Blabber and Blather

Monday night, HIP Cafe at The Spring Shopping Mall, I gave a talk about a career in law. Apparently a few young people wanted to come but couldn't because of exams and such. I told their friends I would post a summary of my speech, so here goes.
PART 1


ABOUT ME
I was born in Kuching and attended St Joseph's until Form 1, after which I went to Melbourne to complete my secondary schooling. I sat for the Victorian Higher School Certificate and scored enough marks to get into Monash University (though not the tougher Melbourne Uni) to do Law. In Australia, a number of the larger firms recruit students about to graduate in their penultimate year. I was offered to do Articles (known as Chambering or Pupillage in Malaysia) in Baker & McKenzie, an international firm. I learned a lot there, not just about the law, but also about how an efficient firm is managed and run. Halfway through my Articles year, a recession hit Australia and I was not offered a job with the firm. So I came back to Kuching to join my elder brother George, who already had an established practice here and the rest, as they say, is history.


ABOUT YOU
But enough about me. Let's talk about you, the students who are considering a legal career. Why do you want to take up law in university? There are a few common reasons: money, power, glamour or justice. Let me explode a few of those myths. 


If you or your parents are under the impression that law is the path to easy wealth or positions of power like a number of government ministers who started out as legal eagles, then think again. In today's marketplace in which competition is fierce, you must be prepared to work very hard and for a long time --you would likely need a healthy dose of luck, of being in the right time and the right place-- to really shine and succeed. Don't get me wrong, it can be done, but don't expect it to be Easy Street. It won't.


As for glamour, if you were brought up on a diet of courtroom dramas like Law & Order or, during my formative years, LA Law, well, practice is definitely not like what you see on the screen. In real life, the cases you handle can sometimes get very exciting as you pin the opposing witness down and expose him as a liar in the box, but it's still a very low-key affair, the opposite of glamorous. An onlooker sitting in the public gallery will be hard-pressed to even hear the answers often mumbled by the witnesses, much less appreciate that a momentous truth has been revealed to the Judge. Still, you will feel a sense of triumph inside, and that can be priceless.


Justice? In this day and age of media openness, especially web-based communications, it is easier for you teenagers to be exposed to tales of injustice, be it to minorities or the environment, and revelations of corruption and greed. Some of you may be moved to cry, something must be done to correct this. Well, in most cases, the legal framework exists, but there may be no one willing to take up the cause and fight for the oppressed. This is where you can make a difference as a lawyer. As I have quoted elsewhere in this blog, the worst thing is to do nothing just because you can only do a little. If that's your motivation to do law, blind justice, you have my encouragement, and my warning also, because it will not be an easy life ahead. 


Stay tuned for PART TWO...