JUDICIAL AND LEGAL SERVICE: AN
ALTERNATE LEGAL CAREER
NURULHUDA
ZAKARIYA
• Works in the chief registrar’s
office, federal court of
Malaysia as a Magistrate
• Has over 10 years of
experience as a judicial
officer at the Chief Registrar’s
Office, Federal Court of
Malaysia
• Holds an LLM in comparative
and international dispute
resolution from Queen Mary
University of London.
• Member of the Chartered
Institute of Arbitrators
This year marks my first decade in public service. As a young
professional in the Malaysian Judicial and Legal Service (JLS), I have
experienced various job portfolio as a senior assistant registrar, deputy
registrar and a magisterial position. Each and every position is like a piece
of a career jigsaw puzzle. I have never crossed over to the legal service
and not adequately informed of the career structure in the Attorney
General’s Chambers (AGC). Hence, I am only able to share about the
judicial service. Truth be told, I was never aware of the existence of JLS
nor did the thought of joining the public sector ever crossed my mind
when I was in the university. The ideal legal career path for me after
graduation was always to join the best traditional law firm in Malaysia
and be made a partner in my thirties.
Prelude to the legal path
Coincidence, is the best word to explain how I ended up reading
law in the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). I was in my
third week of engineering classes at IIUM Matriculation Centre in Petaling
Jaya circa 2002. Poorly struggling with quizzes for physics, calculus and
other science subjects that I had left far behind after Sijil Pelajaran
Malaysia (SPM) examination. Engineering was initially chosen, as I wanted
to be a music engineer ever since I was 16 years old. A teenage dream, I
must say.
After much thought, I gathered some courage to inform my
parents that changing my study path is mandatory. I will not survive
matriculation if I were to prolong my engineering studies. I proposed to
take up political science course as I love to read, analyze and think
critically about policies and politics. The proposal was rejected by my
parents. According to my dad, one must choose to pursue a professional
undergraduate degree. Law was the only option I had which I have no
idea about at all. None of my family members had legal background.
Along the years of learning the law, I grew to love the course and the rest
is still a journey for me.
University years
During my university years, mooting was not a compulsory
subject. The Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws (AIKOL) Students’ Society
will organize an internal mooting competition each year for interested
students to compete amongst each other. As most of my friends and I
had debate background, we decided to join the competition in our
second year for the sake of experience. As a rookie team, second place
was a surprise to all of us as the other teams were mainly third year and
final year students.