KOPITIAM TALK EP.2 – LEGAL PRACTICE: EXPECTATION VS REALITY

This article is written by BrainyLaw’s Carmen Lai (though posted using Weera’s account because Carment is not too WordPress savvy yet!) Both Weera and Carmen came from a long way back in their early years of law school, and here they are.

Three years ago, I wrote an article on Procedure on Transferring Your Pupillage, here on BrainyLaw.

Three years later, once in a blue moon, I still receive messages asking me the process on transfer.

I am currently in my 4^th year of practice, I thought beside sharing my precedent for the process of transfer, maybe I can share what I learnt about the legal practice to give some insight to those who have just passed their bar exam and about to begin their legal career.

First thing to know about lawyer-ing, we all love a good disclaimer. So, this is mine “Whatever you read below, is merely my own personal opinion based on my own limited personal experience of 4 years. Thank you.”

So now, you have passed your bar exam. Congratulations! But what’s next?

1. APPLYING FOR PUPILLAGE

It goes without saying that the automatic course of action after law graduates passed their bar exam, first thing first, is to apply for pupillage placements in big reputable firms. These big reputable firms will be flooded by pupillage applications and to address the issue, they will straight away filter out those who did not scored a 2:1 in their LL.B.

On a side note, this is like a salt on the wound because I did not score a 2:1 for my LL.B. but I did score a 2:1 in for my CLP making me the top 20 in my batch. But still, I was not eligible to apply into these big reputable firms because I did not fit their criteria. Your loss, bruh.

During these peak pupillage season, let’s just be honest, the competition rate is high. Let’s say you wrote in to 30 mid to big size reputable firms, statistically half of it won’t bother to reply you, some will at least be polite enough to tell you that there no more vacancy. If you are lucky, you probably can get about 5 interviews out of that 30 applications submission and that is mostly because either (i) through connection; or (ii) your cover letter and CV is fucking fantastic.

If you still couldn’t find a pupillage placement after the 50 applications you sent in, trust me, I know how shyt that feels. Then you will begin searching Bar Council and Jobstreet websites in hope of vacancy or google search the nearest law firms in your area and send in your application. You will then accept the first offer out of desperation (because most of your peers have begun their pupillage and you are still unemployed) and that is how often you ended up in the wrong firm and follow by a transfer application. You will think is okay, is just nine months, after your pupillage you will try for a better firm as an associate. Let me give you a piece of advice, nine months may seem short, but it will feel like forever if you ended up in a wrong firm that doesn’t suit you. They are some who manage to secure a pupillage placement in big reputable firms but was miserable during the nine months as well.

So instead of getting stuck in that cycle of blindly applying for firms just for the sake of getting that pupillage placement, read up about the firms and the partners of the firm. Find a firm that you think will be able to help you grow as a lawyer.

• PRACTICE AREAS TO EXPLORE

From my experience, the most popular practice area among law graduates is litigation follow by corporate. I think litigation is popular because that’s what general public perceive lawyers to be. Go court and fight cases. Corporate follows second because you either like to go court or you don’t. Half the time, law graduates don’t even know what corporate lawyers really do, besides not going to court.

I swear almost nobody comes for an interview passionately saying they want to be a conveyancer even though conveyancing is the bread and butter for most of the firm. Law graduates mostly end up in conveyancing because they couldn’t find a firm and end up accepting the first offer out of desperation. So, before they even tried conveyancing, they have this perception that conveyancing is the least cool area of practice. By limiting your mind sets, you are already limiting your potentials.

Besides litigation, corporate and conveyancing, there are many areas of law for you to explore during your pupillage. There is intellectual property law, employment law, family law, construction law and more niche area like FinTech. Read up on different areas of law to see what interest you. Be open to try different areas of laws during your pupillage so you will have a gauge what area you would like to practice in the future.

• DO EVERYTHING, LIKE LITERALLY

Malaysia’s bar exam is 100% examination based and due to that a lot of law graduate lacks the exposure to practical aspect of legal practice. Upon commencement of pupillage, pupils are eager to go court and be fully hands on a high-profile case. That’s ideal, but there’s more to that.

I hate to break it to you, but during your first few months of pupillage you will most likely be just doing research, getting acquainted with your office printer and binding machines or despatching documents. You must be thinking I have spent 4 years in law school just to be doing clerical work!!? Let me tell you, you may have spent 4 years in law school but during your pupillage you will most likely need a clerical staff to teach you to use that big printer sitting in the office. So, familiarise yourself on the day to day running of the firm and bigger tasks will come naturally.

Three years back, I wrote the article on Procedure on Transferring Your Pupillage which an intention to share the precedent to those who requires it. The fact that three years later I still receive messages on the same kind of worries me a little. I don’t know the statistic of the transfer, but for those who did, I am sure that each and every one of them has their own reason. As the author of that article, I rather you not go through what I went through as the transfer process is very disruptive and that is also the reason why I wrote this article today.

We are all individuals with different personality, so find a practice area and a firm that suits you. A senior lawyer once told me that no firm is perfect, is just that which aspect of it are you willing to sacrifice. Small firms are less systematic and pay less but they are more closely knitted and less politic. Big firms have better system in place and pays more but you are more likely required to give up your personal time and more prone to office politics. In small firms you get to grow with the firm. In big firms you get exposure to high profile cases.

At the end of the day, only yourself know which path you want to take.

As a pupil you are unlikely to have any real experience of the legal practice. When you do pick up a new area of law it will be an uphill battle to understanding the terminology and scope of work. At times you will feel frustrated and eventually just blame it on the fact that is not your cup of tea. You are bound to hit that huddle at some point of time, when you do, instead of giving up, try harder. Whatever you learn during your pupillage that knowledge belongs to you and not the firm. So put a little bit more effort to understand that subject matter before decide if you like it or not.

To be honest, the process of transfer did leave a dent on my CV. During interviews, I was asked about the reason for my transfer. Sometimes, I can feel these judgemental stares. But I did not regret my decision to transfer, in fact it made me realise what I wanted for my career path.

Before you embark on your career, I believe the most important question is to ask yourself what do you really want to do. Not what your parents want you to do.

…and not what your friends want to be. I think the mistake I made was not asking myself that question. After I passed my CLP, I followed everyone else and applied to the reputable firms for my pupillage. Friends sharing with me firms that they intend to do their pupillage because it will look good on their CV. So yeah, I followed the foot step of peer pressure.

During the first day of my pupillage, I tagged along with my master to a Federal Court leave application hearing. In my first three months of pupillage, I attended interlocutory hearings, trials and decisions at High Court and Federal Court. I was grateful for the opportunities, but I wasn’t happy at all. I am an introvert and I quickly realise that litigation isn’t my thing.

For the second half of my pupillage, I did conveyancing. I begin my conveyancing practice in this tiny sole proprietor firm, doing everything from A to Z. It was boring and unexciting. Until this one fine day, where I manage to complete this one file that took two years, the client whom I have never met was so grateful, when she came up to the office to collect the documents, she gave me a mushroom soup. Her matter was just perfection of title, is like the elementary level of conveyancing. But her gesture really touched me, for once in my nine months of pupillage I felt like I helped someone, I felt sense of recognition for what I did. I continued on with my conveyancing practice and in my second year I did my first pro-bona where the sole bread winner was paralyzed from an accident and he wanted to make sure his family is provided for in the event anything happens to him.

When I started my pupillage, I always thought litigation was my thing but it turns out I found more satisfaction in corporate/conveyancing. Each practice area has their own sets of challenge, so go find one that gives you satisfaction.

The real challenge here is not to find a job, but to find a job you would want to do for years to come.

Its been a very busy year for all of us lawyers of BrainyLaw, hence the slow down in new articles and contents. But fret not, we will endeavour to bring more content to members of the profession!

Till then, stay safe everyone.