Membership in the legal profession has grown by leaps and
bounds over Dahlia's 17 years of practice and yet Dahlia sees (and this is her
unverified observation) that membership has remained very young at the core
without a good mix of practitioners of all ages down the line. A large majority
of the new fresh-faced legal eagles would, by and large after 3 years of
practice, become disillusioned and disenchanted with the world's 2 nd oldest
profession (or so she is told) or at least, the way it is practised in this
country. They would leave the profession letting the more hardy ones carry on,
as new members join in.
Leaving does not however, mean total severance of association with having been a
graduate of law but somehow tradition and history at the Bar slowly gets eroded
when torchbearers have no heirs in continuum and it becomes an inevitability in
time, if not checked, that law is no longer perceived as a noble profession but
just another rice bowl career where the practitioner's role is merely to earn a
living in a very hard way.
She is very disheartened by this evolution because she is as passionate about
the profession today as the day she walked into her 1 st year lectures on
contract and criminal law in KDU (and wondered why she had not started on law as
a first choice in Melbourne). Dahlia would like her young fellow members at the
Bar to stay and maintain the tradition and the nobility of the profession by
practising in the right way and not just understanding mechanics and literalness
of law but the spirit and concepts of law and its overall place in society. It
grieves her that lawyers are the target of jokes and such perception is
reinforced when lawyers leave.
Involvement with the politics and policies of the country goes with the
territory of law and lawyers and in this regard, Dahlia believes that the Bar's
role is 2-fold, in a wider sense, it is a stakeholder in shaping the laws of the
country through involvement in policy-making and being a guardian of the rule of
law and in this regard, she strongly holds that the Bar must be perceived as
being apolitical whilst its more narrower and focused role is to serve its
members so as to preserve its integrity. The Bar is for lawyers of all walks,
political and apolitical, litigators, conveyancers and corporate lawyers, so we
have duties far beyond political issues, as we must not just guard the house but
lose the furniture inside or its quality.
For the past five years, she has served at the Kuala Lumpur Bar, first at a
sub-committee level in the court liaison sub-committee (then under Mr.
Ravindrakumar, the present KL Bar Chairman) choosing that committee purely
because she was and still is an active litigator and thought she should stick
with subjects she knows. These last 2 years, Dahlia has held the Chair of the
Civil Court Liaison sub-committee as a member of the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee
and had actively participated in the move and housing of the KL Courts under the
2 nd largest Court Complex in the World and hoped that she has helped to make it
a seamless and painless endeavour and what started in Mr. Ravindrakumar's time
in fostering and forging a bridge for a closer tie with the Judiciary have been
carried on and one of the results is the setting up of the web-site for cause
lists for all levels of Courts in KL.
It would be an honour for Dahlia to be allowed to put her effort and
capabilities to serve members at the National level in order to put into effect
her hope for the future of the Bar.
Proposers: Harjinder Singh
Ruzleen Fazida binti Rusley
Amrit Pal Singh
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Workshop on Financial Planning (18 May 2012) Organised by the Kuala Lumpur Bar Professional Development Committee, this workshop will take place at 10:00 am, at the Kuala Lumpur Bar Auditorium, on 18 May 2012 (Friday). The workshop will be conducted by Chooi Kim Ying. Click on the link above for more details.
Seminar on an Introduction to the Industrial Relations Act (23 May 2012) Organised by the Kuala Lumpur Bar Professional Development Committee, this seminar will take place at 3:00 pm, at the Kuala Lumpur Bar Auditorium, on 23 May 2012 (Wednesday). The seminar will be conducted by Wong Keat Ching. Click on the link above for more details.
Seminar on Tax Issues in Financial Transactions (25 May 2012) Organised by the Kuala Lumpur Bar Professional Development Committee, this seminar, featuring S Saravana Kumar, will take place at 3:00 pm, at the Kuala Lumpur Bar Auditorium, on 25 May 2012 (Friday). Click on the link above for more details.
Conference on Competition Law (31 May 2012) Organised by Bar Council with the support of LexisNexis, this conference will take place at 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, at Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel, on 31 May 2012 (Thursday). For more details or to register, please contact Vilashini Vijayan (03-2050 2095; vila@malaysianbar.org.my). Click on the link above for more details.
Notices 
Membership in the legal profession has grown by leaps and
bounds over Dahlia's 17 years of practice and yet Dahlia sees (and this is her
unverified observation) that membership has remained very young at the core
without a good mix of practitioners of all ages down the line. A large majority
of the new fresh-faced legal eagles would, by and large after 3 years of
practice, become disillusioned and disenchanted with the world's 2 nd oldest
profession (or so she is told) or at least, the way it is practised in this
country. They would leave the profession letting the more hardy ones carry on,
as new members join in. 
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Circular No 102/2012: Mahkamah Sesyen/Majistret Kajang Moving to Kompleks Mahkamah Kajang
