A lot of people have asked me why did I choose to do law? My friends from school were surprised when I chose this route because they always thought I would go on to study English Literature, which, incidentally, is what I am doing now. I myself was surprised when I got in as comparing to a lot of others, my results were not really that impressive.
At that point in time, I was in a dilemma. On one hand, my parents wanted me to do something "practical" like Business or Accountancy, instead of something like Arts. Strange, I thought being in the legal line would be more "practical" since the starting salary is already higher compared to the rest?
My mum was happy of course, since she thought if she could groom a legal person in the family, it would be a very good thing. My dad was against it, but then, he was never supportive over what I did anyway. His rationale is that lawyers earn money by cheating people and making them bankrupt.
Actually it had been one of my childhood dreams to be a prosecutor, besides wanting to be a musician or journalist or teacher. I have been reading crime fiction and intrigued at the way the detectives in stories solved cases. I learnt the psychology behind the crime. So when I came across real crime cases in the papers, I would guess what really happened, and most of the time I came out right.
Even now, when I watched a thriller movie, I was able to guess whodunit before the movie ended most of the time. Like when my ex and I were watching "Identity" with our friends, I told him during the show that firstly, that guy was a schizophrenic, and he had about eight different personalities in him; and secondly, it was the boy who in the end killed off everyone.
He refused to believe me but when the ending was what I predicted, he was surprised and thought I had watched the movie before. A while back when I was watching "The Nun", I guessed it was the girl who created the identity of "the nun" and killed off her mum and her mum's friends.
Since young, I was also outraged whenever I heard of people getting raped, kidnapped, murdered, etc. And I thought if only I could grow up and sentence all these criminals to imprisonment, the world would then be a better and safer place to live in.
Then I came across divorce cases where always the men committed adultery and being unfaithful to the wives, and I thought to myself if I could help the poor women, it would be a good lesson to the ungrateful men. Besides, the Women's Charter, where Family Law is based on, is to protect women from being taken advantage of by men.
So to me, I took law with the sense of justice and fair play. Never in my life would I earn a living by cheating others. Needless to say, I count Family Law and Criminal Law as my favourite subjects, as well as Intellectual Property. I find Company and Corporate Law, Contract Law, Law of Real Property and Insurance Law rather dry subjects. Ironically, I have been doing Corporate, Property and Contract more than anything else.
My dad thinks as a lawyer, the money I earned would be through underhanded means. People have to pay even if they are declared bankrupt. There may have been reports where lawyers cheat the clients of their money, or run away with their clients' money. And there may also be cases where lawyers will get the clients off scot-free even if the person did murder someone in cold blood.
But there are many types of lawyers. There are those who prosecute criminals. those that defend criminals. There are those who restructure companies, those who split up couples, those who buy and sell properties. So it does not necessary mean someone who has a law degree will use it to their advantage and cheat others.
And now with all the big companies booming and hiring their own in-house counsels instead of outsourcing, there are even more job opportunities for lawyers instead of just running a law firm. Not to mention the growing number of locum practitioners (part-time or freelance lawyers who help out full-time lawyers) nowadays.
But to me being a lawyer was something that could never be achieved. I ended up in between, not really a qualified lawyer, yet over-qualified to do mere legal secretarial work. And in a way it was lucky that with the tremendous workload lawyers and counsels have to handle, the market for a paralegal is picking up, because paralegals can help lawyers in their documentation work without needing to give any form of advice.
Law itself is an interesting thing. But not everyone can study it. I know I cannot, which is why in the end I did not continue. Perhaps now with hands-on experience, I can do it much better should I ever go back to law school, but at that point in time, I was really unhappy.
Yet this is one experience I would never forget. I gained invaluable knowledge. I learnt how the entire legal system functions. I got to see the Attorney-General and the Chief Justice in person. I had lots of fun being involved in interesting activities.
Best of all, it gave me job opportunities which I never would have dreamed of. So will I go back to law school and finish a law degree? In time to come perhaps. But right now, I am looking forward to my new job and the exciting things I can get exposed to.
At that point in time, I was in a dilemma. On one hand, my parents wanted me to do something "practical" like Business or Accountancy, instead of something like Arts. Strange, I thought being in the legal line would be more "practical" since the starting salary is already higher compared to the rest?
My mum was happy of course, since she thought if she could groom a legal person in the family, it would be a very good thing. My dad was against it, but then, he was never supportive over what I did anyway. His rationale is that lawyers earn money by cheating people and making them bankrupt.
Actually it had been one of my childhood dreams to be a prosecutor, besides wanting to be a musician or journalist or teacher. I have been reading crime fiction and intrigued at the way the detectives in stories solved cases. I learnt the psychology behind the crime. So when I came across real crime cases in the papers, I would guess what really happened, and most of the time I came out right.
Even now, when I watched a thriller movie, I was able to guess whodunit before the movie ended most of the time. Like when my ex and I were watching "Identity" with our friends, I told him during the show that firstly, that guy was a schizophrenic, and he had about eight different personalities in him; and secondly, it was the boy who in the end killed off everyone.
He refused to believe me but when the ending was what I predicted, he was surprised and thought I had watched the movie before. A while back when I was watching "The Nun", I guessed it was the girl who created the identity of "the nun" and killed off her mum and her mum's friends.
Since young, I was also outraged whenever I heard of people getting raped, kidnapped, murdered, etc. And I thought if only I could grow up and sentence all these criminals to imprisonment, the world would then be a better and safer place to live in.
Then I came across divorce cases where always the men committed adultery and being unfaithful to the wives, and I thought to myself if I could help the poor women, it would be a good lesson to the ungrateful men. Besides, the Women's Charter, where Family Law is based on, is to protect women from being taken advantage of by men.
So to me, I took law with the sense of justice and fair play. Never in my life would I earn a living by cheating others. Needless to say, I count Family Law and Criminal Law as my favourite subjects, as well as Intellectual Property. I find Company and Corporate Law, Contract Law, Law of Real Property and Insurance Law rather dry subjects. Ironically, I have been doing Corporate, Property and Contract more than anything else.
My dad thinks as a lawyer, the money I earned would be through underhanded means. People have to pay even if they are declared bankrupt. There may have been reports where lawyers cheat the clients of their money, or run away with their clients' money. And there may also be cases where lawyers will get the clients off scot-free even if the person did murder someone in cold blood.
But there are many types of lawyers. There are those who prosecute criminals. those that defend criminals. There are those who restructure companies, those who split up couples, those who buy and sell properties. So it does not necessary mean someone who has a law degree will use it to their advantage and cheat others.
And now with all the big companies booming and hiring their own in-house counsels instead of outsourcing, there are even more job opportunities for lawyers instead of just running a law firm. Not to mention the growing number of locum practitioners (part-time or freelance lawyers who help out full-time lawyers) nowadays.
But to me being a lawyer was something that could never be achieved. I ended up in between, not really a qualified lawyer, yet over-qualified to do mere legal secretarial work. And in a way it was lucky that with the tremendous workload lawyers and counsels have to handle, the market for a paralegal is picking up, because paralegals can help lawyers in their documentation work without needing to give any form of advice.
Law itself is an interesting thing. But not everyone can study it. I know I cannot, which is why in the end I did not continue. Perhaps now with hands-on experience, I can do it much better should I ever go back to law school, but at that point in time, I was really unhappy.
Yet this is one experience I would never forget. I gained invaluable knowledge. I learnt how the entire legal system functions. I got to see the Attorney-General and the Chief Justice in person. I had lots of fun being involved in interesting activities.
Best of all, it gave me job opportunities which I never would have dreamed of. So will I go back to law school and finish a law degree? In time to come perhaps. But right now, I am looking forward to my new job and the exciting things I can get exposed to.
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