SINGAPORE - When he was a young lawyer more than 30 years ago, Mr Harry Elias represented a man who was involved in a gang fight at a sarabat stall in Sembawang.
He continues: 'She wanted to give me all her money - about $4 or $5 - for saving her son's life. I told her I could not take the money because the Government had already paid me. She left reluctantly but half an hour later, she returned with a basket of oranges.' He also represented several People's Action Party leaders in 1997 when they sought damages of $12.9 million in their 1997 defamation suit against lawyer and opposition politician Tang Liang Hong during the General Election.
'People were getting jailed for shoplifting or other economic crimes and they were going to jail because they could not afford representation. We thought that if we spoke to the Attorney-General or if we helped them make a mitigation plea, they might get a different shot,' he says. Naturally, Mr Elias - who was once president of the Law Society of Singapore and among the first batch of senior counsel appointed in Singapore - is proud of the scheme. 'It's one of the areas where we can show the public at large that we are not monsters,' he says with a chuckle.
Mr Elias, who is also a respected arbitrator and mediator, is the youngest of 12 children. His parents were Jews from Iraq: His father was a trader and his mother a housewife. As a student, he had the gift of the gab and was the school's champion debater. He already knew then that he wanted to be a lawyer.
'When the principal heard me speak, he said he couldn't have me polluting the speech of the students,' he recalls with a hearty laugh. 'All the teachers there spoke with very posh Oxbridge accents.' When Mr Marshall was presenting the case to the judge, Mr Elias kept feeding him with information, more than what Mr Marshall needed. 'He kicked me violently under the table. Mind you, he wore very thick and heavy shoes.'
Mr Michael Palmer, a partner at Harry Elias, says his mentor is 'an aggressive court examiner. In a couple of cases that I've worked with him, the other party caved in once he started his questioning. His reputation is well known in the legal fraternity; you wouldn't want to be on the other side when he's in court.'After 45 minutes of intense questioning by Mr Elias, the plaintiff threw in the towel and asked for a settlement.
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