Other Stuff

The Basic Skillset of a Lawyer

by

Marketing, business development, making Tik Tok videos, getting featured or profiled here and there, and such matters are things one does purportedly for attracting legal work. These are not skills for producing high-quality legal work. They are an enervating distraction, especially to the development of a young lawyer’s legal abilities. For myself, there are 4 basic skill sets every lawyer must possess: the ability to read, write, speak and think. I know anyone literate can …

Read more

Upfront and personal

by

‘How is it you dare to be so upfront and personal on your blog?’ A friend of mine asked me the other day. ‘Really? I’m just relating what I learned and endured from my personal experience. I suppose it is necessarily personal so I can be sure of the truth I speak or write about. And I am the upfront sort. It keeps things clear.’ ‘Yah. It’s like you let people into your mind. What …

Read more

The Soul of a Litigator

by

Litigation is a drag these days. For the most part. A primary reason for that is regrettably my colleagues at the bar. Not all of them, of course. There are competent and credible ones who are also reasonable, fair and pleasant. But they are like Malaysian public holidays: they exist, they are celebrated but there’s never enough of them. My sense of it is there is a widespread misguided idea of what it is lawyers …

Read more

Call Speech for Nureen Elysya binti Sakya

by

May it please Your Lordship, Fahri Azzat for the Petitioner. The Petitioner, Nureen Elysya binti Sakya, hails from Kuala Lumpur. She is the second daughter of Puan Norlaily Basir and Encik Sakya Hamid. Madam Norlaily is a banker and Encik Sakya is a chef. They will prove useful advisers to the Petitioner. Her father can teach her how to better cook and flavour her legal submission. Her mother can teach her how to make her …

Read more

Interviewing New Clients for Facts

by

When meeting a client for the first time, I tell my younger colleagues they need to be mindful that a new client almost always tells us only the favourable aspects of their case. They will leave out the awkward or unfavourable aspects of their case. It doesn’t matter what the dispute is – civil, criminal, estate inheritance, family, industrial – a new client always starts with their best foot forward. When I was younger, I …

Read more