Evolution of the Future Lawyer
What the future lawyer (and with it legal practice and legal firms) will look like is something I like to read about and speculate every now and again. Regrettably, it …
Taking Chances
A second year law student once asked me in an email interview, If you did not want to hire me, what could I do to change your mind? That question …
Winning all the time
Two-time Noble laureate Linus Pauling encapsulated the process of innovation when he said, “The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw out the bad …
“Sit near the staff.”
My mother insisted on this before I began my pupilage at my father’s firm in 1998. She did not approve of the firm’s arrangement where the bosses, lawyers and pupils …
Dealing with Others
Remember we are all human beings going through own own trajectory in life, at a particular stage of development, and are managing our own challenges in our lives at the …
Consultation Fees and the Embarrassed Lawyer
My good friend Shan and I were once at a post-hearing meal in the company of a very senior and well known lawyer. Shop talk was inevitable since we were …
“Why do you act for them?”
I was asked this question once by a polite young Malay male student when I was on my smoke break when I was in University Sultan Zainal Abidin, UniSZA, as …
Making choices
When deciding something critical, project myself to the distant future then look back at this present moment and ask myself, what would I like to have happen or assuming I …
A Master’s Expectation
The recent intense discussion about pupil remuneration revealed an interesting dimension to the issue – a Master’s expectation of their pupil. The impression of that is Masters now expect a …
A Pupil’s Remuneration
Mathew Thomas Philip, a senior lawyer, recently made an interesting suggestion about pupils’ remuneration. His proposal was to replace pupil allowances with a pupil loan with comfortable repayment terms. That …
Campaigning for Bar Council Elections
When I started practice at the Bar in 1999, the Bar Council elections were not the contentious, fractious, politicized and aggressive election we have now. My sense of it then …
Dealing with Failure and Success
If failure, let the disappointment and anger, if any, run its course for the day. End the day well. Go to bed early. Forget about yesterday. If success, savour it …
Mass Calls to the Bar
My experience of calls to the Bar is one borne from moving calls mostly at the Kuala Lumpur (KL) and, occasionally, at the Shah Alam High Courts. Rarely have I …
Discussing Litigation Prospects of Success in Percentages
“What are our chances of success?” Every litigation lawyer’s client That is a question a client will inevitably ask his or her lawyer about a case in court. It is …