“Rejections are Redirections ”
1. What do you most admire about the law?
There are three significant drivers behind my interest in pursuing a career in law.
Problem Solving Aspect:
First, the problem-solving aspect in law. Lawyers must adopt versatile thinking when dealing with new legal issues developing in this constant, ever-changing contemporary society. This encourages lawyers to think outside of the box and use their initiative to tailor answers to the clients.
Dynamic nature of law:
Second, the law is a very dynamic profession! The need to continually innovate to meet the client’s needs by merging with other firms to gain a stronger presence in a particular sector or streamlining legal processes (i.e., in LegalTech), the law profession prevents complacency at the workplace!
The Networking Aspect:
Third, the legal profession encourages lawyers to work alongside different professions. Personally, I enjoy the face-time culture that comes with becoming a lawyer as I enjoy networking with different people!
2. What motivated you to start your platform/ What issues did you look to resolve when starting it?
Two reasons motivated me to start my own platform.
The issues I identified:
The disparity in diverse applicants in the assessment centres:
While attending several assessment centres hosted by international commercial law firms, I identified that some law firms would place more emphasis on the performance aspect rather than focusing on diversity. My experience in witnessing an apparent disparity in diversity with the candidates invited to the assessment centres further strengthened this belief.
Asian Stereotype:
A topic that is never bought into the discussion when speaking about the South-Asian law society is that due to the constant pressure of standing on our feet and supporting our families, we tend to move away from pursuing a profession that we enjoy doing to seek a “traditional profession” acknowledged and accepted by relatives and friends. This makes the entire process of succeeding in the legal sector, very challenging for a South-Asian. Why? Because such competitiveness among peers brings in jealousy. It prevents aspiring solicitors from getting the right insight and guidance as to what commercial law is from someone that has come from the same background as them.
My resolve:
To promote diversity and break past this stereotypical notion of competition amongst the Asian community, I provide free mentoring to anyone that is making TC and VC application. My platform's goal is to challenge traditions, defeat imposter syndrome, and share my insight with aspiring solicitors!
3. Can you describe your platform in 3 words?
Approachable:
I want to maintain myself first as a human and then a future trainee of a global law firm. The purpose of my platform is to build camaraderie amongst the international legal community, and to achieve that, approachability is key here!
Light-hearted:
Humour is a must need in the legal profession, and I always try my very best to showcase the lighter side of corporate law in my content. In my opinion, a lawyer needs to demonstrate an emotional understanding as it will help them build excellent rapport with international colleagues and clients.
Honest:
No matter how contentious the law profession could potentially be, lawyers must preserve honesty and integrity. I try my best to speak information with these two aspects in mind, whether I am sharing tips on improving training contract applications or having an informal conversation on the law with an aspiring solicitor!
4. What do you aim to achieve by the end of 2020?
Help more aspiring solicitors:
I do not view gaining more followers or subscribers as a means of success unless I could help them in their journey to succeed in the legal sector. At present, I have already helped more than 250 aspiring solicitors within 6 months and aim to help further 600 applicants by the end of this year.
Better Content:
My guiding philosophy is to value quality over quantity. I aim to gain more traction for my YouTube channel by producing better quality videos. Dear future viewers, expect to watch more videos on interesting topics that I will post on my channel, with fancy animations and experience my humour (mesmerising isn’t it…)
Diversifying my services to other disciplines:
I aim to expand my platform to include mentoring for other disciplines such as Accounting.
5. What are your long-term goals for this platform?
My long-term goals for this platform are to use my content to help raise awareness for diversity in the workplace. Further to this, I would like to transform Sim’s legal mentoring into a centralized platform where visitors can gain a complete understanding of the legal profession. I hope that my content is helpful to the South-Asian community and will play a significant role in increasing Asian presence in the legal industry.
6. Where can I find out more about your platform?
You can read my posts on Instagram and LinkedIn. I also have a YouTube channel where I post videos that discuss topics in the legal industry.
Check out Sim’s Legal Mentoring on YouTube!
7. What is the best law-related show/movie that you have watched?
I remember watching this film called Pink starring Amitabh Bachchan. The film was based on a true story. The film revolves around the sensitive issue of sexual consent, an unresolved issue that is still prominent within Indian society. The film takes you through the courtroom journey where a retired lawyer (Amitabh Bachchan) selflessly defends a woman charged with attempted murder for defending herself from sexual harassment.
The way Amitabh Bachchan demonstrates attentive listening when interrogating the flaws in the case and imposing arguments in such an effective manner inspired me to do more research on law, and I concluded that this was the career that I would most enjoy working in!
Trailer link below!
8. What area of practice would you like to specialise in, and why?
Not sure! Insolvency was quite a boring subject when I studied it but became surprisingly quite exciting when I worked as an insolvency paralegal. During my LPC, I enjoyed studying Real Estate and Intellectual Property. Only the future may answer this question in a more transparent manner!
9. What is the best thing that has happened in your journey so far?
There are actually three great things that happened in my journey so far!
The People facing aspect:
First, starting Sim’s legal mentoring has given me the opportunity to interact with individuals across all legal platforms. This has allowed me to break past the fear of meeting and collaborating with new people.
Results:
After helping more than 250 people gain more insight into the legal profession and giving tips on TC applications, I have had people reaching out to me, thanking me for helping them get what they want. I was incredibly happy when I found out that an aspiring solicitor secured a TC after visiting and using my platform!
Your Platform, their Testimonials!
Recognition:
Apart from receiving positive feedback on the quality of my content, a big booster for me was when I applied for the TCLA legal accelerator scheme. Although I did not get it in the end, I was told that my application was in the final top 10 – Also, the comments of Jaysen Sutton (The founder of the Corporate Law Academy) regarding my application were much appreciated and encouraged me to push myself in improving my platform further.