/span><\/p>\n “Pro bono work (also) gives me the opportunity to improve the legal literacy of the people I have the privilege of helping,” said the 38-year-old lawyer.<\/p>\n Private practice lawyers added that it can sometimes be challenging to find the balance between paid work and contributing to the society through CLAS cases.<\/p>\n Mr Tan from Invictus said that while pro bono work takes up about 30 per cent of his case load now, the ratio between pro bono cases and paid private practice ones when he first started out was about 80:20, to the extent that he spent some time teetering on bankruptcy.<\/p>\n “Over time I had to counterbalance the ratio to make the pro bono portion slightly lesser, but at least it’s more sustainable in the long run,” he said \u2013 a necessary move he made with a heavy heart.<\/p>\n Mr Sujesh Anandan, who was called to the bar in 2019, left private practice at the start of this year to join Pro Bono SG.<\/p>\n While he had “learnt a lot” from doing a wide variety of legal work in private practice, he said that he never really enjoyed them or felt passionate about it.<\/p>\n “I took some time off to think about what I wanted to do, what I really enjoyed in my legal career, what motivates me, what means the most to me. And Pro Bono was the answer to a lot of those things,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n