Women Lawyers Conference 2017

The first Women Lawyers Conference (WLC) 2017 was AWL's inaugural standalone gathering for women in the law, co-organised with the Malaysian Bar's Continuing Professional Development Department. It was opened by George Varughese, then President of the Malaysian Bar, and by Tham Hui Ying, then President of AWL.​

 

The conference was built around a single, honest question: What does it actually take to advance as a woman in the Malaysian legal profession?

 

Across six sessions, speakers and panellists drew on data, lived experience, and frank conversation to address competence and how it is perceived, the crossroads that every woman lawyer eventually faces, the realities of going solo, finding your niche, building your brand in a technology-shaped world, and the deeper structural and cultural forces that continue to shape how women are seen and how far they go.​

 

The WLC 2017 closed with a Closing Address by Meera Samanther, former President of AWL, and a Spoken Word Poetry performance by Sheena Gurbakhash of the AWL Executive Committee, followed by an Evening Tea Reception.​

 

Session 1 | Competence-Focused Management for Women Lawyers examined how non-verbal communication shapes perceptions of competence and leadership, with panellists Hetal Doshi Daswani (CEO, O Psych), Dr Anjhula Mya Singh Bais (International Psychologist, The Mind Faculty), and Lee Jia Ping (Programme Director, ThinkCity). Moderated by Sheena Gurbakhash. 

 

Session 2 | Crossroads: Recalibrate for Professional Advancement explored how women navigate the difficult decisions that arise when career and personal life come into tension, with panellists Goh Siu Lin (Chair, Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee), Fazlin Azrimi bt Abu Hassan (Co-Founder, MY Women Legal Counsel Association), and Kiran Dhaliwal (Partner, Y N Foo and Partners). Moderated by Nur Raihan Jasmani. 

 

Session 3 | Striking Out on Your Own: Challenges and Lessons drew on the AWL Baseline Study (2014) and the experiences of women who left legal practice or established their own firms, with panellists Sumitra Visvanathan (then Executive Director, Women's Aid Organisation), Sharmila Ravindran (Advocate and Solicitor, Messrs Ravindran), and Rita Shah (CEO and Executive Leadership Coach, The Success Lab). Moderated by Vicky Alahakone. 

 

Session 4 | Finding Your Niche: Female Perspectives addressed how women have built successful practices in specialist areas of law, with panellists Sitpah Selvaratnam (Consultant, Messrs Tommy Thomas), Fiona Bodipalar (then a Partner at Messrs Bodipalar Ponnudurai De Silva), and Janice Richardson (Monash University Australia). Moderated by Bhuvaneswari Krishnamurthy. 

 

Session 5 | Brand or Die looked at how technology is reshaping professional perception and influence, with panellists Karen Cheah Yee Lynn (Partner, Messrs Chooi and Company), Long Seh Lih (CEO and Founder, Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights), and Liz Kamaruddin (Managing Director, FTI Consulting). Moderated by Daniella Zulkifili.​

 

Session 6 | The Power of My Brain, Not the Length of My Skirt brought the day to a close with a conversation on culture, self-perception, regulation, and the structural obstacles women still face across different stages of their legal careers, with panellists YA Dato' Mary Lim Thiam Suan (then Judge, Court of Appeal), Ira Biswas (Managing Partner, Messrs Chooi and Company), and Prof Datuk Dr Khaw Lake Tee (former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Malaya). Moderated by Sheena Gurbakhash.

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