This market report is brought to you by The Malaysian Lawyer, co-founded by Lee Shih and Marcus van Geyzel.
This is Part 2 of our special market report on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the various MCOs on the Malaysian legal industry. Before reading on, you should read Part 1, where we addressed the financial issues (paycuts, volume of legal work, and revenues), remote working, and technology.
In this second part, we report on the impact of the pandemic on office/work culture, how law firms addressed employee mental health issues, and examine how the industry could have done better in dealing with the various challenges, and what the future holds. Again, these findings are not our own conclusions, but are a collection of the views of several lawyers who very kindly took the time to share their experiences with us. Some have asked to remain anonymous.
This market report is brought to you by The Malaysian Lawyer, co-founded by Lee Shih and Marcus van Geyzel.
If asked to think back to March 2020, when Malaysia first went into “lockdown” or a “Movement Control Order” (MCO), Malaysians may feel like the period of time that has passed has been the equivalent of several lifetimes. Or that it now seems to have gone quickly, and certainly doesn’t seem like it was 18 months ago. Or perhaps that it simultaneously feels like both a very long time and a very short time ago, in that time-bending perspective-warping haze that the pandemic seems to have permanently brought into our lives.
For the Malaysian legal industry, much has happened. If we cast our minds back to those early-MCO days, there was a scramble for lawyers to figure out how to operate outside of the office, without access to printed documents and files.
To be honest, some lawyers still haven’t quite figured it out, but there has been much progress overall. Compelled by the judiciary, lawyers shuffled out of the Stone Age and into conducting video trials online. The National and State Bars successfully convened their AGMs online (after a huge COVID scare from the in-person KL Bar AGM). Law firms rolled out pay-cuts, and freezed hiring, increments, and bonuses. As work dried up in some areas, many lawyers pivoted into new practice areas. Call ceremonies also moved online. Aspiring lawyers had to deal with huge delays to CLP exams and results.
In September 2019, we featured the Malaysian law firms active on LinkedIn. The list in 2019 covered less than 10 law firms.
Two years later, we have seen a big growth in the numbers and followers on Malaysian law firm LinkedIn pages. From a search across LinkedIn, we have seen close to 80 law firms with LinkedIn pages. There is also a large increase in the number of Malaysian lawyers starting their LinkedIn accounts. All these factors showcase the strength of LinkedIn as a networking and professional social network.
We feature below the top 20 most-followed Malaysian law firms for the year 2021. The numbers are as at 13 September 2021. Continue reading →
In our earlier post, we had featured Malaysian law firms which are active on LinkedIn. Malaysian law firms are also taking to another social media platform, Instagram. It is a largely photo and video-driven platform, and with a large number of users. There are estimated more than 1 billion monthly active Instagram users and more than 500 million daily active users.
The law firms below have slightly different approaches in utilising Instagram. It may be a combination of sharing knowledge or legal updates, giving an insight into the firm culture or firm activities, or something unique altogether.
We feature below the firms with a higher number of followers. Do drop a comment if you think there are other firms we should feature. Continue reading →
LinkedIn is a social media platform geared towards professionals and professional networking. It has more than 645 million members. In a survey conducted in 2018 by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, it was estimated that there were about 24.6 million social networking users and 13.3% of these users had a LinkedIn account.
Malaysian law firms are also utilising LinkedIn as a way to reach out to fellow lawyers and to clients. It is an additional platform to market and to engage with readers and clients, and can also be a additional channel for recruitment of talent.
This list covers some of the Malaysian law firms that are active on LinkedIn and have been gaining followers. Continue reading →
