Blabber and Blather (concluded... finally!)

Well that has been a hectic past week... I'd better finish this last post before something else comes up! But first, as we lawyers are wont to do, a disclaimer:

Right, now where were we?

I was explaining to these teenagers at HIP Cafe that there are different types of law in which you can choose to practise. The level of specialisation depends largely on where you work, for example, in a small town, the lawyers would be Jack of all Trades "general practitioners", whereas in large cities, there will be a very fine degree of specialisation into even rather arcane areas of law.

In Kuching, there are a number of broad fields. Some lawyers only do conveyancing. Others only practise criminal law. There are a number of lawyers who spend much of their time in the Labour Courts, while a few focus on the Family Courts. 

Me, I'm a civil litigator, which means I handle law suits between private individuals or corporations. What does that cover? Well people sue each other over everything! To that extent the civil litigator has to become knowledgeable in many different fields and industries, in order to adequately present their clients' cases in Court. 

Just to toss you a totally random example, what is crazing in tiles? In a dispute over the fitness for purpose of tiles supplied to a condominium project, I had to learn that small hairline cracks which appear can often be caused by a mismatch in the thermal expansions of surfaces. For that suit, an expert was flown in from Singapore to give his opinion on the various possible causes of failure in the goods sold and delivered.

We civil litigators also need to know who auditors report to (answer: the shareholders, not the directors of a company); what ministry issues permits to import vehicles (MITI); what neurological impact can diabetes have; what is overburden in a quarry operation; what are the requirements for masterplanning approval in Sarawak; etc.

I then passed the mike over to Gladys Lee, a very bright young lawyer currently with Tang & Partners, to field questions on requirements for university admission, etc. My knowledge in this area is around 25 years out of date, so if you have any questions after reading this blog, please don't hesitate to send enquiries to Gladys through me.

Blabber and Blather (continued)

Continued from yesterday's post, this is PART TWO of my talk to secondary school students at HIP Cafe on Monday 4 Oct 2010:

THE VERSATILE DEGREE
Graduating from Law School doesn't mean you have to enter private practise as a lawyer. Recent studies found that one-third of Australian law graduates are not practising law. Or, your practice of law can be as an in-house counsel in a large company, such as Shell. Some law graduates enter the public service, as legal officers for the State or Federal Attorney General or Public Prosecutor; while others may join the Judicial Department as Magistrates or Assistant Registrars, eventually heading to become Judges. Even if you take on a job that has nothing directly to do with law, such as business or management, a Law Degree would be considered extremely useful by prospective employers. Many students enter Law School on the wishes of their parents. A friend who was a couple of years behind me in Monash University came from a distinguished legal family and he was expected to join his uncle's firm and perhaps follow his father into the judiciary. However he came back with his law degree... and became a pilot. A very happy one, I believe.

COMIC RELIEF
You may have noticed that I've got little cartoons on top of these posts. They're from here. I was planning to tell some of my own favourite jokes in the middle of my talk, but I ran out of time and I also kinda ran out of nerve... a bunch of jaded teenagers seemed to me a tougher audience than a panel of Federal Court Judges! Just to get those jokes off my chest, I will inflict them upon you, here:

A stranger comes into a small town and asks a farmer in his field, "Do you have a criminal lawyer here?" The farmer replies, "Yup, but we've never been able to prove anything against him."


Another stranger comes into town, goes to its cemetery, and sees a tombstone which reads, "Here lies a lawyer and an honest man". He mutters to himself, "This cemetery must be so crowded, they've put two people in one grave."


Two guys have a car accident. They sit by the side of the road, shaking. One guy pulls out a hip flask and hands it to the other, who gulps down some whiskey gratefully. "Phew, thanks, I needed that. I'm a doctor, by the way." He hands the hip flask back to the first guy, who says, "I'm a lawyer and I'm not touching a drop before the cops get here."

Boom-boom. Maybe I should have told these jokes on Monday after all...

Check back here tomorrow for PART THREE.

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...