The 69th annual general meeting (AGM) of the Malaysian Bar has concluded and the turnout of members had been very encouraging.

The motion that the Bar president had rightly said what he said after the Anwar Ibrahim appeal at the Federal court last  and there was no need for the President of the Bar to apologise to the members and the Malaysian people as a whole for what he believed was done in the case of Anwar Ibrahim was supported by a majority of the members who were present at the annual meeting.

This being the highlight which was anticipated by those who wanted to see how the lawyers’ body would respond to criticisms that it is a body that supports the opposition and is always anti-establishment was not very surprising.

But what is actually the situation today is a vast gap which has appeared in the legal profession which has now become more of a business than a profession. Competition is extremely tough and the vast gap between the have and the have- nots in the profession is becoming very glaring for all to see.

At the AGM this year, the Bar Council had asked its members for an increment in its building fund, which is a fund which the Bar gets its members to contribute to for the purposes of the maintenance and eventual purchase of  buildings that the Bar may have in mind. This has been the practice since its early years and the members contribute when they pay their yearly dues to the Bar.

The contribution is compulsory and every member has to contribute if he or she wants a practicing certificate for the following year. Paying the yearly contributions has become quite a task for lawyers who are not well off. These people can be categorised as the poorer members of the Bar, they are not well off like the more established members who make a lot of money through litigation and commercial transactions of all kinds.

Comparatively, lawyers pay far much more than their medical counterparts in the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA). Doctors pay very little for their annual practicing certificates if compared to what they earn as professionals in the private and civil service sectors.

The anomaly is that doctors who deal with lives, where a mistake can cause a life, pay less for their practicing certificates but in the case of lawyers who deal with large volumes of paperwork where mistakes are usually rectified along the way, pay a much larger amount to get their annual practicing certificates.

With the large number of law graduates that are being produced in the country every year, there seems to be an endless supply of lawyers from whom a lot of payment can be collected.

But are all lawyers in peninsular Malaysia doing well? There are the rich ones who have made a name for themselves over the years either through litigation work where their advocacy prowess takes them far or through non-contentious work where legal documentation is their main stay.

There are the huge partnerships and successful highly-sought-after counsels who are doing an array of areas in litigation which gives them the celebrity status, and with this status comes the ability to command high fees which can run into six figures and sometimes even seven. So like any other profession, we have those who have it all and those who do not have what it takes.  

This is where the Bar being the association that is the umbrella body for all practicing lawyers in the peninsula should step in. Of late, there have been schemes where dead members’ families get a small amount from the Bar’s group insurance fund but as the umbrella body, the Bar has to do more to see to the needs of those who are struggling.

Why practice when you have to struggle?

One may then ask, why practice when you have to struggle but it is a right of all lawyers who have completed the full circle of becoming an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya to practice.

Some may make it big and some may just scrap through. Some may die young and some may just become too senile and advanced in age to be in the thick of practice any more. But it is the right of every advocate and solicitor to practice. The question then is why shouldn't we consider a subscription fee based on our financial ability to contribute.

The Bar now asks its members for more money to buy properties to help place its offices. Some members argue eloquently that it is the duty of every member to do their part to contribute their earning to see that the Bar has the financial strength to buy buildings large enough to place all its offices and affiliates under one roof, whereas some just do not see it as necessary.

Some may just say that the Bar ought to operate from the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, where property is much cheaper and the big space that it wants can be acquired for a more affordable amount which will be lesser of a burden to all its members to foot.

Sadly, what we see in the leadership of the Bar these days is utter failure to look into the small practices and the poorer lawyers. Just like what we see in the largely crony-capitalistic economy that we have, where the cronies have the lion’s share of almost everything out there, the same happens in the legal arena as well.

Discounts and touts in almost all the fields of practice are enough to make the life of poor and upcoming lawyers a living hell. Coupled with families to feed, house mortgages to pay, car loans to service, office rent to pay, staffs to pay and oversee and aged parents to take care of; many lawyers out there suffer in silence.

Touting is a big business which the Bar keeps quiet about or just pretends is not existent. From hospitals to court corridors and to police stations, from developers offices and project launchers to real estate agencies, from banks to government departments, touts are everywhere. These vultures and hyenas are there to tear apart a fee collection as soon as the client is about to pay or the lawyer gets a payment award from the insurance companies.

Now we even have the specially-trained bees from the Customs and Excise Department knocking at the doors of lawyers to see if we have registered for the ever-encompassing goods and services tax (GST) 2014. We now have to charge a further 6 percent to our total fees and disbursements as service tax to be paid to the government, which thinks that every lawyer makes RM500,000.00 annually.  

Putting up an act

To make that kind of money, a lawyer would have to collect above RM41,000.00 a month. It would be a great if a struggling lawyer can at least take home RM5,000.00 a month after paying all the dues in his practice and personal asset expenses. Many out there struggle but put up an act to just keep up with the Jones-es so that society, clients and peers don’t look down upon them.

With all this in their minds, it is no wonder that many lawyers die of common diseases, accidents and some even become the victims of loan sharks. So while the bourgeoisie group of lawyers who are high up in the legal ladder mingle and rub shoulders with royalties, private sector tycoons and captains of industry and civil service heavyweights, there are those out there who find it hard to make ends meet every month.

So it is therefore hoped that the current newly-voted leadership helmed by a Klang High School old boy will come down to the ground and meet common members who are trying to eke out a honest living practicing law. If this is not done or overlooked, then it will only be a matter of time before the Malaysian Law Society garners support and executive help to form a counter-balance to the Bar.