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 was it was gentlemanly; lawyers offered themselves for election and relied on the strength of their reputation and nominators’ reputations to get elected. There were no overt campaigns and certainly no manifestos about what one would do if one got elected. You were elected because …
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 been called to move a call out of the Klang Valley. I used to look on in horror at the mass calls to the Bar practiced by the Singaporean Bar. I used to think our Malaysian practice of calling each newly minted member of the …
“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 understandable. Their personal fortunes are tied to the case. They are anxious and stressed about whether they will succeed or lose. Nobody goes to court wanting to lose unless it is part of a larger strategy. Usually that assurance is expected to be expressed as …
Some of you may have caught the news about the 72 year old, Dolly Ng, a former piano teacher who inherited about RM 4+ million from her parents but lost it all as a result of the Macau scam. I quote the material portions: Some time in May last year, a person, claiming to be a policeman, contacted her. “The caller told me that my money in the accounts was under investigation by the authorities. …
Why I teach