Zico

Today's the first working day in 3 weeks that I’m not at Zaid Ibrahim & Co! My journey there started 6 months ago when I emailed to Zico for an attachment. The mercenary in me thought that if I was ever going to work in Malaysia, it might as well be the biggest and the highest-paying one right?! When the managing partner replied my email (like, the top guy), I was hooked. Die die also must do loh like that.

Having survived the attachment, I have mixed feelings about it. On the down side, there were days where I spent the whole day doing photocopying, and days when I had absolutely nothing to do except flip through my Female magazine or read the newspapers. There were days when I felt obligated to turn up for work despite having food poisoning the day before. On one particularly frustrating day, I spent 4-5 hours doing a piece of work, but it all got wiped out mysteriously just as I was about to leave for home. Worse still, my colleagues had to stay back to finish up the job because it was getting too late for me to take the lrt. Almost everyday, I got to the office at 8am and had to wait around for someone to tag me in. After work, it took me 1-2 hours to get home on public transport crammed full of sweaty grouchy people. I had to spend my weekends catching up on my part time study because I was too exhausted by the time I reached home to study. During my short stay there, I did not learn much about the law, nor did I get a glimpse of what all the different departments had to offer.

Would I have done the attachment if I knew it was going to turn out this way? I’d say yes, in a heartbeat. 3 weeks went by in a blink, but I believe the relationships I had formed and the lessons I have learnt will influence me in ways I can’t even fathom now. Within 3 weeks, I got to know almost all the chambering students (‘chambies’ as they are fondly known as) past the ‘hi and bye’ stage and felt like I’ve been there for months already. Those late night sessions, dreaded as they were, allowed us to get to know each other better. I got the opportunity to chat with some of the partners who have so much life experience and wise words to share that I regret not looking them up more often. I didn’t get to meet the namesake of the firm, Zaid Ibrahim himself, but I got given a book written and signed (yay!) by him. It’s called “I Too, Am Malay” and chronicles his experience growing up in a kampong, building his firm, and of course, his brief stint as the Law Minister. Very fascinating so far, maybe next time I’ll write a book called I Too, Am Chinese! When I first came back to Malaysia with my angmoh bf in tow, people actually thought that I was a foreigner too T_T


As far as I could tell, Zico is where you can find Malay Chinese Indian mixing like there’s no Malay Chinese Indian. In the chambering rooms at least, race was never an issue. Where people did clash (as is normal in a big firm), it was based on personality differences rather than anything else. I just remembered that I actually put “malaysian” quite cheekily on my application form at the race section and no one said anything lol. My main goal for doing the attachment was to see what the working in Malaysia is like for a young lawyer and I achieved that. For now, I can safely say that it’s not the right time for me to start working here. Even though Zico is one the highest-paying law firms in Malaysia, it does not even compare to the pay that I can get elsewhere. Moreover, I can’t even get that pay until a year later because of that ridiculous requirement that graduates from Aus and NZ universities have to do the CLP. I am fortunate enough not to have ginormous student loans to repay, but still, I have been using a lot of my parents’ money and it’s high time to make my own dough.


In terms of the working culture, I would say that Zico is a great place to work at as long as you can get along with your colleagues. Although I won’t miss having to wake up at 6am every morning, I will dearly miss that crazy bunch of chambies!

Don't play play. 3 weeks there and I got my own cubicle already!

Lol just jk,someone else's one but same name as me

With Jess


With 'lao shi' Wei Wei :)

With Paul, one of the partners, and my fellow attachees. Look damn short ish.

With Farah and Azyan

With Jack and Nizam

With 'chap choy' Rajes and Shermaine who could've been a beauty queen but chose to be a hot shot lawyer

Wee Shiuan is shy.

With Ian and our farewell gifts!

I dunno why we're so happy. Cos I'm leaving??