CPD Live | Retaining Talent in Legal Services

Speaker

Pushpa Ratnam Nekoo was called to the English Bar in 1992 and further admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 1994.  From 1989 to 1993, Pushpa served the London Magistracy as a legal advisor to magistrates at the Barking Magistrates Court in Essex, United Kingdom.  Having gained sufficient legal knowledge and experience, run her own legal practice and having been in other partnerships all these years, she is currently in a partnership at Messrs Nekoo. 

Pushpa has been actively involved in various Bar Council and State Bar Committees including:

• Legal Aid Centre (2001 and 2007);
• Member of the Bar Council Human Rights Committee and Chairperson of the Law Reform and Policies Subcommittee (from 2007 to 2009);
• Chairperson of the Bar Council Pupils Welfare Committee (2009);
• Chairperson (2010) and Co-Deputy Chairperson (from 2011 to 2012) of the Bar Council Courts Liaison Committee;
• Co-Deputy Chairperson (from 2020 to 2021) and member (from 2006 to 2013) of the Bar Council Family Law Committee;
• Member of the Bar Council Disciplinary Committee (from 2001 until now);
• Member of the Bar Council Professional Standards and Development Committee (from 2010 until now);
• Member of the Bar Council Legal Profession Committee (from 2011 until now);
• Member of the Bar Council Child Rights Committee (from 2016 until now); and
• Member of the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee (member from 2009 to 2011).

Pushpa has also been active in other organisations as:

• Legal advisor to All Women’s Action Society (“AWAM”) (from 2001 to 2004);
• Honorary legal advisor to the Women Entrepreneur Development Committee (“WEDC”) at the Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (from 2008 to 2009);
• Honorary Secretary of Association of Women Lawyers (from 2008 to 2010);
• National facilitator for pre-marriage courses for non-Muslims;
• Member/President of Soroptomist International Club of Bangsar, an international women’s organisation and Charter Member of Zonta International Kuala Lumpur;
• Member of the Child Rights Innovation and Betterment Foundation; and
• Member of the Women’s Rights Committee at SUHAKAM.  

She has been an active speaker at national forums, State Bar Committees, and the Malaysian Bar forums and seminars on aspects of family law, domestic violence and gender issues.  Pushpa lectured at the Bar Council Ethics Course and has assisted in preparing online modules for the course.  In 2019, she had trained Members of the Bar in both East and West Malaysia and the Judiciary in East Malaysia on child rights. Recently, she was acknowledged as a “Trained Trainer” of Anti-Money Laundering/Countering Financial Terrorism (“AML/CFT”) for Designated Non-Financial Business and Professions (“DNFBPs”) for the Malaysian Bar.

Nik Azli Abu Zahar is a Group General Counsel, Group Legal and Compliance of Sapura Energy Berhad.  He was a Member of the Bar from 1997 to 2010.  He was first appointed as the Group Legal Head of Sapura Energy in 2012.  In 2015, he left Sapura Energy and joined Malaysia Airlines Berhad as the Chief Corporate Services Officer until 2019, where he rejoined Sapura Energy as Vice President, Group Legal, Contracts & Corporate Secretarial.  He had a brief stint as Head of Legal at the Energy and Utilities Division of Sime Darby Berhad, from 2010 to 2011.

Nik Azli was in practice with Zaid Ibrahim & Co and Zul Rafique & Partners between 1999 to 2010.  Apart from experiences in mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions, he also has vast experience in project finance transactions in Malaysia, Asia and the Middle East.

Sarah Yong Li Hsien is a dispute resolution lawyer at Lo Chambers.  She was recently elected to the Bar Council for the term 2022/2023.  She is presently the Deputy Co-chairperson of the IT, Innovation and Future in Technology Committee and is a member of the Legal Profession Committee and Cyberlaws Committee.  Sarah played a crucial role in proposing the "Motion on Minimum Remuneration for Pupils and Improving the Quality of Pupils" which was passed at the 75th Malaysian Bar Annual General Meeting on 13 Mar 2021.  It resulted in the acceptance by the Malaysian Bar that pupils ought to be protected by minimum remuneration.

Moderator

Desmond Ho Chee Cheong was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in 2001 and is currently a partner of Desmond Ho & Associates.

Presently, Desmond is the Secretary of the Selangor Bar Committee, Co-Chairperson of the International Malaysia Law Conference 2022 Organising Committee and an industrial advisor for the Law Faculty of Multimedia University in Melaka.  Previously, Desmond served as the Co-Chairperson of the Bar Council’s Court Liaison Committee, and Corporate and Commercial Law Committee.

Desmond was also the Chairperson of the Malacca Bar Committee, Deputy Chairperson of the International Professional Services Committee, legal advisor for the Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, and a member of the Focus Group on Enforcing Contracts in Malaysia for the World Bank Report, among others.