Eversheds Harry Elias Senior Associate Sui Yi Siong won The Joseph Grimberg Outstanding Young Advocate Award 2019. This Award recognizes young lawyers in good standing who exhibit professional excellence, service to the profession and the bar, service to the community as well as a reputation for or the advancement of legal ethics and professional responsibility. The Award is named in honour of Mr Joseph Grimberg (1933-2017), a highly- regarded former Judicial Commissioner and Senior Counsel in Singapore.
The Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) President, The Honourable the Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon presented Yi Siong with his Prize during the SAL Appreciation Dinner 2019, held on Thursday, 15 August 2019 at Conrad Centennial Singapore.
Yi Siong shared his thoughts on winning the award:
“It is truly an honour and privilege to be conferred the award, especially since I predominantly practice in criminal litigation, an area that most young lawyers regard as less desirable compared to commercial litigation or international arbitration. Winning the award is an affirmation to young lawyers everywhere that a first-class law degree or practicing in a popular area of law are not the only routes to success in practice, and that hard work and passion are just as important as well.
I am deeply grateful to the firm for all the opportunities it has given me over the past few years, especially the advocacy opportunities that are increasingly rare for young lawyers. In particular, I am very grateful to Managing Partner Philip Fong for his guidance and mentorship throughout my career: he has been instrumental in equipping me with the necessary skills and more importantly with the confidence to lead my own criminal trials and appeals”
Managing Partner of Eversheds Harry Elias, Philip Fong:
“Yi Siong’s well-deserved Award exemplifies our firm’s excellence in advocacy and underlines our commitment to put well-trained and fearless young lawyers full-frontal in the heat of litigation. Every opportunity we give our young lawyers to prepare and perform their objective best in the furtherance of justice can only raise and maintain the standard of trial advocacy in our courts. Yi Siong’s achievements in a short space of time—being the youngest lawyer so far to win the Award—shows how much our firm can do and have done to empower lawyers with the right vision and attitude to achieve their highest potential.”
The firm congratulates Yi Siong on his fine achievement. At Eversheds Harry Elias, we provide our young lawyers with innumerable opportunities to train inhouse and hone their advocacy skills in court. We believe in being not only professional but also responsible and ethical, and we are committed to upholding standards in the legal industry.