Lets support the young lawyers

 While the Malaysian Bar was playing politics yesterday with this move

Bar to hold protest over ‘judicial intimidation’

its junior members were doing this

Young lawyers call for binding rule on minimum wages

excerpts:

Vince Tan, another member of the YLM, said that the financial abilities of smaller firms should not be an excuse to not pay pupils a fair minimum wage.

“The Bar needs to stop listening to some council of elders or cartel monopolising the legal profession,” he said as young lawyers make up a majority of the Bar.

He said smaller firms should not take in any pupils if the firms could not afford to pay them a minimum wage.

Yeah, they talked so much about justice and stuff but at the same time refused to even pay minimum wage to their pupils.

Let's not even talk about the bullying junior lawyers have to endure at the start of their career.

This has actually been going on all the way back through the decades, something like a tradition of the legal profession.

Very similar to all the nonsense we heard about the medical profession.

They bullied the juniors and many of the juniors later on became bullies themselves.

They even bullied and cheat their clients too.

Well, if a young lawyer is well connected and from a rich family (possibly with parents who are senior lawyers) then he/she would not feel much of such tough life, but if he/she is a nobody, then it's a different matter all together.

I don't know how much they pay a chambering student these days but it's definitely below the RM1,500 minimum wage.

All these bring me back memories, actually.

Back then after I got my LLB, they were paying a chambering student as low as RM300 per month.

As I wrote before, I didn't do my CLP despite passing my law exams with honours because I ran out of money.

Yup, I paid my way through law school with the help of my family and had no scholarship or student loan.

By the time I was supposed to prepare for my CLP, I really have no more money.

I actually borrowed some money from my uncle for my CLP tuition fees but decided to drop out when I realised that I can't even pay the exam fees without borrowing more.

After all, on top of having to pay for my studies, I still need to pay my rent and food.

The thought that even if I pass the very difficult CLP with one try, I will still have to go another year as a chambering student slave made me decide to postpone the whole thing.

Told myself to work first and get enough money so that I won't starve doing my CLP and chambering.

I did get a job, which I hated so much at first but later on learnt to love.

By the time I had saved enough money, I realised there's no need for me to continue with my once dream of becoming a lawyer.

After all, during my studies, I came to know that the legal profession was not what I used to think it was.

No need for me to go through more shit just to join it.

Well, I'm not trying to discourage others from becoming lawyers but I do hope they know the truth about what they are joining.

If they are still good with it, then I wish them all the best and hope they would be better lawyers than their seniors.

Anyway, I hope the young lawyers will get what they are fighting for, which are decent pay and better treatment from their seniors.