Of Counsel Kok Yee Keong awarded the Law Gazette Awards 2021 for Best Feature Article by a Young Lawyer

The Law Gazette is the official publication of the Law Society of Singapore (LSS), with several feature articles in its monthly publications. Every year, the LSS Publications Committee presents awards for best feature articles, based on the depth of analysis, display of thought leadership, whether cited in a judgment, depth of research, and writing style.

We are pleased to announce that our Of Counsel, Kok Yee Keong, was awarded the Best Feature Article by a Young Lawyer, for his article: “Perhaps It is Time to Consider a Spandeck Approach to Developing Sentencing Frameworks”, Featured Article, May 2021, Law Gazette.

This article is an adapted extract of Yee Keong’s detailed submissions as the appointed amicus curiae in Tan Song Cheng v PP and another appeal [2021] SGHC 138, under the Young Amicus Curiae Scheme 2020 of the Supreme Court of Singapore. In the written judgment, the Honourable Justice See Kee Oon recorded his appreciation to Yee Keong “for diligently preparing an objective, detailed and comprehensive analysis from which [the Judge] derived considerable assistance”.

In his submissions, Yee Keong advocated for the “five-step sentencing bands” approach to be the universal sentencing approach to determine the sentencing framework for any given offence (assuming a sentencing framework is appropriate for such offences in the first place). Justice See opined that the “suggestion is well-intentioned” and “may well merit reconsideration at a future point” but that ultimately “it is unnecessary for the purpose of dealing with the present appeals”. Given the future potential utility of such a unified sentencing approach, Yee Keong sought to share his research and views via this Law Gazette article, to engender greater interest and discussion by legal practitioners.

Yee Keong was also recently listed in the 2021 edition of Singapore’s 18 most influential lawyers aged 40 and under by Singapore Business Review (SBR).

We congratulate Yee Keong on his outstanding achievements.