Law charity Pro Bono SG expanding to help more in need of free legal help

Alone in a foreign land, a migrant worker charged with stealing copper wires did not know who would defend him in court.

- Christine Tan

Walking into the new Migrant Workers' Law Centre (MWLC) along Serangoon Road in April, he met pro bono lawyer Nur Shukrina.

In basic English and Tamil, he said he had only acted as a lookout in the crime and was worried about how imprisonment would affect his family. Eventually, Ms Shukrina secured a reduced jail term of 10 weeks for him.

She said: "He was very grateful for the support and guidance throughout the proceedings, and for having someone speak up on his behalf."

The MWLC is among the newest initiatives by law charity Pro Bono SG, which is one of the few charities in Singapore offering free legal support. The charity helped over 16,650 individuals and community organisations between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 14,910 in the period of April 2022 to March 2023.

As the co-head of Allen & Gledhill's international arbitration practice, Pro Bono SG's chairman Dinesh Dhillon has worked with corporations on lawsuits involving billion-dollar investments. But he often thinks of those who cannot access the same legal services.

In 2016, he met a Chinese national who could not register her triplets' birth after her Singaporean spouse abandoned them.

Mr Dhillon, who also has triplets, wrote to the authorities to help secure their citizenship.