Legal Profession (Naming of Law Firms) Rules

Legal Profession Act

(Chapter 161, Section 71(1))

R 16

G.N. No. S 186/1996

REVISED EDITION 1997

(15th June 1997)

[1st May 1996]

Citation

1. These Rules may be cited as the Legal Profession (Naming of Law Firms) Rules.

Definitions

2. In these Rules, unless the context otherwise requires —

“firm” means a law firm as defined in the Legal Profession (Professional Conduct) Rules (R 1);

[S 664/2006 wef 01/01/2007]

“firm name” means the name or style under which the practice of a firm is being carried on;

“practice” means practice as an advocate and solicitor, whether in the capacity of a sole proprietor or a partner in a firm.

Application

3. These Rules shall apply to every advocate and solicitor in respect only of his practice in Singapore.

Approval of firm names

4.—(1) No advocate and solicitor shall carry on his practice under a firm name which has not been approved by the Council in writing.

(2) An application for the approval of the Council of a firm name shall be made in such form as the Council may require.

(3) All firm names registered with the Law Society before 1st January 1996 shall be deemed to have been approved by the Council under this rule.

Language of firm names

5. Every firm name shall be stated in the English language, except that an advocate and solicitor may, with the approval of the Council in writing, state the name of his firm in any or all of the Malay, Tamil and Chinese languages also.

Contents of firm names

6.—(1) A firm name may —

(a)	consist of the name or part of the name of the existing proprietor or one of the existing partners of the firm;
(b)	consist of the names or parts of the names of 2 or more of the existing proprietors or partners of the firm; and
(c)	with the approval of the Council, consist wholly or partly of the name or part of the name of any former proprietor or former partner of the firm.

(2) The name or part of the name of any existing proprietor or partner of a firm which is to constitute the name of the firm shall be in accordance with the name of such proprietor or partner as appears in his practising certificate at the time of the application under rule 4(2).

Initials and acronyms

7.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the name of a firm shall not consist of any acronym or solely of initials, but may include the initials or part of the initials of any existing or former proprietor or partner of the firm.

(2) Subject to rule 9, the name of a firm may, in its logo, be stated in the form of an acronym or by initials only.

Firm name not to be descriptive of services provided

8. The name of a firm shall not contain any words which are descriptive of the services provided by, or the areas of practice of, the firm, except that the words —

(a)	“A Law Firm”; or
(b)	“Advocates and Solicitors”,

may appear immediately after the name of the firm.

Firm name must be fit dignity of legal profession

9. The name of a firm, whether stated in full or in the form of an acronym or by initials only, and whether alone or in combination with any other words or images appearing in the logo or other publicity of the firm, shall not —

(a)	be such as may be reasonably be regarded as being ostentatious, in bad taste, misleading, deceptive, inaccurate, false, sensational, offensive, or in any other way unbefitting the dignity of the legal profession;
(b)	be so similar to that of an existing firm as to be likely to be confused with it; or
(c)	be inconsistent with any of the provisions of the Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules (Rg 13). [G. N. Nos. S 186/96; S 237/96]

Approved this 16th day of April 1996.

YONG PUNG HOW

Chief Justice,
Singapore

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