Kwa Kim Li, the former lawyer of the late Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), has been ordered to pay S$13,000 in penalties over her alleged misconduct regarding his wills.
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Among the accusations is that Madam Kwa had purportedly divulged confidential information to Prime Minister (PM) Lee Hsien Loong.
She will not face disciplinary action as the tribunal determined that there was no cause of sufficient gravity to impose it.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), a report by a disciplinary tribunal from last Friday (5 May) states that Madam Kwa will have to pay a penalty of S$5,000 as she failed to “scrupulously safeguard” Mr LKY’s confidentiality when handling his will.
She was also ordered to pay S$8,000 for allegedly misleading two of his children, Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee Wei Ling, in her email responding to their questions.
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Between 20 Aug 2011 and 2 Nov 2012, Madam Kwa drew up a total of six wills for Mr LKY.
She claimed that she was not involved in the preparation of his seventh and final will which was executed on 17 Dec 2013.
The last will reinstated equal shares of Mr LKY’s estate to his three children and included a clause for 38 Oxley Road to be torn down.
The latter request has since become a major point of contention among the Lee siblings.
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Following Mr LKY’s passing in March 2015, Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee lodged four complaints against Madam Kwa.
Two of the complaints, which were referred to the tribunal, alleged that she had breached duties of confidentiality.
Mr Lee and Dr Lee took issue with the fact that the lawyer had sent emails containing records of communications with Mr LKY to all of his children.
This is despite the fact that PM Lee, unlike his brother and sister, was not an executor of the estate and therefore not entitled to the details.
Furthermore, Madam Kwa was accused of providing false information to Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee.
The two emails were sent in response to queries from PM Lee and Dr Lee on 4 June 2015 and 22 June 2015.
In an agreed statement of facts, Madam Kwa confessed that she had sent the 4 Jun 2015 email without prior consent from Mr Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee.
This, she acknowledged, constituted misconduct unbefitting of an officer of the Supreme Court.
That said, Madam Kwa argued that her actions only warrant a reprimand or modest penalty.
She then explained that Mr LKY would have wanted all of his children to be privy to the information.
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The tribunal stated:
Her position was that she released the information out of a deep sense of loyalty to (Mr LKY), although she accepts that she did not have specific instructions from (him) prior to his death, to release such information.
The Law Society concurred that the effects of the breach were not substantial and that there was no evidence suggesting that Madam Kwa had acted from any “improper motives”.
However, it maintained that a simple reprimand was not enough.
Thus, it sought a penalty of S$3,000 to S$5,000.
The Law Society acknowledged that Madam Kwa may have acted under the notion that she should “respond to queries from beneficiaries”.
Especially since these beneficiaries are her first cousins.
That said, Madam Kwa should’ve been aware that she was dealing with “sensitive” issues.
“In a situation such as the present case, it is imperative that solicitors act strictly within their professional boundaries and exercise care and caution,” the tribunal stated.
In addition to the S$5,000 penalty, Madam Kwa was also ordered to pay the Law Society costs of S$5,000.
She should also bear all disbursements reasonably incurred.
On the other hand, Mr Lee Hsien Yang has accused Madam Kwa of misleading him and his sister by failing to disclose communications with Mr LKY between November 2013 and 13 Dec 2013.
She also purportedly said that Mr LKY never told her to change his will dated 2 Nov 2012.
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The tribunal found that the charge was in reference to another email on 22 Jun 2015.
There, it found sufficient evidence of a request for information pertaining to the circumstances leading to the execution of the seventh will.
Not once did Madam Kwa refer to the conversations with Mr LKY between the month of November 2013 and 13 Dec 2013.
Instead, she asserted that she did not receive instructions from Mr LKY to change his will after the sixth version was signed.
She had also supposedly learnt about the seventh will from someone else.
The tribunal concluded that her failure to disclose information from 2013 and her statement had misled Mr Lee and Dr Lee.
Additionally, her statement that the late Mr LKY did not instruct her to change his will gave the impression that she “had no knowledge as to how (the seventh will) came about”.
Madam Kwa’s claim that she was never asked to change his sixth will was also untrue.
In the end, the tribunal determined that the harm from her misconduct was low.
It ordered Madam Kwa to pay a penalty of S$8,000, as well as S$12,000 to Mr Lee Hsien Yang in costs and S$9,182.29 in disbursements.
She will not face disciplinary action as the tribunal found that there was no cause of sufficient gravity for it.
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Featured image adapted from Lifting Dreams on Facebook and Singapore Press/Associated Press via The New York Times.
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