PAP's new GE2020 candidate Hany Soh is a Normal-stream student-turned-lawyer

Among one of the interesting origin stories emerging from the new batch of People’s Action Party (PAP) today (June 24) is 33-year-old Hany Soh Hui Bin, a veteran grassroots leader in Bukit Panjang SMC. 

A director of MSC Law Corporation since 2017, she was introduced by Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli as one of the new PAP candidates who took unconventional routes to success. 

Prior to her career in law and her nine-year stint as a grassroots volunteer in Bukit Panjang, Soh was a Normal (Academic) student in Bendemeer Secondary School. 

In an article published in The Law Gazette — the official publication of the Law Society of Singapore — in 2017, Soh described how she felt in 1999 as she received her PSLE results. With a PSLE score of 175, that meant she would be assigned to the Normal (Academic) stream. 

“But the results were to be expected; I was extremely playful in my primary school days. School was just another playground to me. Homework was a chore and exams were short-term prison stays,” she wrote, admitting that she was a “petulant child” at home too. 

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It was in Bendemeer Secondary School that she went under the tutelage of excellent teachers who motivated Soh to push herself in her studies. She also joined the school’s English Literature, Drama and Debate Society, where she honed the art of debating. 

Harbouring dreams of becoming a lawyer, she graduated with GCE 'O' Level results good enough to place her in Temasek Polytechnic, where she pursued a Diploma in Law & Management. 

She continued her training in legal firms as an intern and eventually as a paralegal, working part-time during her studies in Liverpool to pay for her tuition fees. After graduating from the University of Liverpool with a Bachelor of Laws (Second Class Upper Honours), she learned to be a full-fledged lawyer when she joined Derrick Wong & Lim BC LLP. In 2013, she was admitted as Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore. 

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Through it all, Soh used her knowledge and skills in law for her grassroots work, including the establishment of the first Community Legal Clinic in a Residents’ Committee (RC) centre in Singapore back in 2014. There, she provides legal advice for free to residents in need while also helping to raise awareness on legal matters, especially those concerning family law. She ran the Bukit Panjang Zone 2 Residents’ Committee from 2013 to 2016 as chairman. 

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Following her numerous contributions to the community, she was made Young PAP Chairman of the People’s Action Party Bukit Panjang Branch and was elected into the PAP HQ 2017/2018 Executive Committee. Professionally, she joined MSC Law Corporation as an associate in January 2016 and became its director a year later. 

Speaking to the media earlier today, Soh affirmed that she wants to raise awareness about the need for Lasting Power of Attorney and how accessible it is for everyone, including the physically disabled.  

ilyas@asiaone.com