Complimenting your LL.B

So, you are now a full-fledged lawyer who leads a successful career in a leading legal firm in town. Are you fullfilled emotionally? This is not another posting about happiness, in a way, but more about furthering your studies in other sector other than law and creating value for yourself in the long run. This is especially true if you are not that ambitious to begin with.

In 1998, when I graduated, I was told, lawyers in Malaysia were around the amount of 9,000 and now after 10 years, the amount is at 12,000. Why just 4,000 growth although there are so many law schools nowadays either in Malaysia itself or in other countries? There must be something wrong with the industry as many leave to do something else. Some actually practice law not as lawyers but as legal officers in companies and institutions. Some are better in the law of the lands than lawyers but they lack the practsing certificate allowing them to argue in court. These are the people who if they goes back to practising are better lawyers than us who have been practising for quite some times.

I have been a practitioner since I am out the university in 1998. As I now has become more of a business owner than a lawyer, as I don't go to court, I am actually losing touch with trial advocacy. My job description will be marketing, managing the office and the accounts of the firm. As good as I am at all this, I won't be accepted as a manager if I am to apply for such job.

That is why I took the CIFP course which I am pursuing at INCEIF. Islamic finance is a personal passion. I hate having to read and doing things according to schedules and being a part-timer I only have to make sure I send in my assigments and take the exams. I don't do tutorials and I rarely seen at the university grounds. Furthermore, the tuition fees are cheap. It is perfect for me.

What really push me to take another course is when I got to know one of my much older friend, 70 years of age to be exact, is currently taking a degree in a local university. He is rich enough to have a 6 acres bungalow in the middle of Shah Alam and basically don't have a need to study. I for one is still far from rich and knowing another skill set is always a need.