A former DLA Piper Singapore partner who was sentenced to two months in prison for lying about his annual compensation when moving firms has had his sentence cut to just one day on appeal, reports The Am Law Daily.

Rudy Lim, the former head of DLA's Indonesia practice, will now serve just one day in jail and pay a $10,000 (£6,400) fine.

Lim was disbarred in the UK as a result of telling US firm Duane Morris that his monthly drawings at DLA were $65,000 ($41,000) rather than the true figure of $25,000 (£16,000).

Duane Morris hired Lim when it opened a Singapore office in January 2007. Lim had been working for DLA in Singapore for several years – making partner in February 2006 – handling project development and finance work for the firm before interviewing with Duane Morris in late 2006.

After Lim left DLA, employees going through electronic records on his computer found a forged payroll statement showing that he had improperly boosted his annual compensation.

DLA alerted Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department, which conducted an investigation that became the basis for a disciplinary review by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in March 2008.

An SRA report issued that August found that Lim deliberately created a false payroll document to aid him in salary negotiations with Duane Morris. Lim had resigned from the firm in May 2007.

At a three-day trial in Singapore earlier this year, a district court found Lim guilty of forgery and ordered him to serve two months in prison, despite the fact that forgery convictions traditionally carry with them a sentence of seven years and a fine. Lim appealed his conviction and remained free on $80,000 (£51,000) bail posted by his father.

On Monday (15 August), the Supreme Court of Singapore ruled that Duane Morris did not rely on the fake payslip when determining Lim's compensation package.

Lim's lawyer argued that his client had received the Duane Morris job on his own merit, and had only lied about his pay as part of a face-saving manoeuvre, believing that he was underpaid at DLA and would soon be taking a leadership position with his new employer.

Lim, who was admitted to practice in the UK and Australia, previously worked as an associate at White & Case and Baker & McKenzie.

The Am Law Daily is a blog on law.com, Legal Week's US affiliate title.