Beware of stock standard advice
When I started out my practice in my father’s firm a great many counseled me to consider not working for my father but to try out other firms. Lawyers of …
A bare handed win
My boss, Izzat, once told me a story about how he won an application after barely a minute of submission. It’s something I wished happened to me in my career …
I love You 1000+ Advocacy
The former deputy prime minister and current UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, was charged with 12 counts of criminal breach of trust offences, 8 …
Keep an open mind to gossip
No smoke without fire, as we like to say. But sometimes we mistake smoke for a cloud of kicked-up dust. There was a senior lawyer whom I had heard gossip …
The Time Amer Found Crime
Amer Hamzah and I took our Certificate of Legal Practice (‘CLP’) course at the University of Malaya (UM) when they used to run it. The time we took it was …
My journey to the syariah bar
I was finally called to the Syariah (Federal Territories) Bar in June 2018. That was my fifth attempt. The journey to that point started in 2010 when I signed up …
The Stinker of a Case
There will come a time in every litigator’s career when they will be called upon to conduct a case which contains absolutely no hope of success, without even the fig …
Coming around to conveyancing
When I worked in my father’s firm, I generally avoided conveyancing work i.e. sale and purchase transactions of landed property. However, every now and again, I would take on a …
The Transfer Application and the Forgotten Case
In my early years of practice, I acted for Uncle Chan, a close friend of my uncle, my mom’s brother. He always came around our popo’s house for a visit …
The time I saw a law book fly
It happened one morning in the Jalan Raja Sessions Courts. I was in my early years of practice; second or third year. The judge that presided over the court I …
My acquaintanceship with the law
A favourite lawyer question is, How did you come to the law? If it is not true for everyone else, it is at least true for me. With that single …
Lawyers and ‘Lawyers’
When I started practice, I fancied myself a decent tennis player. When the opportunity to try out for the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee tennis team appeared, I signed up. I …