I was clearing some personal papers today and came across some delightful memories of my travels in the course of work, which I deeply miss due to the current travel restrictions imposed by the Covid19 pandemic.
Through the years, from the time when I was a young lawyer, I have always made it a point to visit other lawyers, academics and business associates I met as a international cross border lawyer.
As part of Asian culture and etiquette, I would invariably bring along some small gifts representing Malaysia, and were always overwhelmed by my hosts’ warm hospitality and their kind gifts.
Often, they gave me a lasting part of their lives in the form of books they wrote and their kind well wishes for me.
Like Martin K Earp and his book on Listed Companies: Law and Market Practice in Australia, which provided some guidance on Australian practices in my work in developing the Due Diligence Practices for Public Offers Of Securities which subsequently was adopted by our capital markets in 1999 as the industry standard for Malaysia.
Or the book on Wall Street: A History by Prof. Charles R Geisst who I sought out in October 1997 in Manhattan when the Asian Financial Crisis was raging, to understand the usefulness of capital controls and his quirky and ultimately profitable advice to “Buy Low, Sell High and Spread the Wealth”.
His seminal work had a huge impact on helping me understand financial crises and the subsequent legal work I did in Malaysia in undertaking corporate rescues and mergers to help our country recover from the devastation of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
Or the book on Law And Investment in Japan by Prof Yukio Yanagida, founder of Yanagida & Partners and former Rector of Waseda University who I met in 1998 when we held the Business Law Conference of the Law Association For Asia And The Pacific at the Keidanren Conference Hall at Kanda, Tokyo.
Today, I maintained and kept in touch with lawyers in Yanagida & Partners, working together on Japanese M&A deals in Malaysia and Japan.
And the book on Civil Procedure Law of Kazakhstan by Prof Maidan Suleimanov who I met on a visit to Almaty Kazakhstan in 2015 as part of a visiting delegation I led from Kobe University, Japan.
There were many other book gifts as well, which would be too many to mention in this short blog post.
These enjoyable visits among professional, academic and business colleagues and friends left an indelible mark in my development and life as a lawyer over the years.
Once the Covid19 pandemic travel restrictions are lifted, I look forward to visiting lawyer and business friends and colleagues from around the world again.
This human aspect of our professional life and our need to connect person to person can never be replaced by technology or the virtual environment.
#Covid19 #lawyers #law #lawfirms #networking #Malaysia #Asean #jlpw
Contact us
Address :
B-11-8, Level11, Megan Avenue II, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Phone : (603) 2203 3388
Fax : (603) 2203 3399
Website :
” Meeting Your Legal Needs Online “
JLPW NEEDLAWYER BLOG 