{"id":2156,"date":"2015-07-28T16:27:15","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T08:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2021-04-05T11:43:01","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T03:43:01","slug":"ooi-chia-rou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/ooi-chia-rou\/","title":{"rendered":"Ooi Chia Rou My Experience as an Attachment Student"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0 have always perceived working in a law firm to be tedious and\u00a0 mundane but every little piece of that misconception faded away as I started\u00a0 my internship\/\u00a0 mini-pupillage\/ attachment\u00a0 with\u00a0 Alex Chang & Co. The\u00a0 common perception that people are stuck in is that a\u00a0\u00a0 internship\/\u00a0 mini-pupillage\/ attachment is all about punching holes, stapling and binding documents and photocopying; something better than that would be to do some research on some legal topics.\u00a0 This is,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 not the case in this firm.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0 still\u00a0 have\u00a0\u00a0 vivid memory of the first day of my internship.\u00a0 I\u00a0 was assigned to write two essays which were aimed to test my research skills.\u00a0 One of the questions was really interesting and had\u00a0 piqued my curiosity.\u00a0\u00a0 Through this seemingly simple\u00a0\u00a0 exercise,\u00a0 I have learnt to see things from different perspectives and angles which I reckon,\u00a0 is very important throughout one’s journey in the legal field.<\/p>\n

There was a\u00a0 particularly interesting\u00a0 aspect of my internship, that was, the observation of trial proceedings.\u00a0 Mr Alex Chang’s\u00a0 brilliant questioning skills during cross examination and mind provoking arguments during trial and\u00a0 submission\u00a0 has motivated\u00a0 me to become a litigator and make use of my knowledge and skills to defend my clients’ rights.<\/p>\n

My master, Mr. Alex Chang is often invited to give talks at the Bar Council.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u00a0 really\u00a0 enjoyed observing\u00a0\u00a0 him\u00a0 in\u00a0 his ethics class, where he gives a talk to more than a hundred pupil in chambers\u00a0\u00a0 as\u00a0 his emphasis on the values of being a lawyer has inspired me to be a justice seeker with\u00a0 principle\u00a0 and\u00a0 integrity.\u00a0\u00a0 A live\u00a0 mock\u00a0 trial presentation was also conducted by him,\u00a0 allowing the pupils\u00a0 in chambers\u00a0 to familiarise themselves with their roles as future counsels.<\/p>\n

\"L-R:<\/a>
L-R: Miss Ooi Chia Rou, Mr Alex Chang, Puan Hendon & Miss Ooi Wei Qian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also had a rare privilege\u00a0\u00a0 to interact with the soon-to-be lawyers after the said talk, which provided me an insight of the challenges they have encountered in pursuing a legal career.\u00a0 Listening to them sharing their experience with me helped\u00a0 me to\u00a0 prepare\u00a0 myself mentally for the adversities that I will face in the future.<\/p>\n

Being the Advisory Editor of the Companies Winding Up Handbook, Mr Alex Chang is again, being invited to write a brief guide on the soon-to-be passed Companies Bill 2013. I\u00a0 was\u00a0 given the opportunity to assist him\u00a0 in\u00a0 that\u00a0 project.<\/p>\n

My visit to the Kuala Lumpur High Court was really a meaningful one. \u00a0I was assigned to shadow \u00a0Miss Lim Soo Zee,\u00a0 a pupil in chambers\u00a0 turned\u00a0\u00a0 legal assistant of Mr Alex Chang. \u00a0 \u00a0The\u00a0 formalities in court and professionalism exuded left\u00a0 me in awe.<\/p>\n

The unaccustomed event during an attachment\u00a0 that I got to experience personally was the\u00a0creditors\u2019\u00a0 meeting conducted by the assistant of\u00a0\u00a0 the Official Receiver at the office of\u00a0 the Director General\u00a0 of Insolvency Office at\u00a0 Kuala\u00a0 Lumpur.<\/p>\n

However, the most unaccustomed\u00a0 event, was the meeting\u00a0 over lunch with the prominent Tan Sri Soong Siew Hong who was one of the founders of the Rotary Club of Pudu\u00a0 49 years ago.\u00a0 He also served as the\u00a0\u00a0 Secretary General of the Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCIM).\u00a0 It\u00a0 was\u00a0 really an\u00a0 honour to have had a meal hosted by\u00a0 him.<\/p>\n

\"Tan<\/a>
Standing L-R: Angela Cheong Weng Ann, Alex Chang Sitting L-R Lunch with Tan Sri Soong, Ooi Chia Rou<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Karaoke sessions,\u00a0 farewell dinners, to have lunch occasionally together with everyone in the firm, break-fasting dinner, 3-D movie screening\u00a0\u00a0 are all the other social\u00a0 settings that I\u00a0 participated during\u00a0 my month-long\u00a0 attachment.\u00a0 Undeniably, these social events allowed us to be a step closer to each other,\u00a0 making us feel at\u00a0 home despite working in a\u00a0 stressful environment.<\/p>\n

\"Karaoke<\/a>
Karaoke session<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"dx525296-ACC-Dinner\"<\/a>
Office dinner group photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout my attachment, I have received\u00a0 much\u00a0 guidance and support\u00a0 from everyone in the firm.\u00a0 Special thanks to my master, Mr Alex\u00a0 Chang;\u00a0 his legal assistant, Miss Lim Soo Zee;\u00a0\u00a0 the two\u00a0 pupils in chambers, Miss Maizatul\u00a0 Suhaila Binti Zukifli and Miss Nor Arifa Binti A. Rahman; last but not least Ms Elaine,\u00a0\u00a0 Ms Chow and Ms Wong.\u00a0 I would not\u00a0 have enjoyed myself so much in the absence of all of\u00a0 you.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My gratitude goes out to one and all.<\/p>\n

OOI Chia Rou
\nUniversity of Sheffield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0 have always perceived working in a law firm to be tedious and\u00a0 mundane but every little piece of that misconception faded away as I started\u00a0 my internship\/\u00a0 mini-pupillage\/ attachment\u00a0 with\u00a0 Alex Chang & Co. The\u00a0 common perception that people are stuck in is that a\u00a0\u00a0 internship\/\u00a0 mini-pupillage\/ attachment is all about punching holes, stapling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1804,"featured_media":2175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[85],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1804"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8757,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions\/8757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}