TAKING A LEAP OF FAITH
The beginning
First of all, I would like to thank KPUM: United Kingdom & Eire Malaysian
Law Students’ Union (‘KPUM’) for giving me an opportunity to share my
journey in the legal fraternity with KPUM’s members and its associates.
WONG MUN
HOE
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Wong Mun Hoe holds a
Bachelor of Law degree
from Northumbria
University, Newcastle Upon
Tyne.
He is an advocate and
solicitor of High Court of
Malaya.
He is also the founding and
principal partner of Munhoe
& Mar.
Looking back, I was not sure since when becoming a lawyer was my
ambition. As far as I can remember, I also wanted to be an engineer and
architect, but to become a lawyer has always been my first-choice and
mainly because of my late father. Though he was not a lawyer, my father
always shared with me interesting legal arguments by lawyers from the
newspapers and articles. The interests I have in law have since grown and
indirectly, made me chose law. I was unable to explain my decision but I
just felt that it was the right decision.
After I have completed my LL.B., despite having enrolled and being
accepted by the Bar Vocational Course (the predecessor of the Bar
Professional Training Course, BPTC), I chose to come back to Malaysia to
qualify myself via the Certificate in Legal Practice (‘CLP’). During my CLP
time, I was very eager to know how it was like to work in a legal firm,
which made me ended up working in a legal firm as a paralegal. That was
my first encounter in the legal industry. Subsequently, an opportunity
came as there was an opening as a human resource executive in an
automotive company which job scopes included industrial relation
matters and training. With my zero knowledge in human resource, the
only way for me to survive in the “foreign” automotive industry was to
learn on the job and spend more time in reading.
What surprised me, however, was that the attributes of critical and
creative thinking have not just help me to handle the job neatly, but I was
able to use it to improve the workflows, processes and policies setting.
After a short period of time, those workflows and processes started to
take effect.
Thanks to my legal background, all legal matters of the company naturally
fell on my table. I had the opportunity to work closely with the group
legal department and I was even roped into contracts negotiation with
various parties including financial institutions.
Subsequently, more and more opportunities were given to me when I
was re-designated as a strategic and business planning executive who
reported directly to the Chief Executive Officer (‘CEO’) before being
promoted as the special assistance to the CEO. This was the period where
I have learnt all necessary corporate and business skills ranging from
marketing to sale, from risk management to corporate strategy.