ONE STEP CLOSER TO THE SCROLL!

Hi everyone, it has been a while now since I last post on this blog. I have been busy with my studies. Well this is officially my first post for 2022!

Recently, I just finished my 7th out of 8 semesters of my degree!

Okay let's go back to the beginning of the semester. 

7th October 2021

Before the semester starts, we had a briefing with the Dean of the faculty. We were placed in a group of five to six people to pretend to set up a firm. It was really random, not sure what the administration relied on to form the groups. 

It was a very long meeting, I think it was more than 3 hours which was not what I expected at that time. The Dean gave us some thoughtful tips to go through the semester which obviously includes teamwork. We also received our schedules as well which for me it's quite hectic. 

Juniors out there, prepare yourself mentally, physically and emotionally.

The same morning, right before the meeting with the Dean started, I was at the airport sending off my bestie to UK.

I also had the chance to meet up with few of my friends on the same day. It's always nice to see friends physically especially in this pandemic. Unfortunately, there were no good pictures to put here. Memories that matter right!

SETTING UP THE FIRM 

In a class, there are 4 firms. One of the students was elected as the Managing Partner (like your usual head of class). 

Every firms need to have their firm name and create their letterhead for future purposes (mostly for assignments). 

Since we didn't get to meet physically and take a class and firm picture, we had our own photoshoots and just edit ourselves in a picture. 

The hard part is to have the same lighting with everyone else. I look quite yellowish here right?

Decided to take a picture outside as everyone else emphasized that we must have been sun kissed so we would look like we were in the same setting. Unfortunately, the sun didn't kiss me so bye sun kissed pic.

My pics were taken by my dearest lil bro

As you all know, I was also busy with my last mooting at that time. My first & last FDI Moot!

Luckily, the moot competition was only during the first 2 months of the semester. It didn't affect my studies much at that time but I did have to attend classes just 2 hours before my mooting competition started. It was chaotic! It was definitely a great experience and something I would cherished forever.

Now, let's meet my classmates & firm mates!

Another semester left with these bright future lawyers <3 

Also, another unique experience was having an alumnus assigned as our mentor for the semester. 

Our mentor was a Deputy Public Prosecutor and currently working as a criminal lawyer. Credit to my classmate, Syazana for the picture. 

One of the mentoring sessions we had with the mentor. 

In my opinion, the mentor-mentee programme was a success. We had the chance to understand few field of work that we would like to venture into in the future. Also, the opportunity to have Mr. Ridha as our mentor was really great as he had many experiences in criminal cases which really help us in our studies this semester (Criminal procedure and criminal trial & advocacy). He has been very helpful and open for discussion if we needed any help in our studies and not limited to only criminal law. 

Courses

I have 8 courses altogether for this semester.

• Criminal Trial & Advocacy

The objective of this course is for the students to prepare, analyse and handling of cases in the subordinate courts for both the prosecution and defence.

I had the chance to act for both prosecution and defence.

The assessment includes application for remand, pleading guilty and a full mock trial where we need to apply what we learn on examination of witnesses techniques. 

• Forensic Science

I like this course because it felt like as if I was attending a seminar on forensic science or just purely visiting the CSI set. This course was a bit difficult on the part that we needed to prepare and Investigation Paper for our final assessment in which I have no idea how the result is yet.

• Solicitor's Account 

This one relates to duties of solicitor/lawyer in handling client's money. 

• Remedies

This one is tricky. This course consist of 3 different subjects, Torts, Contract and Bankruptcy. Had 3 different lecturers and multiple assignments. It was also crazy that for final assessment to sit for this paper but impliedly there were 3 papers. 

• Evidence II

This is just the continuance of the Law of Evidence I that I took for last semester. I still think this is one of the hardest subject. 

• Non-Contentious Legal Matters (NCLM)

Similar with the Remedies, NCLM also consists of 3 different subjects. It includes Family Law, Law of Conveyancing and Probate. I remembered complaining how hard this course was but guess what I'm doing for my internship? Yes, this course. Having so much fun so far!

• Criminal Procedure I

If anyone thinking of practicing as a criminal lawyer or Deputy Public Prosecutor, this gotta be the course that you need to LOVE. Generally, I like it especially with all the custodial death cases in Malaysia. 

• Civil Procedure I

This is just the opposite of Criminal Procedure I. Focusing on the procedures for civil litigation. 

Overall, semester 7 was definitely one of the hardest semester but hey we all made it through alive. 

During this semester break which is the last semester break for my degree, I decided to do an internship in a firm focusing on civil litigation and conveyancing. Will update the whole experience in the next post soon! 

Till then, take care!