Adrian Tan Gim Hai (4 February 1966 – 8 July 2023) was a Singaporean lawyer and author. Known for writing the Teenage Textbook series of books in the 1980s, he was the 27th president of the Law Society of Singapore and a partner at TSMP Law Corporation.[1]
As a child, Tan attended the Anglo-Chinese School and Hwa Chong Junior College. Tan was later conscripted into the army as a writer for Pioneer, the MINDEF magazine.[3][4] After his A-levels, he was offered a teaching scholarship to study English at the University of East Anglia. He turned down the scholarship to study law at the National University of Singapore (NUS).[2] While in university, Tan represented NUS as a debater in international competitions and televised debates in Singapore.[5] He later completed a second, joint-honours degree in computer science and psychology from the Open University in 2004, while working as a lawyer.[6]
While an undergraduate law student at NUS, Tan wrote the novels The Teenage Textbook (1988) and The Teenage Workbook (1989), which became bestsellers that sold over 50,000 copies.[7][8]The Teenage Textbook was also made into a stage play by The Necessary Stage in 1997;[9]afilm in 1998, which topped the box office in Singapore for four weeks;[10] a 2017 musical titled The Teenage Textbook Musical;[11] and a 2021 TV series on Channel 5.[12] In 2015, The Teenage Textbook was listed by The Business Times as one of the top 10 English Singapore books from 1965 to 2015.[13] Tan also was a consultant for the Channel 5 television legal drama The Pupil.[14] Tan was invited to a National Library Board festival but later boycotted it over the board's decision to withdraw from its libraries children's books that depicted same-sex families.[15]
From 2013 to 2021, Tan was a member of the Law Society Council, serving as treasurer in 2016 and vice president in 2017.[25][26][27] In 2022, he was appointed president.[2] As president of the law society, he was known for his public outreach on legal issues,[28] such as the HDB's ban on cats,[29] the 2022 bar exam cheating scandal,[2] and Richard Branson's comments on the death penalty in Singapore.[30] Tan gave his only Opening of the Legal Year speech as Law Society president in 2023, where he addressed attrition rates in the legal profession.[31]
Tan was married without any children.[32] He was diagnosed with cancer in March 2022,[33] and died on 8 July 2023, at age 57.[34] At a memorial service celebrating his life, Tan was said to be someone who "had very little ego", was a champion of the legal profession and who "cared for the less fortunate."[35]
After his death, a collection of essays by Tan on the issues he cared about and commented on, was published in a book entitled, "If I were King of Singapore."[36]
