My First Contested Hearing

I had the amazing opportunity to work with Dato' Ambiga Sreneevasan recently on one of our trials and the advice she gave me in terms of conducting my own hearing was "Just get on with it!".

The reason why it is difficult for me to have the opportunity to do so is because our matters are either very huge (requiring the partners themselves to conduct the hearing) or very small (not contested where it is just a matter of attending court and getting an order in terms). But then again, you have to start somewhere.

Don't get me wrong, I have done several open court hearings but they were not heavily contested and mostly at the subordinate courts.

On Thursday I managed to convince the partner to let me do my first contested high court hearing for one of my files.

The courtroom was packed with lawyers in their robes as there were about 17 matters listed for hearing in the open court. I was of course extremely nervous but the amazing thing was that once I got started, all of that went away. Even though there were other people in the court room, at that point in time I only was concerned with the Judge in front of me and my opponent. One of the senior lawyers in my firm was actually sitting at the public gallery to observe my first hearing (and probably to ensure that I don't screw it up :p).

I stood my ground. Even though the Judge was not with me on one point, I persisted. Rebuttals were very heated with both parties not letting it rest. I even raised an objection towards part of my opponent's submissions which was not supported by any affidavit evidence and argued that it should be disregarded as it was purely submissions from the bar.

At the end of it, the Judge fixed another date for him to deliver a decision.

Overall, exhilarating!