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KPUM (Malay: Kesatuan Penuntut Undang-Undang Malaysia di UK dan Eire) (English: Malaysian Law Students Union in the United Kingdom and Eire). is the official Malaysian Law Students Union in the United Kingdom and Ireland ("Eire"). KPUM promotes the interests of Malaysian law students, primarily by organizing events.
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History
The organization was established in 1979 and enjoys the patronage of Sultan Azlan Shah, who is the current Sultan of Perak, and the previous Lord President of the Federal Court of Malaysia. KPUM is recognized by the Malaysian Bar, and obtains its funding through sponsorship from firms in Malaysia, as well as through any profits made from organizing events.
Over the past 30 years KPUM has gone through a period of preeminence, decline, and subsequent revival.
KPUM is an affiliated member of the United Kingdom and Eire Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC) and is one of the member of UKEC's Supreme Council. The two organizations sometimes collaborate, particularly to promote events, for instances, KPUM and UKEC jointly organised the UKEC-KPUM Law debate competition in 2009. However, it does not collaborate with UKEC for the similar event in 2010. KPUM had been close to UKEC since 2005 as its past president Wan Mohd Firdaus (2004) was also the Chairman for UKEC in subsequent years (2005–2006). Its General Secretary for 2003, Nik Nazmi, was also the Vice Chairman of UKEC.
Purpose
The organization's promotes the interests of Malaysian law students, primarily by organizing events and opportunities with legal employers. KPUM is regarded as politically neutral, favoring neither Barisan National (the ruling coalition in Malaysia), nor Pakatan Rakyat (the opposition coalition).
It however commits itself to promoting justice, the rule of law, human rights, and free discussion and debate.
Membership
Every Malaysian law student attending a United Kingdom university, law school, or BPTC provider is automatically a member of KPUM. However membership is also open to any student holding a Malaysian passport, regardless of subject or country of study. Committee members have included Economics and Engineering students. Additionally, KPUM's committee includes a Malaysian Ambassador, who attends a Malaysian university.
Events
KPUM holds several events throughout the year. Events are typically open to students regardless of subject of study. The type of events tends to change with changing committees, however some events have become annual.
Annual Dinner
Annual Dinner is one of the two formal, black tie event that celebrates the new heights that KPUM has managed to reach each year. All members of KPUM and representatives of law firms are invited to dine together in a formal setting during the event. The committee of the event in 2014/15 included an award ceremony to students under the KPUM jurisdiction who have stood out academically and non-academically.
The event is held in Malaysia and typically between the months of July to September. The event is open to all KPUM members and serves as an opportunity for students to meet and interact with respective law firms, the time and venue of the event is set to accommodate to the summer break of students studying in the UK.
Law Career Convention
KPUM Law Career Convention (LCC) was launched on 14 March 2015 and was KPUM pioneer networking session with 5 law firms participating. Owing to its big success in 2015, KPUM organised the event once more in 19 March 2016, inviting more law firms and even bar schools to participate.The LCC consist of a range of presentation from different law firms practicing different areas of law. Several events including corporate luncheon and law firms and interview sessions. With the participation of a higher number of firms in 2016,
The aim of the event is to expose students to a wide range of opportunities after law school. KPUM aims to get the Malaysian law students to gather for a dialogue with their future colleagues and future employers. With bar schools participating in 2016, students can also understand more about the pathway to and beyond the BPTC.
Internships
As to date, KPUM organises three internship programmes which are open to all Malaysian students pursuing a law degree or BPTC. These three internships are 30 days of summer, Asasi and Beyond the Bar. Each internship programme focuses on different career prospects of a law degree. Although the dates of the internship programmes differs each year, they run for two months long and typically from July to August.
The first internship programme KPUM organised was the Asasi internship programme. In the year 2015, the Union launched the 30 days of Summer internship programme in addition to the 30 Days of Summer internship programme. In 2016, a divergent type of internship was introduced by the Union named Beyond the Bar. Unlike the previous internship programmes, Beyond the Bar programme is not affiliated with the legal realm. This programme provides law students who are considering a non-legal profession a foretaste of the non-legal working environment.
These internships does not just form a cohort between the participant, it also allows
1. 30 days of Summer
30 Days of Summer (SIP) is a 2-month long internship programme where participants intern with 2 of the participating commercial law firms in Malaysia, a month each. In 2015, the programme runs from 1 July to 14 August; in 2016, 4 July to 31 August. 7 commercial firms participated in 2015 and this number rose to 10 in 2016. (List of partners participating here) These firms specialises in corporate law, intellectual property, arbitration, dispute resolution, shipping law and employment law. The work includes preparation of affidavit, drafting a witness statements and research. The interns are required to work with lawyers in practice on actual client matters and attend trials, hearings, appeals and client meetings when appropriate.
Aside from the main internship itself, students are given an opportunity to participate in side events held in collaboration with the partners. Side events organised include mooting sessions, roundtable discussions and talks. In the year 2015, mooting sessions was held in Thomas Philip, roundtable discussions at ZICOlaw and talks at Skrine and Christopher & Lee Ong.
2. ASASI Internship Programme
The Asasi Internship Programme started in 2014, focusing on human rights and activism in the legal profession. It is a two-month long programme, aiming to provide an exposure and to widen the perspectives of the participants to the many possibilities of branching out within the legal profession itself. Similar to other internship programmes by KPUM, there are also various side events during the internship period for the participants.
3. Beyond The Bar Internship Programme
Beyond the Bar was launched in 2016 by the Careers Development team. It is a non-legal internship programme designed specifically to provide law students a foretaste of a non-legal working environment. The programme runs for 2 months: from the 4th of July 2016 to 6 August 2016. 9 non-legal firms participated in 2016, with offices ranging from audit firms, banks, publication firms to public services. Similar to the 30 days of Summer internship programme, the participants are given an opportunity to partake in a series of side events hosted by the partners and to form support community where interns share their experiences together.
Executive Committee
The KPUM Executive Committee is the group of students who run the organization. The positions on the committee sometimes change with different years. Each KPUM committee serves for a term of one year, with elections taking place in London during Michaelmas term.
Criticism
KPUM has been criticized over its focus on London. Most, if not all, of the events held in the United Kingdom are held in London, making it more difficult for students from other regions to attend. Furthermore, the composition of its committees in recent years has seen London universities and London BPTC providers heavily overrepresented. Committees are often dominated by students from the City Law School, King's College London, and the London School of Economics.
Another common criticism centers around KPUM's sometimes conflicting goals of obtaining funding from firms in Malaysia as well as promoting justice and free discussion and debate. Criticism comes from both sides, with some advocating a stronger, more principled stance, and others advocating a more cautious approach in order to avoid upsetting firms so that more funding can be obtained. The balance may tip one way or the other depending on the views of incumbent committee members.