{"id":2195,"date":"2015-08-03T15:18:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T07:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/?p=2195"},"modified":"2021-02-17T10:33:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T02:33:15","slug":"gary-au-kar-meng-attachment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/gary-au-kar-meng-attachment\/","title":{"rendered":"A Very Unique Attachment Internship Gary Au Kar Meng"},"content":{"rendered":"

Litigation Experience in University vs. Litigation Life in Alex Chang & Co.<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/a>
Gary Au Kar Meng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have recently completed\u00a0 a short\u00a0 attachment\/ mini pupillage\u00a0\u00a0 under the\u00a0 supervision of\u00a0 Mr Alex Chang Huey Wah\u00a0 and\u00a0 I\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 have learned\u00a0 so much.\u00a0 I\u00a0\u00a0 now\u00a0 understand\u00a0 the fact that the life of a litigator\u00a0\u00a0 is very different from what I have learned during\u00a0 university.\u00a0\u00a0 In university it was\u00a0 all theoretical, the exposure here is\u00a0\u00a0 practical and\u00a0 hands on experience.<\/p>\n

In the university, the closest we\u00a0 got\u00a0 to\u00a0 actual\u00a0\u00a0 litigation\u00a0 was\u00a0 Mooting,\u00a0 where we were also\u00a0 required\u00a0\u00a0 to draft\u00a0 court documents and prepare bundles.\u00a0 However,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u00a0 found out on day one\u00a0 that what we\u00a0 did in the\u00a0 university was rather simple,\u00a0 compared to the real matters\u00a0\u00a0 that\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0 firm deals with,\u00a0 which\u00a0 is\u00a0 definitely tougher and more\u00a0 perplexing.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u00a0 found this out through the hard way, when Mr Alex Chang gave me some case files to read\u00a0 and thereafter I was required to share my thoughts with him.<\/p>\n

Mr Alex Chang\u00a0 even gave me the opportunity to be a\u00a0 “judge” in\u00a0 one of the ongoing matters, that is,\u00a0\u00a0 to prepare the Grounds of Judgment\u00a0 after\u00a0 reading pleadings,\u00a0 notes of proceedings,\u00a0 submissions\u00a0 and authorities.\u00a0\u00a0 This\u00a0\u00a0 exercise taught\u00a0 me\u00a0 to think\u00a0 critically\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 before writing my\u00a0 Grounds of Judgment.\u00a0\u00a0 Even when I was in the process of reading through this case, Mr Alex\u00a0 Chang would monitor my progress\u00a0 before the deadline to make sure that I was on the right track.<\/p>\n

Through this exercise, I understand that \u00a0in a \u2018live firing\u2019 exercise, there is no deadline, one has to be prepared at all times as counsel for the opponent may spring an objection to your questions in court and that must be dealt with immediately.\u00a0\u00a0 This is another example where litigation life is different from university life, because in moots, there were no \u2018objections\u2019 raised by opposing teammates.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0 the\u00a0 litigation firms,\u00a0 we have to be prepared for any situation that\u00a0 may occur precipitously.\u00a0 Our understanding of all legal principles will\u00a0 not be tested on a topic by topic basis,\u00a0\u00a0 when it rains it pours.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0 unexpected\u00a0 turn\u00a0 of events\u00a0 was, I\u00a0\u00a0 attended\u00a0 proceedings in the\u00a0 chambers of a judge\u00a0 with Mr Alex Chang.\u00a0\u00a0 This is\u00a0 a very unique experience.<\/i><\/b> \u00a0Before this,\u00a0 I\u00a0 was always of the opinion,\u00a0 stemming\u00a0 from\u00a0 my previous attachments\u00a0 and experience shared by my peers,\u00a0 that attachment students are not allowed to enter the judges’ chambers.\u00a0 I\u00a0 was clearly proven wrong.<\/p>\n

Another\u00a0 eye opening observation\u00a0\u00a0 was the manner\u00a0 written submissions were\u00a0 prepared.\u00a0\u00a0 The lengths they are\u00a0 willing\u00a0 to\u00a0 go to, to ensure that\u00a0 the written submission\u00a0 is impeccable by\u00a0 constantly editing and adding authorities\u00a0 to the submission right up until the moment<\/i><\/b> the bundles are ready to be sent for binding.<\/p>\n

Although\u00a0 working in the firm will (and I stress on the word WILL) include working until late hours (till about\u00a0 10pm),\u00a0 I believe it is a great learning experience especially for young graduates or those recently called to the bar. \u00a0It gives us an idea of what working in a litigation firm entails because it is part of the obligations to the clients of the firm, to ensure everything goes on smoothly.<\/p>\n

In conclusion,\u00a0 I\u00a0 have to admit that it actually surprises me as to\u00a0 the vast amount of knowledge that\u00a0 I\u00a0 have garnered\u00a0\u00a0 from this brief but very insightful\u00a0 attachment\/ mini pupillage\u00a0 with the firm.\u00a0 I now know\u00a0 that\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0 university only offered us a 30 seconds preview of this two hour movie of\u00a0\u00a0 the world of\u00a0 litigation.\u00a0\u00a0 My only regret perhaps, is, I found out all these in a 5 minutes preview of the same movie that I am going to continue…\u00a0\u00a0 Much\u00a0 ground \u00a0to be discovered,\u00a0 in\u00a0 Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

Finally,\u00a0\u00a0 my sincere gratitude\u00a0 to Mr Alex\u00a0 Chang,\u00a0\u00a0 for\u00a0 his constant mental sparring,\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 advice and willingness to teach and not forgetting\u00a0 my colleagues in the firm, for their help and encouragement. Sincerely,\u00a0 thank you.<\/p>\n

Yours truly,
\nGary Au Kar Meng<\/p>\n

Post script<\/p>\n

On July 15, 2016, Gary was admitted and enrolled as an \u00a0advocate \u00a0and solicitors of the High Court of Malaya, Mr CHANG was invited to be his mover, click here for the speech and photos<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Litigation Experience in University vs. Litigation Life in Alex Chang & Co. I have recently completed\u00a0 a short\u00a0 attachment\/ mini pupillage\u00a0\u00a0 under the\u00a0 supervision of\u00a0 Mr Alex Chang Huey Wah\u00a0 and\u00a0 I\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 have learned\u00a0 so much.\u00a0 I\u00a0\u00a0 now\u00a0 understand\u00a0 the fact that the life of a litigator\u00a0\u00a0 is very different from what I have learned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1804,"featured_media":2232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[85],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195"}],"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=2195"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8378,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions\/8378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}