CHECKS and BALANCES Power up Your Career
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Front Cover APR–AUG 2019 CHECKS AND BALANCES Power Up Your Career Explore gender as a new practice area Gender-related issues. We need lawyers who know how to handle hot-button issues relating to gender, including gender equality, discrimination and sexual harassment. Come learn how to take on complex human resource issues and advise your clients on what they need to know to create more gender-inclusive workplaces. Learn to manage technology and time 24/7 access takes its toll. When do you switch o your devices, and how do you draw boundaries for yourself, your bosses, your sta and your clients? Learn how, here. Are you enabling or enduring a toxic workspace? Understand behaviours that create and defuse toxicity. It’s time to bolster and power up your mental health. Understand the situations that have you blowing your fuse and creating unnecessary tension that spills into your personal life. Get support, and learn to support others. Career planning Kick-start a future-forward career here. There is change in the air. Technology is driving the kind of work that will pay dividends in the future. Learn to leverage your legal skills to create the career you want, and to thrive in a changing environment. Learn from and join a community of professionals who have been there and done it, and are looking to rise to greater heights. Speakers include: Adlin Abdul Majid, Amanda Kong, Hetal Doshi, Janice Leo Selvanathan, Jenna Beh, Lee San San, Maha Balakrishnan, Datin Mina Cheah-Foong, Raja Nadia Sabrina, Selvamalar Alagaratnam, Shanti Dairiam and Tan Heang-Lee REGISTER HERE! For enquiries, please contact: 03-2050 2111 / [email protected] APR–AUG 2019 Contents Bar Council Highlights 3 State Bar News 50 03 President’s Message 05 Speech of Outgoing President Case Notes 08 Lifetime Achievement Award - Citation Acceptance 65 15 Acceptance Speech by Cecil Rajendra 65 Cubic Electronics Revisited 20 72nd Malaysian Bar Annual Dinner & Dance 2019 22 Golden Jubilee of the Malaysia/Singapore Bench and Bar Games 2019 Book Reviews 69 69 Book Review of Modern Advocacy - More Perspectives From Singapore Features and Articles 25 71 Book Review of Financial Services Law & Regulation 25 Trademarks: A Guide to the New Act 27 Digital Tax of Foreign Service Providers: A Preview 65 32 Do Postponements Cause Delays in the Courts? 36 Providing for Disabled Dependants: The Singapore Model 39 Laws and Regulations Governing Technology in Malaysia 44 The Business Judgment Rule under the Malaysian Companies Act 2016 39 Updates / Notices 73 73 In Memoriam 74 Library Update 75 Notice Regarding Documents in Bar Council’s Custody: Legal Firms in which Bar Council Has Intervened BAR COUNCIL MALAYSIA BAR COUNCIL 15 Leboh Pasar Besar 50050 Kuala Lumpur Tel No: (603) 2050 2050 Fax No: (603) 2026 1313 / (603) 2034 2825 Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash Website: www.malaysianbar.org.my MEMBERS OF BAR COUNCIL MALAYSIA 2019/2020 President Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor Editorial Message Vice-President Roger Chan Weng Keng Secretary Salim Bashir Treasurer Surindar Singh Tempus fugit – time flies. The expression comes from line A G Kalidas | Andrew Khoo Chin Hock | Azmi Abdoll Aziz | 284 of book 3 of Virgil’s Georgics, where it appears as fugit Babu Raj Raja Gopal | Bernard Scott | Gainneos Jacob Goldie inreparabile tempus: “it escapes, irretrievable time”. The phrase | George Varughese | Harleen Kaur | Hendon Mohamed | Joseph Mathews | Karen Cheah Yee Lynn | Lee Guan Tong is used in both its Latin and English forms as a proverb that | Roger Lo Ming | Lukman Sheriff Alias | Mohamad Ezri Abdul “time’s a-wasting”. Wahab | Mohd Jailani Adam | Muhammad Rafique Rashid Ali| Murshidah Mustafa | Muthu Kumar Suya Kumanan | Nazliyah Mansor | Nitin Kumar Gordhan | Nor Herdawati Harun | Ravi And so, as we close this issue of PRAXIS it is perhaps Nekoo | Roger Tan | Roshalizawati Muhammad | Salwa Mansor | Santhi Balachandran | Shashi Devan Thalmalingam | Sheikh timely to reflect on all that has happened since our last issue. Ikhzan Sheikh Salleh | Sulaiman Abdullah | T Tharumarajah Yusfarizal Yussoff Zamri Ali Zuhaidie Akmal Hasan Basri | | | In this issue we focus on recent changes to the law in the PRAXIS EDITORIAL BOARD form of the Trademarks Act and the proposed enforcement of Chief Editor and Producer Salim Bashir the digital tax on foreign service providers which will come into Co-Managing Editors Santhi Latha and Sheena Gurbakhash effect in January 2020. We also reflect on the state of some Editors Chin Oy Sim, Chua Ai Lin and Joane Sharmila current decisions and topics of interest in the corporate and Designed by Mike Foo technology sectors. Praxis is the official publication of Bar Council Malaysia, As usual, I express my sincere thanks to the contributors to published for circulation to Members of the Malaysian Bar. this issue who have trusted us with their words, and the team Bar Council Malaysia, and its authorised authors and designers of Praxis, accept no liability for any loss arising at Bar Council Malaysia for their unwavering support and hard from the use of, or reliance on, Praxis. Bar Council Malaysia work in bringing this issue to life. does not warrant the accuracy of the contents thereof or any statement made by the contributors, writers or advertisers herein, and does not accept responsibility or liability in relation In our next issue we will be focusing on land law and land- thereto. Statements of contributors, writers of advertisers herein represent their personal views and do not necessarily related matters. We look forward to your contributions. reflect the views of Bar Council or the Malaysian Bar. All users are permitted to view the content of Praxis, without prejudice to the intellectual property rights belonging to Bar Council Malaysia. However, any unauthorised reproduction, With Best Wishes, duplication, transmission or alteration, in any form or by any means, whether in part or in whole, of Praxis, is strictly prohibited. Bar Council Malaysia also prohibits the use of Praxis and all or any of its contents herein, for commercial and/or personal gain, profit or sale. Santhi Latha and Sheena Gurbakhash Co-Managing Editors © 2019 All rights reserved Enquiries on advertising Sangheetha K — [email protected] Erin Samuel — [email protected] Article contribution Bar Council Malaysia welcomes letters, articles, views and news (including photographs) for possible inclusion in Praxis. However, Bar Council Malaysia reserves the right not to publish or to edit those published for content, clarity, style and space considerations. Contributions and enquiries may be directed to [email protected]. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Abdul Fareed Abdul Gafoor President, Malaysian Bar Assalamualaikum. As we stand on the threshold of 2020, I wish to underscore the work of the Bar Council in enhancing the provision of legal services, and in providing support and guidance for the development of your legal practice. At the Bar Council, we have been working to recognise that as a community and individually, our Members must be provided with opportunities for outreach and expansion that will bolster their ability Separately, we have also implemented increased to provide effective legal services and to earn a coverage to RM50,000 for Members under the living from doing so. To this end, we have conducted LawCare scheme, and additionally now provide roadshows in several states over the last six months Members with the option to top up their coverage on to gain insight into issues faced, and to connect with a voluntary basis as follows: Members directly on how we can add value to their membership at the Bar. (1) Sum assured of RM30,000 for top-up insurance coverage: annual premium of RM56.60 (prorated From the variety of feedback we have received — premium for 2019 of RM47.00); or other than for Kedah, Penang and Kuala Lumpur, where the roadshows will take place soon — it is clear (2) Sum assured of RM20,000 for top-up insurance that our legal community faces a variety of challenges coverage: annual premium of RM37.75 (prorated and that there is a need to make legal practice as premium for 2019 of RM31.35). seamless as possible for Members. The amounts of annual premium stated above are As I continue to lend weight to my responsibility for a one-year period and include the 6% Sales and to safeguard the interests of Members and law Service Tax (“SST”). It is our hope that Members firms, these roadshows have allowed some level of utilise this opportunity to better protect themselves engagement by this Council and I would like to do and, by extension, their families. more. We encourage Members of the Bar to write to us with specific concerns that you may have, so Next, in recognition of the urgent need for law firms that we can address these for the benefit of the legal to expand and diversify their services, we have also profession as a whole. been working on developing international visibility for all interested law firms through legal market A key aspect of this is to ensure that we work visits to other countries, such as China, Indonesia, in environments of mutual respect with all the United Kingdom and Vietnam. To achieve this, we stakeholders of the legal profession. This includes, have in many instances leveraged on the various crucially, the Judiciary. We have been privileged to be Memorandums of Understanding entered into with able to engage with the leadership within the Judiciary foreign Bar Associations in the hope that Members who are keen to proactively move away from the can use this as a platform to expand their legal subservience of the past to work on platforms of practice into a regional or global one.