Professional Education

The Basic Skillset of a Lawyer

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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 …

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Preparing questions for examining witnesses beforehand

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From the beginning of my practice, whenever I prepared for a trial, which meant the examination of witnesses, I wrote down all my questions beforehand. Whether it was an examination-in-chief or a cross-examination, I wrote down every question for every permutation of answers I anticipated from a witness. Preparing questions for examination is a feat of imagination which requires creativity, empathy and anticipation. I like preparing early to allow opportunities for new or better ideas …

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Is Legal Practice a Business or a Profession?

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For some reason, this is an evergreen topic in Malaysian practice. Those who pose this question often think they discovered some great irreconcilable schism in legal practice between the two. Those who ask this question often leave the impression that if legal practice is a business, then lawyers may do whatever they need to do to earn a fee. However, if legal practice is a profession, then lawyers are severely restricted in how they earn …

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‘Sit near the staff.’

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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 sat upstairs near the library whereas the staff – comprised of the receptionist, clerks and dispatch – sat downstairs. “Sit near the staff. There is no one supervising them downstairs. Because of that they do as they like downstairs. Whenever I call the office no …

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