PUBLISHED ONOctober 23, 2020 9:00 AMBySeow Kai Lun
Becoming is a series where we showcase individuals who have had to overcome adversity to become the person they are today.
Say the words “gangster lawyer’ in Singapore and most people will know that you are referring to Josephus Tan, the bad-kid-made-good who defends people pro bono.
Otherwise, you would know Josephus from the infamous Annie Ee case, where he defended a couple who abused an intellectually-disabled waitress. Or simply as the guy who looks more like a rockstar than a lawyer.
When you hear his life story, it sounds like it could make a great drama series, given the many ups and downs he has had — and we’re not the only ones who feel that way. The 2015 Mediacorp drama, Second Chance, drew inspiration from his experiences. But much else has happened since the show came out.
Less than ideal beginnings
Do a quick search on the internet about Josephus and you are bound to read about the “two tight slaps” he received that changed his life.
He had been on the wayward path growing up in Bukit Merah, an old neighbourhood he describes as “pretty rough”.
“Back in the '70s and '80s, crime was not uncommon there… from time to time, you have people killing themselves, jumping off buildings, and you would see drug addicts under the void deck and you will encounter a lot of fighting,” shares the 41-year-old.
That’s not an excuse for growing up “bad” though. His brother, who is six years older, did well in school and incidentally, became a lawyer too.
However, that was not the path that Josephus took. “The middle child is usually the very rebellious one, you know.”
But he didn’t start off that way. Describing himself as a nerd of sorts in primary school who was a librarian and the vice president of the gardening club, he was bullied for being a scrawny kid. This led him to swing into the other extreme in his teens, he says, to become the bully instead.
Gambling, drinking and substance abuse soon entered his life. “I tried everything that you could possibly imagine.”
By 22, it was clear that he had a problem, but no one in his family knew how to help him.
"I had a drinking problem… it becomes bad, unmanageable, uncontrollable and when I’m intoxicated or abusing substances, I tend to be a very violent person," he shares.
His turning point
While drunk one night, a heated argument with his girlfriend caused Josephus to fly into a rage and get physical, resulting in him strangling her and trying to push her over the edge of the balcony. His dad spotted what he was doing and pulled both of them to safety.
Enraged, he tried unsuccessfully to punch his dad and was rewarded with two slaps instead — and that was the last thing that Josephus remembers before blacking out.
When he regained consciousness, he woke up to a house in ruins. Unbeknownst to him, he had done all the damage in his drunken state. “I was told I was out of control but I didn’t remember anything I had done.”
And seated in the centre of all that chaos was his dad, smoking a cigarette while waiting for him to awaken. Father and son proceeded to have a conversation and, according to Josephus, it was the most philosophical that his father had been to him. This would mark the true turning point that set him on the straight and narrow.
After expressing deep concern and frustration that he did not know what was hurting his son, he told Josephus, “Since you have been rebellious and naughty all your life, you’re not being fair to yourself. You should give yourself a chance. Perhaps you should try to be a good person and do something good, and see how that feels like. And if you like it, by all means, stay the course. But if you don't, you can go back to your current ways.”
Realising that if he carried on the way he was, he would “either end up in prison or dead”, and Josephus cleaned up his act. He then set his sights on becoming a lawyer and went back to school.
With the support of his parents who went around to gather the funds needed for his private diploma and an overseas law degree, and with what he describes as “divine intervention”, he was finally called to the Bar in 2009.
Defending those in need for free
He completed his pupilage under the late criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan, someone he describes as having a “tough exterior, but a heart of gold”.
Under Anandan’s influence of “defending the marginalised” and his personal desire to fulfil his promise to God that he would dedicate the rest of his life to doing good work to help people, he started picking up criminal cases from the Law Society’s Pro Bono Services Office. He soon clocked up an astronomical number of pro bono hours.
As he has never been one who was “financially disciplined”, he soon found himself saddled with money troubles in 2013. This was a result of him spending most of his time working for "free" with pro bono cases and going on what can only be described as a filial piety-driven spending spree, which included a second-hand Mercedes, for his then-sickly father.
Unfortunately, the day he was featured in the papers for his good pro bono work was also the day that his father succumbed to illness. This led to Josephus falling into depression and turning back to drinking. “I thought of ending my law career and to just stop doing pro bono, because why should I care anymore?”
Dealing with pests and washing dishes
He eventually picked himself up again and went back to practising law, but his financial situation didn’t improve. “Every month I would just pay off the minimum or sometimes I didn’t even pay because I don’t earn enough,” he divulges. And by 2017, he was sitting on a huge pile of debt.
Apart from being at the brink of bankruptcy, he also got divorced and suffered from a minor stroke in the same year. “I remember everything came crashing down at once,” he shares. “I thought that was the end of it because if I declared bankruptcy, my law license would be revoked."
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It was during this time that a friend who owned a pest control company reached out and asked Josephus to join him for a job on a tanker. “I had to climb up the tanker at sea and go around spraying pesticides, catching cockroaches and catching rodents.”
The one-time job turned into a four-times-a-week gig. As it was a huge contrast with what he used to do as a lawyer, it was a humbling experience for Josephus.
As the jobs were sometimes back to back, he would sleep by the pier and be subjected to spot checks by the police. “Because of my appearance where my hair was growing out and as I was wearing a jumper, they would think that I was a Filipino worker,” he shares with a chuckle.
He also did ad-hoc jobs like washing dishes at private events to make ends meet and would wear a mask to avoid being recognised as “a lawyer shouldn’t be doing anything that lowers the standing of a lawyer or that is unbecoming”.
“If I got recognised and reported, I would have gotten into a lot of trouble," he says.
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He would have continued living such an existence, if not for a life-threatening situation at sea, six months after he started doing pest control work.
While on a small boat approaching a tanker, a storm started brewing and huge waves rocked their boat, flinging all onboard in different directions. “It was as if we were really moments away from death because if we got thrown overboard into the deep international waters, we would have been sucked in by the propeller blades of the tankers.”
The road back to law
After the incident, the friend who owned the pest control company said to him: “Maybe it’s time you should go back to where you belong. To do what you are good at.”
A couple of friends, including those he had previously defended pro bono, came together to help Josephus set up his own law firm, Invictus Law Corporation.
“They told me, ‘You have helped us before, now let us help you.’”
Unlike before, he now has a financially astute business partner, and within six months of starting the firm, Josephus managed to clear all his bank debts.
Today, instead of spending up to 90 per cent of his time on pro bono like he used to, he strikes a better balance. “My partner told me that I can continue to help people by doing pro bono, but I also need to be able to sustain myself.”
Though his company was doing well, it still wasn’t smooth sailing yet for Josephus.
Shortly after it looked like his life was back on track at the end of 2017, the verdict of the case that he had been handling pro bono for two years and seven months came out. This was the Annie Ee case and Josephus had been successful in getting the charges for the defendants reduced from murder to charges of voluntarily causing grievous hurt.
There was a public outcry over the outcome of the case and as a result, people would hurl vulgarities at him and store owners would even refuse to sell food to him, calling him “scum of the earth”.
To Josephus, it was just another case, no different from all the other pro bono cases he had done previously.
“But this case shook me to my core because everyone started questioning me, even my family members, my loved one and my friends,” he recounts, adding that even at a relative’s funeral, people would go out of their way to avoid him. Thankfully, the heat has since died down and things are a lot better now.
Facing life head-on
Despite the missteps he has had, he says that he wouldn't change a single thing. And while living a huge chunk of his later years in the public eye has had its challenges, he sees it as his chance to raise legal awareness and give a voice to the marginalised in society.
This is also why you'd see him sometimes on variety shows doing things that have nothing to do with being a lawyer, such as cooking.
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“These shows are very popular and I hope that people recognise me… so that when push comes to shove, when they need legal help, they might think, oh I can look for that lawyer guy who sometimes cooks on television. And even if I may not be able to personally help them, I can at least point them in the right direction.”
By sharing his story, Josephus hopes that he can encourage others that there is always hope if you keep moving forward.
“Whatever you are facing now, always remember that it can’t rain all the time. No matter how difficult, how dark, how tough you think your life is, just keep forging at it.
"Take the baby steps. But never, never give up."
kailun@asiaone.com