KUAH BOON THENG SC: HOW FINDING MEANING IN HER WORK AND MOTHERHOOD POWERED HER THROUGH 30 YEARS
The senior lawyer on what has helped her practise “so happily, for so long”.
BY RACHEL CHIA
She leads a firm of 10 lawyers, lectures at tertiary institutions, and volunteers on a slate of legal and medical committees – all while raising three children, aged 17 to 27, one of whom has autism and attends a special school. Medical law practitioner Ms Kuah Boon Theng SC attributes this incredible energy and career longevity to having been blessed to find a practice that speaks to her.
“I love what I do because I feel it matters, so I'm motivated and focused,” says Boon Theng, who was appointed senior counsel in 2018. “Maybe that's why I’ve been able to work as much as I have. It's about matching your sensibilities with what the job requires.”And what are these sensibilities? “Compassion,” she answers at once. “You cannot do this work without compassion.” In medical disputes, claimants are often grappling with grief or guilt, Boon Theng, a former Law Society vice-president, explains.
Good resolutions come not from delivering technical explanations or debating compensation and rights, but about connecting “on a human level”.This is true even in cases where doctors cannot be blamed for the poor outcome. She cites cases where family members blamed themselves for persuading their loved ones to undergo procedures, or parents blamed themselves for not alerting doctors when the child was not doing well.
“If you can validate that they were good parents, that they did everything they could, you can release them from that anguish. I've seen this happen in front of my eyes,” she says. “And you feel, somehow, that the work that you do to try to bring about a resolution is important. It isn't about signing on the dotted line. It's about giving people closure so they can move on. This is one of the key reasons I’m able to practise so happily, for so long. There is so much I can do to make things a little bit better.”
Boon Theng’s work goes beyond just resolving medical-legal disputes. At her firm Legal Clinic, the team tries to proactively spot problematic trends in medico-legal complaints and and may even suggest changes to workflows and protocols to prevent a replay.“These are people's lives, so you need to think beyond the strict confines of legal principles. I find that stimulating, meaningful, and real,” she says. “If we can contribute in some way to making improvements, that gives me a lot more satisfaction than just closing the file and sending over the bill.”
I love what I do because ... it has an impact on people, and that's satisfying. Outside of paid work, I meet many people through teaching and sitting on committees. These ‘extracurriculars’ are why I enjoy my practice; and I have complete freedom to decide what projects I wish to devote time to.
I leap out of bed every morning ... because people are counting on me to get things done. My son is counting on me to take him to school. It’s really the sense of responsibility and commitment.
I nourish myself and those around me by … making time for friends and family. With my friends within the profession, we encourage and commiserate with each other, and make each other laugh when we are going through tough times. Younger lawyers need to surround themselves with a support system. It's hard to survive the stresses of practice unless you have friends who understand what you're going through.
STRIKING OUT FOR THE KIDS
A specialist in healthcare law and managing director of Legal Clinic, Boon Theng has advised and represented major hospitals and medical bodies in Singapore across an illustrious career spanning three decades.Her exposure into the field began as a trainee at Khattar Wong & Partners in 1990, just as newly-corporatised government hospitals started seeking lawyers.
“I found myself picking up some of these cases, which were really interesting,” she recalls. “I realised early on that this was more my cup of tea than commercial transactions.” The experience led her to embark on a Master’s in Medical Ethics and Law at the University of London a year later.
“I had no expectation that I would actually be able to make a career out of it,” she laughs. “I just figured that if it ends up being one of the practice areas that take up 10 to 20 per cent of my time, that's fine. But of course, what happened was a few years after that, demand started to pick up for lawyers advising the healthcare industry.”
By 1998, Boon Theng had made partner. But in the same year, she left to practise on her own, partly because she wanted to spend more time with her children. As the first lawyer in her previous firm on flexi-hours after giving birth to her eldest child, she felt pressured to return to a standard arrangement as more colleagues began lobbying for similar benefits. “I valued the flexibility, but didn't want it to be an issue that the firm was making an exception for me, so I decided to leave,” she explains.
Boon Theng with two of her three children. Her sole daughter is presently overseas.
Striking out came with a culture shock at what it took to run a business, she says, but things stabilised after several hospitals became clients. “You always think you're going to have so much freedom and time with the kids. But suddenly you have to take care of your finances, tide through long periods where you're working a lot but not collecting anything. I hated the admin, but had to learn to do it,” she says.
Through it all, motherhood has never hampered her career: pushing her to establish her own practice, and enhancing her work ethic. “Working mothers are very motivated. We learn to be efficient and get our work done using little pockets of time”, recalling two “very productive” hours clocked each night in the early days, after tucking in her brood.
Her advice to young female lawyers? Seek out a working environment prepared to offer flexibility – she herself aims to walk the talk. “I’d like to think that the reason we have so many women in the firm – working moms, the newly married – is they know I myself have been through times when I needed a different arrangement to prioritise my family, and when it is time for them to face similar challenges, I would be committed to helping them make things work,” she says. Currently, Boon Theng’s team of 10 lawyers are all women.
Hopefully, she adds, the pandemic helps other firms do the same. “The Covid experience has convinced people that they don't need to be in the office all the time to get their work done,” she says. “It’s broken the myth that women can’t work well from home. Now, everybody can.”·
This is the second in a series of articles and videos that shed light on wellbeing. Everybody has a different definition of the term and by sharing what it means to SAL members, we hope that you, too, will be inspired to prioritise your own wellness.
