What happens when a lawyer is disbarred or charged with misconduct in Singapore?
Answered from official Singapore sources and the reported court record, as of — recomputed live.
Professional misconduct is decided by a Disciplinary Tribunal and, for the most serious cases, a Court of Three Judges, which can censure, fine, suspend, or strike a solicitor off the roll. These decisions are delivered as reported judgments and form part of the public court record.
What the question is really asking
"Disbarment" in Singapore refers to the gravest disciplinary outcome for an advocate and solicitor: being struck off the roll, which removes the person's ability to practise. It sits at the end of a structured disciplinary process governed by the Legal Profession Act, in which the seriousness of the alleged misconduct determines how far a matter travels and what sanction may follow.
Where a complaint or matter is serious enough, it is heard by a Disciplinary Tribunal, which receives evidence and makes findings on whether professional misconduct or other disciplinary breaches are established. If the Tribunal finds that the conduct is serious enough to warrant the strongest sanctions, the matter is referred to a Court of Three Judges. That Court has the full range of disciplinary powers — it can censure, impose a financial penalty, suspend a solicitor from practice for a period, or order that the solicitor be struck off the roll.
Because the Court of Three Judges delivers reasoned decisions, the way misconduct is characterised and the sanction chosen are matters of public record. The corpus of reported judgments includes these disciplinary cases, so the standards the courts apply — and the outcomes they reach — can be read directly in the courts' own words rather than inferred. The reported record is the objective source for how misconduct is judged and what consequences follow.
Official sources & how it works
The instruments and public records that govern the answer, each with its source and the year it describes.
The Act sets out the disciplinary framework for advocates and solicitors — the Disciplinary Tribunal and the Court of Three Judges — and the sanctions available, including censure, penalty, suspension and striking off the roll.
Source: Legal Profession Act 1966 (Singapore) · as of 2020
The professional body that administers the statutory disciplinary process for advocates and solicitors on behalf of the profession.
Source: Law Society of Singapore · as of 2026
What does it mean for a lawyer to be struck off the roll?
Being struck off the roll is the most serious disciplinary outcome for an advocate and solicitor, removing the ability to practise. It is ordered by a Court of Three Judges in the gravest cases of professional misconduct, at the end of the statutory disciplinary process, and is distinct from lesser sanctions such as censure, a penalty, or suspension.
Who decides whether misconduct is established?
A Disciplinary Tribunal hears evidence and makes findings on whether professional misconduct is established. Where the conduct is serious enough to warrant the strongest sanctions, the matter is referred to a Court of Three Judges, which determines the appropriate outcome — from censure through to striking the solicitor off the roll.
Are misconduct decisions part of the court record?
Decisions of the Court of Three Judges in disciplinary matters are reported judgments and form part of the public court record. That record sets out how the conduct was characterised and what sanction was imposed, so the standards applied and the outcomes reached can be read directly rather than inferred from secondary accounts.
Explore the court record
This is one part of what the reported record shows about how lawyers and litigation work in Singapore.
- For the reported disciplinary judgments themselves and who appears in professional-conduct cases, see Legal Profession Lawyers in Singapore: The Court Record.
Methodology & disclaimer
This page explains the question factually from cited Singapore legislation, official public records and the reported Supreme Court court record. It describes how a process or requirement works in general; it does not tell any particular person what to do, is not a recommendation of any lawyer or firm, and is not legal advice. How a specific matter should be handled depends on its facts and is a question for a qualified lawyer.