NOTES FROM THE OTHER SIDE
ANTHONY AZAD
TAN
I’m entering my 4th year as an in-house counsel. This means I would soon
have spent as much time working in the legal department of a
corporation as I have in a law firm. It also probably means I would be
having my career mid-life crisis soon. So it must be timely to share what
I’ve learned through transitioning between the two worlds. These tips
might be of use to law school graduates considering a role as a corporate
legal officer or practicing lawyers thinking of going in-house.
Take ownership of the outcome.
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Anthony Azad Tan is the
youngest lawyer
recommended in the Asia
Pacific Legal 500 (2012).
He credits his first
employment 7 years ago at
the KL-based corporate law
firm Azmi & Associates for its
trust towards young lawyers,
which allowed Anthony to be
involved in exciting deals
since pupillage.
These include drafting
regulations for Bursa Suq as-
Sila’, launched by Bursa
Malaysia in 2009 as the
world’s first commodity
trading platform for Islamic
financing; internal corporate
restructuring of FELDA Global
Ventures Holdings Berhad
leading to the world’s 2nd
largest IPO (after Facebook’s)
in 2012; and private equity
firm KKR’s USD200 million
2013 investment in Asia’s
largest offshore helicopter
services provider.
He left the law firm in 2014
and a weekend later found
himself the youngest Vice
President in Themed
Attractions Resorts & Hotels
Sdn Bhd, which is Khazanah
Nasional Berhad’s investment
arm in the hotel, resort, golf
and theme park industries.
He is also a corporate mentor
in the company’s formal
employee development
programme.
Like law firms, most legal departments are not the decision-maker in
deals. Thus, both practicing lawyers and in-house counsel are susceptible
to taking a backseat after having dispensed legal services. In the case of
external counsel, such tendency is perhaps born of a healthy respect for
the client’s prerogative and an astute mindfulness about liability of taking
on matters outside of scope.
However, unlike a law firm, a legal department is more likely to be
intimately involved in every step of a deal (sometimes, cost
considerations cause corporations to limit the scope of external counsel
so they would be involved only intermittently throughout a deal). So,
there is less excuse for in-house counsel to disclaim responsibility for
outcome of matters which came within their purview.
Their duty d