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How one lawyer discovered the ‘Boomerang Effect’ of Doing Good

December 2024
EthicsGeneral

Abstract

A friend recently observed that lawyers (like many other professions) have the potential to apply their work skills to do good for the community. He noted that practitioners of the legal profession can turn the ability to articulate into advocacy, the gift of arguing into lobbying, and use the strength of persuasion to be an influence for change in mindsets on social causes. Often, we believe that doing good for the community is mono directional, born out of altruism. However, there are unexpected benefits for those doing good that are not always obvious. Let me elaborate.

Author

Portrait image of Jeffery Tan
Jeffery Tan
Group General Counsel & Chief Sustainability Officer , Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited, Singapore

Jeffery is the Group General Counsel; Chief Sustainability Officer, Director, Group Corporate Affairs; and Group Company Secretary of Jardine Cycle & Carriage Ltd. He is responsible for legal, compliance, company secretarial, communications and public affairs at the Group level. Before joining Jardine Cycle & Carriage, he was the Group General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Board Secretary for UTAC Holdings Ltd. Prior to that, he has over 30 years of private practice and in-house legal experience with international law firms and multinational companies such as Allen & Gledhill, DLA Piper, Siemens and Motorola. He also served in a business capacity as President of Motorola Singapore for five years. Jeffery has an LLB (HONS) from the National University of Singapore. He is a senior Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Singapore and a Solicitor of England & Wales. He has completed the Senior Executive Management Program, at Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management and the Driving Strategic Innovation Program at MIT Sloan School of Management. Jeffery serves on the board of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce and is an Advisor to the Sustainability Panel of the Singapore Stock Exchange’s SGListco Association.

Company

Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited logo

Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited

Jardine Cycle and Carriage Limited is a leading Singapore listed diversified conglomerate and a member of the Jardine Matheson Group. With a market cap of US$13.9 Billion, it is a component stock of the bell weather FTSE Straits Times Index which employs over 250,000 people across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. JC&C has a strategic interest in Astra International, the largest independent automotive group in Southeast Asia. Astra International has further interests in financial services, heavy equipment, mining, construction & energy, agribusiness, infrastructure & logistics, information technology and property.

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