Singapore PM’s Sister-in-Law Suspended From Practising Law

(Bloomberg) -- The sister-in-law of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been handed a 15-month suspension from practising law following a guilty verdict earlier this year for professional misconduct in her handling of the final will of Lee Kuan Yew.

The Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body to deal with lawyers’ misconduct, agreed with the disciplinary tribunal’s ruling earlier this year that Lee Suet Fern “is guilty of misconduct unbefitting an advocate and solicitor.”

In February, the tribunal found that with her husband, Lee Suet Fern made the former prime minister, who died in 2015, sign his will “urgently” without the presence or involvement of his usual lawyer, who prepared his first six wills. It also said she misled her father-in-law on the terms of the last will, that included a clause on the demolition of his house.

“The respondent’s failure to have due regard to the testator’s interest is a grave failure on her part even in the absence of an implied retainer,” the Court of Three Judges wrote on Friday.

Lee Suet Fern was cited in a Facebook post by her husband, Lee Hsien Yang, saying that she disagreed with the suspension and there was no basis for the case to have been initiated.

“This was a private will. Lee Kuan Yew knew what he wanted,” she said. “He got what he wanted.”

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