Certificate of Standing & Membership Verification
Contents
Certificate of Standing
A. Who may require a Certificate of Standing?
1. Advocates and Solicitors (“A&S”) of the Supreme Court of Singapore who are seeking admission to work in another jurisdiction or applying for a Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC”) Business Travel Card (“ABTC”) may apply for a Certificate of Standing from the Law Society of Singapore (“LSS”).
B. The Contents of LSS’ Certificate of Standing
I. Standard Certificate of Standing
2. A Standard Certificate of Standing will state the following information without further amendments:
a) The date you were admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore;
b) Whether you are still practising, or when you ceased practice, or date when you last held a practising certificate, or that you never held a practising certificate (as the case may be);
c) That your name is on the Roll of the Supreme Court of Singapore and whether any adverse order has been entered against you on the Roll; and
d) Whether there are pending/previous disciplinary charges made out against you.
3. If you have pending/previous disciplinary charges made out against you, LSS is obliged to make mention of these charges in the Certificate.
4. LSS reviews the terms and conditions and templates of the Certificate from time to time and reserves the right to issue the Certificate per the prevailing template as at the time of your application.
II. Customised Certificate
5. Requests for inclusion of information in the Certificate which differ from those set out in paragraph 2 above (i.e. a customised certificate) must be made to LSS in writing via email. If your request is granted, there will be an additional charge of SGD$100.00 with applicable GST (currently 9%).
6. Please note that as the templates for the Certificate have been approved by Council of the Law Society of Singapore, we are unable to delete words/sentences/paragraphs that are in the standard template.
C. Fees
7. With effect from April 2020, the Law Society no longer accepts payment via Credit Card. Applicants are encouraged to make payment via PayNow, internet banking or telegraphic transfer. Details of the Law Society’s PayNow UEN/ Internet Banking/ Telegraphic Transfer Account may be found in Section C, page 2 of the Certificate of Standing application form.
8. The applicable fees are as follows:
Membership type | Standard Certificate (inclusive of 9% GST) |
|---|---|
Practitioner Member (A&S with a valid practising certificate) | SGD$200.00 |
Non-practitioner member (A&S who does not have a valid practising certificate but has signed up to be a member with the Law Society) | SGD$200.00 |
Non-member (A&S without practising certificate) | SGD$500.00 |
9. If you’re unsure of your membership status, please send us an e-mail to inquire before making any payment.
10. A customised Certificate of Standing will incur an additional S$109.00 (inclusive of prevailing GST rate of 9%) on top of your applicable fees. This customisation fees should only be paid after LSS confirms that your request for customisation has been accepted.
11. Please review the Terms and Conditions set out in Section E, page 3 of the application form before making payment.
D. Processing Time
12. Processing of your application will only commence upon our email confirmation to you that we have received your payment of the requisite administrative fees and your completed application form.
13. The time taken to process a standard Certificate of Standing is around 14 working days from the date of our email confirmation in paragraph 12.
14. If there are disciplinary charges to be included in the Certificate, the processing time will take around 21 working days for us to prepare the Certificate.
15. Applications that are incomplete, non-standard or submitted during the peak period from February to April will require more time to process.
16. Subject to our approval and confirmation, if you require expedited processing of a standard Certificate (i.e. without customisation) within around 7 working days, an additional charge of SGD$100.00 will be imposed.
E. How to apply
17. In order to apply for a Certificate of Standing, please:
a) Submit a completed Certificate of Standing application form (latest version 20 November 2024) and proof of payment to compliance@lawsoc.org.sg.
b) Once payment has been confirmed and disciplinary checks cleared, the Compliance team will send you a draft Certificate of Standing for your review.
c) After reviewing the draft, if you wish to include any additional information, please submit your customisation request. All customisation requests are subject to approval. We will review your request and inform you if a customisation fee applies.
d) Once you approve the final draft, we will issue the Certificate of Standing along with the tax invoice for your payment.
18. Please review the Terms and Conditions set out in Section E, page 3 of the application form before proceeding.
19. For queries relating to the Certificate of Standing, please write to compliance@lawsoc.org.sg.
Membership Verification
Recruitment agencies, human resource departments and law practices who wish to make enquiries about a solicitor, may do so by submitting a duly completed Membership Verification Form (latest version 20 November 2024) to compliance@lawsoc.org.sg.
A. Fees
The administrative fee payable for the request is S$100.00.
With effect from April 2020, the Law Society no longer accepts payment via Credit Card. Requesting organisations are encouraged to make payment via PayNow, internet banking or telegraphic transfer. Details of the Law Society’s PayNow UEN/ Internet Banking/ Telegraphic Transfer Account may be found in Section C, page 2 of the Membership Verification Form.
Please review the Terms and Conditions set out in page 2 of the Membership Verification Form before proceeding.
B. Processing
The time period for processing the membership verification is around 14 working days from the date of our email confirmation to you that we have received your payment of the requisite administrative fees and your completed application form. If there are disciplinary charges to be included in the form, the processing time will take around 21 working days for us to prepare the form.
For queries relating to membership verification, please write to compliance@lawsoc.org.sg.
