Why I became a lawyer

It was actually a very embarrasing thing to admit I am a lawyer due to a part-time job I did when I was waiting for my SPM result. Why is it embarrasing? I am now a rival of the person who made me decided to be a lawyer and he would never give me the time of the day even if we are in the same room. That would be like having to fight your own Tok Guru (teacher). He may not even know that I have a quite successful business. His wife does work in a bank where my firm is a panel of, though and we do chat once a year during the bank's hari raya do. She has been with the bank since she graduated and now even her youngest son whom I met once when he was 6 years old is already a university student.

I would love to say that I became a lawyer not due to him at all. He was (kind of) an inspiration but was never a part of my education life. I was working for him as an office boy who got paid RM300 per month and was told to type and paste the Hari Raya envelopes of that 1991 year. I was brought there by the accountant who was working for that guy. The accountant was commuting from Seremban to Kuala Lumpur everyday and I was a kind of a pet brother to his wife (I was a pet brother to a whole bunch of people between the age of 5 to 17 before I became too big to be term 'cute')

I was doing nothing after my SPM and decided a minimum wage job is just the perfect way to spend my holiday. My mother encouraged me to do so as I would be preoccupied with something. At least she could have her rest after ensuring I took my SPM with a semblance of an A student. I was one of the most laziest person whom my mother had constant arguments with to ensure I studied well for my SPM. And of course, when my mom see me having a hard time not to argue with anything she said and also I seem to have a big mouth everywhere I went to, the obvious choice as my undergraduate study that she said I should take is a law degree.

I never really learnt anything with regards to law in that office but seeing the high-flying life that seemed to be lived by the partners of the firm was the thing that I coveted. As the man I was following manage th account of the firm, I also 'learnt' a few things about his work including the lavish spendings and the expense account that all the partners have. So, it may have been the money that lawyers could command was the deciding factor for me to become a lawyer. I was not really a follower of any TV show where lawyers traded barbs and arguments in courts which was then spearheaded by L.A. Law. I was not impressed or even have any knowledge what Bar Council did, then. I was not even aware that there was a judicial crisis in Malaysia 3 years before I became a law students. I was just attracted to the money...

So, that was the start of my fascination with law. Or is it still the money? Hmmmm....