On 24 May 2019, AmerBON’s Pupil-in-Chambers, Ms Reshera Chan Yoke Ching, was called to the Bar at the Kuala Lumpur High Court before YA Dato’ Sri Mariana binti Haji Yahya. We thank Mr K. Shanmuga for moving Reshera’s call.
Mr Roger Chan Weng Keng (Reshera’s father), a prominent member of the Malaysian Bar, had the honour of robing his daughter on this momentous occasion.
Shanmuga’s speech is reproduced here:
It is my honour today to move the petition of Reshera Chan Yoke Ching.
I have known your Petitioner’s father as one of my mentors at the Bar. Roger Chan Weng Keng is a leading human rights advocate and now the Vice President of the Malaysian Bar. Your Petitioner is the second of Roger’s three daughters with his beloved wife Samantha Lim Chai Sim, an English Literature teacher.
Your Petitioner’s elder sister Rebecca now works as a biochemist. Her younger sister Rosalyn has returned to Malaysia for this happy occasion from Canada, where she is pursuing a degree in astrophysics.
In case Your Ladyship was wondering, the Petitioner has confirmed that her name is derived from the word sher, meaning tiger in Hindi. This came about when her mother gained inspiration after seeing a Hindi movie with a sher (and no doubt also getting a tremendous kick from your Petitioner who was then in her belly).
When pursuing her secondary education at Pudu English Girls School, the Petitioner was at first more keen to pursue her first love of drawing cartoons and graphic design. Her parents, however, persuaded her that she had an aptitude for the law, and she proved this by eventually obtaining a “Very Competent” in her Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) and a Masters of Law with Commendation from Northumbria University, where she also completed her first degree in law.
Thankfully, unlike her namesake Shere Khan from the Jungle Book, your Petitioner is a fighter for the underprivileged. In Malaysia, she frequently volunteered for numerous charities before she left for England. There, your Petitioner was selected to be one of 12 BPTC students to undertake a Student Law Office module, where she had the opportunity to help real clients with their cases and to work in a criminal barristers’ chambers.
This assisted her greatly in completing her dissertation on sexual offences and the way it is dealt with in the UK, and I hope your Petitioner is able to bring those lessons to bear to reform the way we deal with these cases in Malaysia.
Upon her return to Malaysia, she joined the chambers of Edmund Bon Tai Soon of Messrs AmerBON and became the latest victim of what is commonly known in the profession as the “BonCon”.
This is where her Master Edmund Bon persuades you to do a great deal of work for very little money. Of course, in all cases, it is in an attempt to advance the cause of human rights and constitutional law in Malaysia, so we are all, for the most part, willing victims.
Having collaborated with her Master on several public interest matters, I can attest to the rigorous training regime he puts his lawyers and pupils through. Your Petitioner would have worked long hours researching some of the finer points of law, both on human rights cases as well as on commercial and family matters, and would have been able to observe some of the finest advocacy in action in the criminal and civil courts from all the members of the firm.
Your Petitioner has accordingly asked me to put on record her appreciation and gratitude to all in the firm: the two partners Edmund Bon and Amer Hamzah; the lawyers New Sin Yew, Joshua Tay and Michael Cheah; and her compatriot in arms, who was recently called to the Bar as well, Hoe Sue Lu.
My Lady, the Petitioner has asked me to express her special thanks and gratitude to her loving family, who have always been there for her whenever she was going through hard times.
Yang Arif, I believe that the Petitioner is eminently a fit and proper person to be admitted and enrolled as an Advocate and Solicitor of this Honourable Court, and that all the cause papers are in order. I am also informed that there are no objections to this Petition.
I, therefore, ask this Honourable Court to admit and enrol the Petitioner, Reshera Chan Yoke Ching, as an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.
