{"id":7878,"date":"2020-10-27T11:38:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T03:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/?p=7878"},"modified":"2024-11-29T14:30:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T06:30:51","slug":"what-should-students-expect-attachment-intern-tan-kejing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/what-should-students-expect-attachment-intern-tan-kejing\/","title":{"rendered":"What should students expect from an attachment?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li>Average number of attachment students<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The ratio of lawyers to attachment students\nper annum in Alex Chang &amp; Co (hereinafter ACC) can be put down as 2:12\n(sometimes more). Since ACC is not a relatively large firm, the number of\nattachment students who joined ACC each year can be said to be rather high. In\ncontrast, applying the same mathematical ratio of 2:12 to larger law firms,\nthere would be an average of 600 attachment students per year for every 100\nlawyers. A survey revealed that in one of the biggest law firms in Malaysia\n(with an approximate of 160 lawyers), that particular firm only takes in 18\nattachment students per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Relevance of number of\nattachment students<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of attachment students becomes\nrelevant when comparison is made between small and large firms. Since there are\nonly 2 lawyers attending to 12 students per year in ACC, students should not\nexpect to be spoon-fed individually. In contrast, referring to the survey stated\nabove, the 160 lawyers would not have an issue in supervising the 18 students.\nHowever, this does not deter the lawyers in ACC from pointing out the strength\nand weaknesses of students to allow them to evaluate their inherent potential\nalong their attachment journey. Moreover, an attachment student are expected\ntake initiative to look for guidance when faced with problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Building relationship<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In ACC, attachment students are given\nopportunities to meet the lawyers in person. They will also be able to work\nclose to the lawyers and engage in conversations whenever possible. Whereas in the\nlarger firms, the feedback from past attachment students often showed that they\nare less likely be able to meet all the lawyers or partners, what more the\nopportunity to engage in conversation with any of the lawyers or partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Building network<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If one is lucky, during their attachment\nperiod in ACC, the student may be able to meet powerful and influential\nindividuals, not only in legal but also other fields. One of our lucky students\neven had the opportunity to meet the former Court of Appeal Judge, Dato\u2019 Kang\nHwee Gee. This helps to build network which in turn would be helpful for\nstudents to move up the career in the near future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Emphasis on certain\npractices and areas of law<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Unlike other larger firms, ACC does not\noffer rotation to different departments or areas of law during the period of\nattachment. Rather, the students will be working under one \u2018unit\u2019. This would\nallow the students to learn more in-depth in relation to the areas of practices\noffered in ACC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Hands-On Experience<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Attachment students in ACC will gain\nhands-on experience doing real work for real clients. This is usually under the\nsupervision of the lawyers. The students will be able to put what they have\nlearnt in law school into practice. Further, they will also learn about the\nformalities in courts which they have studied theoretically in law schools.\nThis provides the students an insight as to how the real legal field works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Wide exposure<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In ACC, attachment students are given\nopportunities to observe the preparation of different types of legal documents\nsuch as affidavit, statement of claim, statement of defence and many more. This\nis absolutely useful in providing the students a general idea of how such\ndocuments would look like. Past attachment students revealed that doing\nattachment in ACC (prior to the commencement of their studies in CLP) further\nease their understanding during their CLP journey as they would have a clearer\nimage of the relevant legal documents when learning about them in class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Legal writing<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Attachment students in ACC will be exposed\nto legal writing including drafting or assisting with the preparation of legal\nopinions, written submissions and others. This would definitely help the\nstudents in getting an insight on how each document works. They may also be\ntasked to draft a submission in relation to an actual case handled by ACC in a\npractice manner which will later be evaluated. Such practice prepares the\nstudents to handle real submission in later days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Research<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Research is one of the tasks assigned to\nthe attachment students. The topic of research varies accordingly from legal\nprinciples to case laws. Students are able to develop better researching skills\nby making use of the extensive online and offline resources. The research done\nwill be evaluated and any flaws will be pointed out. Furthermore, the research\ndone will also be applied into the real submissions. This allows the students\nto learn and prevents them from making the same mistake in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Attending the Court<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>ACC provides opportunity to attachment students to attend court hearings. This allows the students to watch the presentation of submission by the lawyers in the court. Most of the testimonials from past attachment students in ACC revealed that they were allowed to follow Mr. Chang to the court even on the first week of their attachment. This provides a great opportunity for students to observe real court trial instead of just doing mere office work throughout their attachment period. They may also be required to prepare and file court documents at times. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, attachment students were also invited to join the hearing in the Chambers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Mooting sessions<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>ACC provides opportunity to attachment\nstudents to participate in mooting sessions. This would expose students to\nsimulated court proceedings. Students will be given the chance to read case\nfile and complete a skeletal submission based on that particular case. It will\nallow the students to analyze their strong and weak areas to further improve\ntheir skills. Further, students are able to improve their written and oral\nadvocacy skills through the provided mooting sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Other skills<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Doing an attachment allows students to\nimprove other relevant skills such as time management, communication skills and\nrelated IT skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Other opportunities<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Attachment students in ACC are given\nopportunities to assist in trial preparations for hearing. They will also be\ntasked to write articles on legal principles or case updates. Further, they may\nalso come across other tasks such as translation of documents and serving\ndocuments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Social events<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on the testimonials from past attachment students in ACC, social events are often organized for all colleagues to get together outside working hours. This helps to maintain a strong bond between the colleagues and further enhance the working experience with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> Tan Kejing<br> University of London <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Tan-Kejing-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7808\" width=\"194\" height=\"194\"\/><figcaption>Tan Kejing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Average number of attachment students The ratio of lawyers to attachment students per annum in Alex Chang &amp; Co (hereinafter ACC) can be put down as 2:12 (sometimes more). Since ACC is not a relatively large firm, the number of attachment students who joined ACC each year can be said to be rather high. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1805,"featured_media":11521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69],"tags":[85,106,86],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7878"}],"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\/1805"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7881,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7878\/revisions\/7881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alexchanglaw.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}