May I know which area of corporate work are you handling now ? Thanks.

banking and finance. i do mainly syndicated/bilateral loans (incl acquisition/project financing) and bond/sukuk issuances. I do some other work here and there (advisory and the occassional involvement in mergers & acquisitions), but not worth mentioning.

Which modules did you guys find to be the toughest?

Hi alsree786,
Thanks for sharing. How long have you practicing ?

for me, EU law was tough.


a lil over 2 years. pupillage was mostly liti work, and I didn't like it...after pupillage, switched to corporate.

May i know how can we practise in australia after being calld? Tried searching in google, but all the webs are jammed

Hi guys, this is my first post here.

I'm a Law graduate from IIUM, have yet to wait for my convocation this November.

Right now am doing sale in Real Estate Agency, still haven't start my chambering.

Reason being is that I don't have the means to commit to fixed working hour job (I'm sharing car with my sister).

I just wonder is there a firm that would accept a pupil at flexible working hour?

Thanks.

after being called where? and which part of Australia? Solicitor or Barrister? not sure whether the priestly 11 still apply since the last time I checked about 3 years ago.


The small firms may be willing to consider this, the mid-sized or large firms won't be open to that idea. Even then, you should check whether the rules applicable to pupils allow for this.

I'm currently in my year 2 doing Tort, Land, Evidence and Labour. Will one say that this is too heavy a combination? How close is UK Labour Law to Malaysia Law?

I reckon you are attach to fairly large firm for you to do those corporate work mentioned earlier ?

Yes, that is right.

Very few small firms can do such work, not only because the partners in such firms do not have sufficient experience or capacity to handle the same, but large MNCs, GLCs and the likes prefer bigger law firms because of professional indemnity and continuity concerns. Some of these large scale financing (notably project financing) can run up to a couple of years.

My take is that your employer did take into consideration of your results both L.LB and CLP ? Thanks.

Yes that is right along with any other experience/qualifications that you may have. Also together with other factors which they had assessed during the interview I presume.

Some firms will only consider those with a minimum of 2:1 unless that person has strong prior working experience or other qualifications (or otherwise comes highly recommended). If you're a straight up 2:2 with a BPTC/CLP, certain firms might not bother giving a second look at your application.

This post has been edited by alsree786: Oct 7 2013, 06:13 PM

alsree786,
What is the biggest challenge to be successful in the law practice ? Do you think our homeland has enough rooms to contain so many lawyers (or is it having a shortage of practicing lawyers out there) ? Thanks.

Challenge? hmmm, objectively, the long hours I presume (especially in mid-sized to large firms). You will need stamina. Lawyers are service providers, and are frontliners. Even after 30 years of practice, you still gotta do what your client says and wants and the market is competitive, and will be more so once the foreign firms come in, even though their licences are restricted to certain areas of work.

There are a variety of factors that result in long hours. When I say long hours, I mean a minimum of 70-80 hour work weeks. Honestly, lawyers in Malaysia don't get paid that much, and we're probably around the same as in house lawyers up to a certain level, so when you put in so many more hours a week, just be sure that that is what you want to be doing. My friend for example is an in-house lawyer. He does a 9am to 6.30pm most days with the occassional 9am to 7.30pm or 8pm. I do a 9am to 9pm most days with the occassional 9am to 1am.

And even after putting in those hours, you realise that there is a whole bunch of things you don't really know.

There is no shortage of lawyers, just shortage of good, focused lawyers. But I think what is equally important is that Malaysia lacks good legal support staff. When you start practicing, you'll realise how important a good conveyancing clerk, or IP executive or even your secretary is. Every lawyer only has so many hours a day.

alsree786,
Appreciate your insight shared here with me. What's making you a lawyer instead ? For the love of law by choice or by default ? 1,000 lawyers are churned out into the legal profession each year. I think that's a lot of numbers.

Sure, no problem. Just hope my insight is taken as one person's view and experience.

It was by default actually. I wanted to do something else, but well, I decided to do law since it was an available option. I don't regret my decision now though.

Yes, that's alot of numbers, but alot are crap. See, its fine to make mistakes here and there (we're all human), but there must be certain core attributes that make or can help your mentor mould you into a good lawyer. Remember, it is a business at the end of it all. You gotta know business and think like a businessman, from marketing, to profiling, to delegating, to strategising, to prioritising, to communicating, to branding.

alsree786,
when you said a lot are crap, do you mean they knowledge, communication skill, command of language, attitude that lead to their failures let alone falling out of the legal profession as 50% will leave after 5 years ? Thanks.

Well, I wouldn't put leaving the legal profession in the same line as "lead to their failures".

Yes, a lack of those traits/skills. For a pupil, the least important of the four traits/skills you mentioned, imho, is actually knowledge. You may have learnt the basics in Uni, but the basics are never enough to address most, if not all real legal issues. And being a student of English Law (or whatever foreign law), doesn't make it any easier. Most important may be attitude.

how is BPTC different compared to CLP?

and which one would u choose, or advice to choose?

TQ in advance!
-Jon