SINGAPORE: A lawyer who previously represented national athlete Soh Rui Yong in two separate defamation suits has sued the runner over a Facebook post published last year, saying the allegations made were “false, defamatory and damaging” to his reputation.
According to court documents seen by CNA, Mr Clarence Lun alleged that Mr Soh defamed him when he posted on his Facebook page on Aug 25, 2024 about three “dishonest, incompetent lawyers” he had to deal with.
Mr Lun initially represented Mr Soh in his defamation suit mounted by Ashley Liew, before the runner opted to switch to lawyers led by Mr Eugene Thuraisingam.
Though the post, which was made public, did not directly name Mr Lun, the plaintiff argued that he could be identified as Mr Soh went on to state that one of the three lawyers had previously been suspended from practice.
Mr Lun was handed an 18-month suspension on Oct 10, 2022, for acting as supervising solicitor to two practice trainees when he was not qualified.
He further argued that he could be identified in the post as Mr Soh had, on multiple occasions in the past, mentioned him on his Facebook page, saying that he was his lawyer.
The lawyer also claimed Mr Soh’s post was defamatory due to the “malicious intent in making unwarranted personal attacks” against him, by referring to his poor health and marital problems.
In his claim, Mr Lun listed some of his professional accolades and mentioned several high-value commercial trade cases he had worked on, such as advising and acting for the liquidator of Castlewood Group in a S$98 million (US$73 million) insolvency dispute.
According to the website of Fervent Chambers, he is the founder of the law firm, and is its director and head of dispute resolution and international arbitration.
Mr Lun claimed that his reputation had been “seriously damaged” and he had “suffered hurt, distress and embarrassment” due to the post.
He pointed out that the Court of Three Judges did not find that he was “dishonest in respect of the misconduct which led to the suspension”.
A letter of demand via Fervent Chambers was sent to Mr Soh in September 2024.
However, the marathoner did not respond to the letter, prompting Mr Lun to take legal action.
The plaintiff is seeking S$180,000 in damages, a court order to remove the Facebook post and an injunction restraining Mr Soh from repeating what was said in the post. As of January 2025, Mr Soh’s Facebook page had about 19,000 followers, and the post had garnered a number of likes, comments and shares, Mr Lun’s claim noted.
Mr Lun also initially represented Mr Soh in his defamation suit against former Singapore Athletic Association (SAA) executive director Malik Aljunied. Mr Soh was subsequently represented by PDLegal in that suit, which he lost in June 2022.
The 10,000m silver medallist at the 2023 SEA Games also had to pay Dr Liew, a chiropractor and fellow runner, S$180,000 in damages, after a High Court judge dismissed his appeal in March 2022.
SOH DENIES ALL ALLEGATIONS
In a court filing dated Apr 2, a lawyer acting for Mr Soh, Akesh Abhilash from Silvester Legal, denied all of the allegations made by Mr Lun.
Referring to the post that said “Today, 1 of them has been charged by the Law Society”, Mr Abhilash, who leads the disputes practice team at his firm, said Mr Lun could not be identified as the first lawyer as he was not charged on Aug 25, 2024.
He added that no comments on the post made reference to Mr Lun, and previous mentions of him were made on the Facebook page in 2020 and 2021, while the post was made on Aug 25, 2024.
“Readers of Facebook posts do not subject them to close analysis,” he said.
Mr Abhilash argued the post, when read in context, was understood to mean Mr Soh “had dealt with unnamed dishonest and/or incompetent lawyers in the past”.
As part of the defence’s filing, Mr Soh claimed Mr Lun had made a series of “dishonest” statements to him – either in person or via WhatsApp – during the course of their solicitor-client relationship from August 2019 to May 2021.
These included “false statements scandalising members of the judiciary and the Bar” to explain why legal applications in the lawsuit involving Dr Liew had been dismissed.
According to court documents, Mr Soh referenced comments allegedly made by Mr Lun about the competence of the judge presiding over the case and how the court was biased.
The runner also brought up other purported instances of Mr Lun’s “incompetent conduct”, such as failing to clear a media statement before sending it to the press, his “constant stammering” in court and filing a request to remove the judge when there had been no grounds to do so or a history of successful applications.
As for Mr Lun’s professional accolades and some of the prominent cases he had been involved in, Mr Soh said those matters were not within his knowledge.
On the letter of demand, he added that it was served while he was out of Singapore.
The court heard he had recently graduated with a law degree, with Mr Soh posting on Facebook in September last year pictures of his convocation ceremony at University College London (UCL) in the UK.
Speaking to CNA, Mr Lun described the allegations in Mr Soh’s filing as “scandalous and defamatory”, adding that he would address them at a “relevant forum”.
