SINGAPORE, April 21 — A High Court judge has ordered the Law Society of Singapore (LawSoc) to apply for a disciplinary tribunal to be convened to investigate more complaints on the conduct of Kwa Kim Li, who was the late Lee Kuan Yew’s lawyer.

In her written judgment released today, Justice Valerie Thean ruled that two complaints dismissed by the LawSoc last year should be probed. 

The complaints are that Kwa did not follow Lee Kuan Yew’s instructions to destroy his earlier wills and that she gave two of his children — Dr Lee Wei Ling and Lee Hsien Yang —  false and misleading information.

In doing so, the judge granted part of the siblings’ application for a tribunal to investigate all four complaints they had lodged against Kwa.

Justice Thean however dismissed one complaint in relation to Kwa’s failure to keep proper records.

Kwa, a managing partner at law firm Lee and Lee, had prepared six wills for Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding prime minister, between Aug 20, 2011 and Nov 2, 2012.

Dr Lee and Lee Hsien Yang, who are the two executors of their father’s estate, lodged four complaints in September 2019 over Kwa’s conduct.

Kwa is the niece of the Lee siblings’ late mother Kwa Geok Choo.

A family dispute over the Lee family home at 38 Oxley Road was made public in June 2017, when Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee posted a six-page statement on Facebook accusing their brother — Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong — of abusing his authority to prevent the demolition of the house.

Lee Kuan Yew had seven wills in total, and from the fifth will onwards, a demolition clause was omitted but was reinstated in the seventh and final will.

The demolition clause states that it was the wish of Lee Kuan Yew and his wife for the house to be demolished immediately after his death or, "if my daughter, Wei Ling, would prefer to continue living in the original house, immediately after she moves out”.

After Lee Kuan Yew died in 2015, Dr Lee and Lee Hsien Yang asked Kwa for records and information regarding the various wills that their father had signed before his final will dated Dec 17, 2013. Kwa was not involved in this final will.

The complaints

In their letter of complaint to the LawSoc, Dr Lee and Lee Hsien Yang listed the following concerns: