We have turned 20!

It was the 2nd of August 1999. Tito Isaac was standing in the middle of Circular Road, in the heart of Singapore’s business and financial district. He was looking up at the attic window of a pre-war shophouse. He was only 29 years old and had started his legal career as a military prosecutor. His wife Angela stood next to him, it was her 29th birthday. But she was about to spend it helping him move boxes and second-hand furniture up an impossibly long flight of stairs to the tiny shophouse attic he had rented for his new office.

Tito was branching out on his own.

He hired one secretary, bought two computers and placed three client files on his desk. Then he got down to work — in a profession he truly loved. 

Today is the 2nd of August 2019 and it has been 20 years since Tito started climbing those long stairs.  

With his wife still by his side; with the encouragement of his brother; with the support and trust of the many clients whom Tito and the firm have served over the years; and with the outstanding efforts of the many lawyers and secretaries who still are, or were once, part of the firm — the team has now grown to a staff strength of over 65. 

The firm now occupies the penthouse floor at 1 North Bridge Road. The building has excellent elevators but, sometimes, Tito still takes the stairs.

For our latest TIC Talks we were pleased to have welcomed Thomas J Cooper to speak to us about entrepreneurship. 

Tom is Senior Vice-President of Sales and Business Development at Nextivity Inc (https://www.cel-fi.com).  Nextivity is a developer and manufacturer of residential and enterprise 3G/4G/5G/LTE wireless systems, software, mobile APPs focussed on mobile indoor performance and coverage issues. After spending the early part of his career with computer giant Hewlett-Packard (https://www.hp.com), Tom went on to start up his own computer-related businesses. His career spans four decades and various sectors of the US infotech industry. Tom who modestly describes himself as “just a guy” spoke about his “accidental journey to Silicon Valley — and beyond”. 

Justin Chan promoted to Senior Partner

From 1 September 2019, Mr Justin Chan will be elevated to the position of Senior Partner. Justin is among the firm’s longest-serving lawyers. He joined Tito Isaac & Co LLP in 2004 and has practiced with the firm for 15 years. Justin will also hold the title of Head, Dispute Resolution Practice and will be responsible for mentoring the firm’s junior lawyers and practice trainees. Justin is only the second lawyer in the firm’s 20-year history to have been made a Senior Partner. The first was Mr M Mohan who has since retired from the firm. The firm’s founder Mr Tito Isaac continues in his role as Managing Partner.

“That played on my mind — feeling that I’m not good enough — and I don’t think I recovered from that till much later in life.” — Kawal Pal Singh, Partner

“So I was told by my mum, while I was preparing for exams in the library, ‘Congratulations, you’re a father now.’ “ — Kawal Pal Singh, Partner

“Kawal is not an ordinary lawyer from the perspective of work experience — he’s been through enough adversity to understand and possibly empathise with people who are facing the kind of cases we deal with. He already has parties trusting him with significant matters very early in his practice. You can give me the most competent person in the world, but if he lacks integrity and the fundamental parts of being a good lawyer, it doesn’t matter how many years he has.” — Tito Isaac, Managing Partner

Photo/Image/Screenshot from The Sunday Times (SPH)
https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/ite-graduate-takes-the-road-less-travelled-to-become-law-firm-partner