Saturday, February 27, 2010

Sorry, wrong number

I had a pretty amusing day at work this week. It was one of those days where I was out of the office practically the whole day for a matter in court. When I returned to the office in the afternoon, I noticed that my voice message was blinking. I was pretty surprised by the message which went somewhere along the following lines-

"Hi Azmi I'm calling from **** and would like to engage your firm to provide us with an opinion on a Malaysian law issue. Would appreciate if you could return my call at ****"

*Perplexed*

Firstly, why was this person calling me from all people? I have never dealt with this company before. I only have few clients from Hong Kong and I know for sure that this entity is not related to any one of those.

So I went to seek advice from my boss (the partner) on how to deal with this telephone call. Being only a Junior Associate I have limited experience in accepting new engagements with new clients because they would usually have to go through the partner first for the necessary clearance. My boss was as perplexed as me with regards to this telephone message. She also confirmed that our department have not in the past done any litigation work for this company. I was then asked to return the call in the partner's room so that she can oversee the call and jump in if need be.

I was quite nervous in making the call for 3 reasons:-

1) I have limited experience in dealing with conference calls on accepting new engagements;

2) The potential client is a well known international company which I believe is in the best interest of our firm to secure the work; and

3) My boss would be evaluating every aspect of this call which I had to instantly do without any preparation on how I would like to structure the call.

I just thought, okay here goes! It started off relatively well with the introductions after which I proceeded to enquire more about the Malaysian law issue for which our advice is sought. She then asked whether I had a chance to consider her e-mail to me that was sent later in the afternoon and whether I was following up from the response I had given to that e-mail.

Okay hold on. What e-mail? Did I overlooked this e-mail when I returned from court?? And I supposedly responded to her e-mail??? My boss and I stared at each other with a confused look and realized that she probably got the wrong number. After a few more questioning we realized that the person she meant to have contacted was another partner in the firm whose second name is Azmi!

What an experience! :P

Monday, February 15, 2010

You and I Both

I've heard this song many times but this is the first time I've seen the music video. I found it very hilarious :p

Sunday, February 14, 2010

A little update

I think it's about time I updated my blog, seeing how my last entry was last year in October 2009...

Things have been rather hectic lately with work. I've seem to have lost my ability to stay up late to work. So my trend lately has been such that I will doze off around 11 pm (with my laptop and lights on), wake up around 3 am to complete the work till about 6 am and then sleep for a bit (with the lights off) and wake up around 6.45 am to get ready for work. Luckily I'm the kind of person who can still function with minimal sleep although I must say I did start to feel the after effects at about 4 pm the next day when I was trying very hard to concentrate and make sense of a judgment I was reading :P

This weekend is a long break for me and I suppose for everyone else so I am taking this opportunity to relax, catch up on some sleep and meet up with friends whom I haven't seen in a while :) Yesterday I wanted to watch Avatar (since it's probably going to finish showing in the movies soon and not sure when else I will be able to catch it) but when we went to the cinema it was actually sold out! The only available seats were for the 11 pm show. I think we might have bought it if not for the fact that the seats were 3 rows from the front :p
Oh well, there goes my weekend movie plans...

Think this is it for the updates for now...just a short note to say I am still alive and well ^^