About the YMG

Since our inception on 19 July 2013, the Young Members Group of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Malaysia Branch (known as YMG for short) has been creating waves amongst young practitioners in the arbitration field. YMG consists of all the registered CIArb members in Malaysia aged 40 years and under, and was founded with the intent of bringing the younger members together both professionally and socially.

Since our foundation, we have organised a number of events, culminating in the latest one of which we are very excited to announce – the launch of our very own YMG e-Updates! The YMG e-Updates will be filled with the latest case studies, articles and invites to future events.

This 1st Edition of our YMG e-Updates brings us down memory lane to our earlier days. There are such fond memories of our first event which was a membership drive on 28 March 2014, which brought together young members for dinner and drinks and encouraged more of those in relevant fields to become members of YMG.

This social was followed closely by the YMG-YLC (Young Lawyers Committee of the Malaysian Bar) social held on 16 May 2014, which granted the opportunity for the CIArb young members to meet and mingle. This event was geared towards spreading the word about YMG to other lawyers, those in YLC as well as to provide a platform for the young practitioners to exchange ideas with one another and to enhance their network with other professionals. The first International Arbitration Advocacy Workshop held in Malaysia was also promoted at this event.

The workshop which took place on 17 September 2014 featured a line-up of leading arbitrators and top-class practitioners from around the world including the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore. The full day workshop was started off with the Organising Chairperson, Mr. Shannon Rajan delivering the opening remarks and was followed by the CIArb Malaysia Branch Chairman, Ms. Catherine Chau. The first and second sessions were titled “An Arbitrator’s Perspective on Clinical and Effective Advocacy in International Arbitration” and “Current, Hot Topics in International Arbitration Practice and was moderated by Mr. Lim Chee Wee and Ms. Catherine Chau respectively. The two moderators managed the panel of three speakers consisting of the highly esteemed Philip Jeyaratnam SC, the former President of the Law Society of Singapore, Adrian Hughes QC of 39 Essex Chambers and Dr. Colin Ong of Dr Colin Ong Legal Services who addressed the audience on advocacy and shared their experiences, insights and tips, each having prepared hearings in a large number of arbitrations.

The participants were then split up into smaller groups for the interactive workshops, which each had a trainer. The trainers consist of Mr. C.Michael Heihre of Heihre Chambers for Dispute Resolution Sdn Bhd, Mr, Kabir Singh of Clifford Chance, Ms. May Tai of Herbert Smith Freehills and Mr. James Healy of Francis Burt Chambers. The workshop ended with a mock trial by two trainers, Mr. James Healy and Ms. May Tai and was concluded with a cocktail reception. All in all, it was a resounding success and we look forward to making this an annual event.

The CIArb YMG Essay Competition 2014 was launched in an effort to give students from diverse backgrounds a platform to express their views about “Malaysia, The Future Hub of Arbitration In Asia”. The esteemed members of the judging panel of the Essay Competition 2014 include Dato’ K.C. Vohrah (retired Court of Appeal judge), Justice Dato’ Mary Lim (presiding judge of the KL Construction Court) and Ms. Catherine Chau (Chairman of CIArb Malaysia Branch). The judging panel were very impressed by the quality of writing by the students. The top three winners were given cash prizes and an opportunity to be attached at the selected law firms of their choice. The winning entry is also featured in our 1st edition of the YMG e-Updates.

We kicked off this year with a social on 5 February 2015 where young arbitration professionals mingled in Claret, Troika, overlooking the breath-taking Kuala Lumpur skyline. If you are interested in joining us at the next social, drop us your email address at ciarbmb@gmail.com.

Information

Internship Opportunity As friends of UNCITRAL, we are pleased to inform that there is an Internship Opportunity at UNCITRAL-RCAP in the Republic of Korea. For more details or to apply online, click here.

YSIAC Conference 2015 Young Members Group of the CIArb (Malaysia) is proud to be a supporting organization of the YSIAC Conference 2015. See flyer here.