Legal Profession (General Meetings) By-laws

Legal Profession Act

(Chapter 161, Section 70)

By 1

G.N. No. S 14/1976

REVISED EDITION 2010

(31st May 2010)

[20th January 1976]

Citation

1. These By-laws may be cited as the Legal Profession (General Meetings) By-laws.

Notice of general meeting

2.—(1) The Secretary of the Law Society of Singapore shall give written notice by circular of any general meeting to be convened to every member of the Society present in Singapore at least 14 days prior to the date of the meeting.

(2) Such written notice shall specify the time, date and place of the meeting and the business to be transacted thereat.

(3) In the case of an annual general meeting, the notice shall be accompanied by the report and accounts referred to in section 67(3) of the Act, and such notice, report and accounts may be given using electronic communications to the current address designated or notified by the member for this purpose.

(4) Notwithstanding paragraph (3), a member may before 30th September of each year request in writing to the Society to send him the hard copies of the notice, report and accounts for the annual general meeting.

(5) For the purposes of paragraph (3), the report and accounts (referred to as the documents) shall also be treated as given or sent by electronic communications to a member where —

(a)

the documents are published on the website of the Society and remain accessible to that member from the website throughout the period beginning at least 14 days before the date of the meeting and ending with the conclusion of the meeting; and

(b)

the member is notified at least 14 days before the date of the meeting, of —

(i)	the publication of the documents on the website of the Society;
(ii)	the address of that website; and
(iii)	the place on the website where the documents may be accessed, and how they may be accessed.

(6) Nothing in paragraph (5)(a) shall invalidate the proceedings of an annual general meeting if —

(a)	the documents are published and remain accessible for a part, but not all, of the period mentioned in that paragraph; and
(b)	the failure to publish and make accessible those documents throughout that period is wholly attributable to circumstances where it would not be reasonable to have expected the Society to prevent or avoid.

Quorum

3.—(1) At a general meeting, other than an annual general meeting, 50 practitioner members personally present shall form a quorum. If within half an hour from the time appointed for the meeting a quorum is not present, the meeting shall stand adjourned to the same day of the following week at the same time and place or to such other time and place as the President of the Society shall determine, and if at the adjourned meeting a quorum is not present within half an hour from the time appointed for the meeting, the members present shall form a quorum.

(2) No alterations to the agenda shall be made during the period of postponement.

(3) Notice of the adjourned meeting shall be given to all members at least 5 days prior to the meeting.

Chairman

4.—(1) The President of the Society shall be the chairman of any general meeting.

(2) In the absence of the President, the Vice-President shall be the chairman of such meeting.

(3) In the absence of both the President and the Vice-President, the meeting shall elect a chairman from among the members present.

Notice of motions

5. Except where the general meeting otherwise decides, notice of all motions to be discussed at the general meeting shall be given to the Secretary of the Society not less than 10 days prior to the date of the general meeting and the Secretary shall give notice of such motion to all members of the Society at least 5 days prior to the date of the meeting.

Motion to have proposer and seconder

6. Every motion shall have a proposer and a seconder. No discussion shall be allowed on a motion until it has been seconded.

Procedure for motion

7. After a motion has been moved and seconded, the proposer thereof shall have the right to speak on the motion. The motion shall then be open for discussion and amendment.

Procedure for amendment

8. An amendment to a motion shall like the main motion be moved, seconded and discussed in accordance with by-law 7.

Motion or amendment in writing

9. The proposer of any motion or amendment thereto shall submit the motion or amendment in writing if he is required to do so by the chairman.

Right to speak

10. Except with the permission of the chairman, no member shall speak more than once on any question but the mover of an original motion shall have the right to reply at the close of the debate on his motion, and the mover of an amendment shall similarly be allowed to reply at the close of the debate on his amendment. No further discussion of the question shall be allowed once the question has been put from the chair.

Right to speak when moving motion or seconding motion

11. A member moving a motion or an amendment thereto shall be deemed to have spoken on it. A member seconding the motion or amendment without speaking on it may reserve his right to speak on it subsequently.

Motion to put question

12. A member who has not already participated in the debate may at any time, whether another speaker has the floor or not, move “That the question be now put”. The chairman shall have absolute discretion to accept or refuse the motion. The motion, if accepted by the chairman, shall be put without amendment or debate. The chairman may also of his own volition put the question if he is satisfied that adequate discussion has taken place. In either case, the mover of a motion shall retain his right of reply. If an amendment is before the chair, the closure motion shall be deemed to close the debate on the amendment only.

Withdrawal of motion

13. A motion or an amendment thereto before the chair shall not be withdrawn except with the leave of the chairman.

Motion for adjournment

14. A member may move “That the debate (or meeting) be now adjourned”. Such a motion shall be open for discussion but any amendments thereto shall be confined to time or place only. The motion shall take precedence over other business before the chair, except points of order.

Saving

15. Subject to these By-laws, any decision made by a validly-constituted meeting shall not be void by reason only of a departure from these By-laws which was not detected until after the decision had been made.

Miscellaneous

16. Any matters not dealt with in these By-laws shall be governed by the customary procedure at meetings.

Record of minutes

17. The Secretary of the Society shall record the minutes of a general meeting and circulate copies of the minutes to all members of the Society within 30 days of the date of the meeting.

[G.N. Nos. S 14/76; S 442/2004]

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