The admission of lawyers to the Bar

 I came back today from being spectator at a call-to-the-Bar of a chambering student of my firm. Being part owner of the legal firm, I was invited for the ceremony in one of the court in Kuala Lumpur. The ceremony of interns or chambering students being admitted as an advocate and solicitor to the High Court of Malaya. Or easily being the equivalent of doctors finishing their housemanship. From practising to real practise. 

I was not the Master for the chambering student at my firm (master being the teacher who is supposed to teach her the way of lawyers, whatever that means). It was my associate who is actually much older than me as she was the one in need of someone to help her with her works. Admittedly, some lawyers in Malaysia, albeit controversially, called chambering students as cheap labour. In my firm, we do try to educate any attachment student (which are basically students who are still in university but are asked to be attached to legal institutions such as a legal firm like mine). We take them to court and sometimes give them task to finish to give them the experience of finishing a legal task.

However, the particular call to the Bar which I attended this morning was memorable due to a few reasons. There was a special chambering student who was admitted together with the one from my firm. She was the daughter of the current Prime Minister of Malaysia (although she was from his first wife). Being from that lineage was something as her later grandfather, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia was a lawyer. Her uncle was also a lawyer. She was the first from the new generation. 

So, her grandmother (which is the wife of the first Prime Minister) was there and her famous uncle (which I blogged about once and you can find the link here), a banker, were both there. As it was the grandmother's birthday, there were 2 people who broke normal convention in a courtroom by wishing her a happy birthday. One was the judge and one was the representative of the Bar Council of Malaysia, whose job was to say "No Objection!" to the admission of the girl to the Bar.

It was also memorable due to the facts which I will blogged tomorrow. Here is a picture of Norleen, the girl from my firm and a group photo of the attendees from my legal firm...

 

The NEWLY MINTED lawyer

 

from left : The Master, Nily; Khalil, the lawyer; 

Yaqen and Mira, the attachment students from UiTM