top of page

Life As a Law Lecturer

A student’s experience of studying law is greatly influenced by the lecturers we encounter. A lot of the time, students may feel inspired by their lecturers and their attitudes towards the subject of law and life in general. Some may even feel inspired to pursue their own career in teaching law. If you have ever wondered what the path of academia encompasses, this is the article for you. For some insight on this particular career path, Taylor’s Lexicon interviewed Taylor’s Law School’s very own law lecturers, Dr Heama Latha Nair and Dr Wilson Tay Tze Vern!



What does your typical day look like?

Dr Heama first says that her day starts around 6:30am, describing this as her “me-time” as she takes the time to go on brisk walks and usually does her personal prayers. Throughout the day, she works on her responsibilities as a lecturer. She highlights that the workload depends on what modules she has undertaken to teach during the semester. Normally, she spends the day preparing teaching material such as lectures and exam questions, as well as conducting tutorials with students. On the other hand, while students are off enjoying their semester break, Dr Heama explains that lecturers receive ample training aimed at self-development and improvement in teaching. They are also encouraged to embark on research activities to help the university advance in a direction involving more research and development instead of only focusing on teaching. In this regard, lecturers have been working towards publishing their research in more high-end publications.


Similarly, Dr Wilson explains that there are no “typical” days as a lecturer – what he does in a day differs a lot depending on whether it is term time, examination season, or vacation time.


“What I would be doing in a typical day during term time includes giving lectures and tutorials (of course), attending to student queries via email, preparing for or grading coursework, and preparing materials for the lectures and tutorials. A lot of work actually goes into preparing the slides and reading up the materials in order to try and manage the lessons effectively.” — Dr Wilson

On top of that, from time to time, lecturers can be busy handling administrative duties and even planning events. For instance, Dr Wilson is now working with a team of other lecturers to organise an online conference, which takes some planning and preparation as well.


“Academics are also expected to produce research in the form of writing (articles, book chapters, book reviews or even books) or through participation in conferences, webinars, forums, or consultation exercises. This is meant to show that we are in tune with the current state of knowledge and can contribute to the development of knowledge itself, besides passing it on in our teaching. Vacation time is the best time to be working on these projects, as there is less teaching commitment. During vacations I am also able to spend more time on my postgraduate supervision duties on the LLM and PhD programmes, requests for references from students, and general enquiries. The University might also organize training sessions for us to attend during this time, mainly to help us keep pace with current developments in educational technology.” — Dr Wilson

Why did you choose to teach law?

“Because it is nice to be able to read, discuss, and write about stuff that I find interesting, and get paid for it! Of course, there are other responsibilities as well (mentioned earlier) but that would be the main attraction.The other plus point is the energy, motivation, and diversity of the people whom I mainly work with in this job – the students! Every cohort on each programme is different, and new and interesting things come up all the time, so there is a lot of spontaneity in this job. I often feel challenged and motivated to do better when I see the effort and the energy that students put into their work.” — Dr Wilson

When did you choose to teach law and how did you make that choice?

According to Dr Heama, teaching has always been her first love. She started her career as a trained teacher, having undergone three years of training at the Language Institute of Kuala Lumpur. She went on to teach English as a Second Language and Sejarah in secondary schools over the span of 7 years.


Thereafter, she decided to pursue a law degree and was subsequently called to the UK Bar in 1996, and to the Malaysian Bar in 1997 as an advocate and solicitor. Dr Heama was in active legal practice for more than 14 years. She was mostly involved in civil litigation, banking litigation and dabbled in family law. During her experience in the legal industry, she had the opportunity to chamber in the legal firm of Messrs Gopal Sri Ram (who was then a Court of Appeal judge) under the supervision of her pupil master, the late Mr Manjeet Singh.


Whilst in legal practice, Dr Heama also taught part-time in the University of Malaya. In 2010, she started to teach part-time in Taylor’s University and subsequently transitioned to full-time teaching. She chose to transition to academia mostly due to family commitments, demonstrating that the dual role carried by working women in society often comes with sacrifice for the sake of balance.


“I decided to move on to academia because as a legal practitioner, you will find that the working hours can be very long. Legal practice is not a 9 to 5 kind of job – it involves extended hours and even working on the weekends. In my case, I wanted to spend more time with my son during his crucial years. I chose to go into academia because it would give me the flexibility to spend more time with my family.” — Dr Heama

On the other hand, Dr Wilson talks about how teaching law was initially not part of his plan as he was happily employed in the Judicial and Legal Service. However, one day in 2010, he thought he would try for a scholarship to read for an LLM at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Even though he didn’t end up receiving the scholarship, NUS offered him a subsidized rate for a new specialisation that they had been rolling out that year. Thereafter, he completed his LLM in 2012 and subsequently took up a vacancy at Taylor’s to teach constitutional law, which happens to be his area of research interest.


Two years later, he managed to get a different scholarship to read for the PhD at NUS, so he went to pursue that. He worked in Singapore after completing the degree and returned to teach in Taylor’s once again when a vacancy opened up in 2020.

“As you can see, career events can just happen pretty randomly – it depends a lot on factors that we may not always be able to foresee completely, so there is a bit of fun in just going with the flow and making the best of every situation.” — Dr Wilson

What is one thing you love about your job?

Both Dr Heama and Dr Wilson told us that the support of their fellow educators and academic administrators, who are ever-ready to lend a helping hand, has made their job experience enjoyable. Dr Heama further elaborates that those in Taylor’s Law School have a particularly strong relationship and sense of cooperation which of course has increased job satisfaction of its members. Dr Wilson also adds that the students they get to teach are generally highly motivated, hardworking and courteous. This, combined with the abovementioned factors, makes it easier for him to do his job and contribute his part in turn. Moreover, Dr Wilson feels honoured to be part of this community as he observes that the Law School is going from strength to strength in terms of the learning resources available, the expertise of the faculty, and the effectiveness of how things are done.


What is one thing you would change about your job if you could?

In terms of their actual jobs, neither Dr Heama nor Dr Wilson would ask for anything else. However, Dr Wilson adds that he would definitely appreciate more economical food options on campus as meals seem to cost more in Taylor’s compared to meals in the surrounding community.


What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

In light of the pandemic and the shift to online learning, Dr Heama admits that this transition was not a walk in the park. She had to overcome a steep learning curve in order to figure out how to work different teaching softwares and other technological devices that she had to use for teaching. However, after some trial and error, she has adapted well and has since become quite familiar with various online utilities. This is possible as Dr Heama is always open to learning new things and is not afraid to ask for assistance whenever she struggles with any technical difficulties.


Dr Wilson remarks that his job proves to be challenging as the workload can be heavy, especially if his duties accumulate around the same time. He usually has many things going on simultaneously such as teaching, postgraduate supervision, research and admin duties. For instance, a week during the semester might require him to grade written assignments, attend to emails, give feedback to a postgraduate supervisee and finish a piece of writing. He states that this can be quite overwhelming – because his responsibilities often involve different stakeholders, he feels the need to do his best for each of them. As Dr Wilson aptly puts it, during times like these, you just have to prioritise and somehow “keep juggling all the eggs without breaking any of them (figuratively).”


What has been the most memorable moment in your career thus far?

In December 2020, Dr Heama completed her Doctoral Degree of Law (PhD) in the University of Malaya. Reflecting upon this achievement, she states that this was indeed a memorable moment for her as it was a challenging and obstacle-filled journey. She hopes that her achievement will inspire her younger colleagues and students and show them that age is not a limiting factor – you can choose to further your studies at any level or stage in life.


Dr Wilson shares that his most memorable moment was when he visited London in 2016 after attending a conference nearby as part of his PhD programme, and got to meet up with a group of former students who had transferred to partner universities in the UK. Students travelled from other cities to attend this gathering, which did not go unappreciated. He notes it as a wonderful experience as he got to see how much his students had grown in terms of confidence and camaraderie since the time they first met in their first semester. To him, it is a great joy to hear from former students or meet them in person, and to learn of their progress from time to time.


Do you have any advice for aspiring law students or young lawyers who intend to pursue a career in teaching law?

Both Dr Heama and Dr Wilson advise students who might be interested in academia to explore the option of part-time teaching first – you can do this in your years of legal practice. If you eventually find yourself more passionate about teaching than practising law, just go for it.


It is important to note that in order to teach law as a full-time career at university level in Malaysia, nowadays the LLM is more or less a minimum requirement – you will typically need a PhD qualification as well. Hence, both lecturers encourage you to further your studies and not just stop at LLB level if you intend to embark on this particular career.


Aside from that, Dr Wilson also highlights that because law is a field that is always changing and developing, you must have a strong interest in your chosen area(s) of law in order to be able to sustain the motivation to constantly stay abreast of developments in the field, and to adapt your teaching and research accordingly. Another interesting point emphasised by Dr Wilson is that this path is uniquely rewarding in many aspects that other career options cannot really offer.


“On a macro level, it is important to have good academics guiding future generations of law students and producing the research that contributes to legal innovation in this country, so if you feel up to the challenge, go for it!” — Dr Wilson

Lexicon hopes that the Life-As Series has achieved its purpose and given you a clearer depiction of what life within these areas of the law is like. We would, however, like to note that everyone has their own individualised experiences, and this article is purely based on the input of the lawyers we interviewed. On that note, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Heama and Dr Wilson. Lexicon could not have produced this article without their generosity, input and advice.


336 views1 comment
bottom of page