Oon & Bazul Contributes Financial Aid to SMU School of Law Students

The Oon & Bazul Bursary, established since 2011, provides financial assistance to full-time law undergraduates at the Singapore Management University (SMU) who come from struggling backgrounds. The firm has recently renewed its commitment for another five years.

Bursary recipients from the coming academic year 2020 will receive S$10,000 for tuition and education expenses, which is double the amount from previous years. To date, the bursary has empowered nine law students to pursue and complete their university education, a crucial first step necessary for them to secure employment and alleviate some of the stresses at home. Professor Goh Yihan, Dean of the SMU School of Law remarked, “We are extremely grateful to Oon & Bazul for their ongoing support. This renewed gift will be one of the highest valued bursaries that the School has received to date and we take great pride in the strong partnership we have had over the years. With this gift, more law students will be able to receive greater support as they navigate through their studies.”

The law firm has also agreed to continue supporting the Oon & Bazul Prize for the Top Student in Law of Torts for another five years. The annual book prize recognises the top student in Law of Torts, a compulsory course at SMU School of Law. The prize, worth S$1,500, has been motivating SMU law students to aim for high academic excellence since 2016.

Students who are awarded the bursary and book prize respectively will also be offered internship opportunities at Oon & Bazul. Undergraduates can acquire practical legal skills through experiential learning, poising them to be ready for a successful career upon graduation.

Oon & Bazul’s Managing Partner & Head of Dispute Resolution, Bazul Ashhab, commented, “I would not have arrived to my station in life without the opportunities in education and mentorship that were provided by people in higher stations of life. As an entrepreneur and a lawyer, I will continue to strive to provide as much opportunities as possible to young Singaporean lawyers. This bursary is in a small way my contribution to social mobility. And what better way than to do this with a great institution like SMU. This year 7 out of 9 retained trainees at Oon & Bazul are SMU law graduates! This is a testament of the relationship the firm has with SMU. We want to offer the best and the brightest at SMU an opportunity to shine in a progressive Singaporean firm.”

[Feature Photo: Managing Partner Mr Bazul Ashhab (second from right) with student recipients Tan Jia Yi ‘21, Wang Guanwei ‘21, and Adam Bin Iryadi ‘15 in February 2020]