Justice Judith Prakash's stellar legal career winds down

The first woman to be appointed to Court of Appeal will be a Senior Judge from January

- Ravi Velloor

At the funeral ceremony for Mr Joseph Grimberg in August 2017, Justice Judith Prakash sat recalling the words the former judicial commissioner and long-serving helmsman of law firm Drew & Napier told her in 1992, when she informed him she had been offered elevation to the Bench.

Mr Grimberg had responded that it was indeed a great honour and that she should accept. But being a judge was also a very seductive job and one must not be seduced by the power that comes with it, he had advised. Judges ought not to get carried away; after all, it was not their power, but the state's, that they were administering.

Besides, one day it will go away and you need to learn how to live after that day, he said.

"You know, Jaya," she said, turning to her husband, Mr Jaya Prakash. "Throughout my judicial career, I have tried to remember and live by what Joe told me that day." The day that Mr Grimberg spoke about has dawned.

Singapore's first woman judge to be appointed to the Court of Appeal ends her tenure there on Dec 18, after having been reappointed three times since her initial superannuation in 2016 at age 65. She turns 72 on Dec 19.

From January 2024, she takes on the role of Senior Judge hearing complex cases in the Court of Appeal - which comes with a significantly lighter workload.