On the 28th of August 2019, Taylor’s Law School held an Awards Ceremony for its August cohort to recognise the achievements and brilliance of its students and to motivate them to aim for excellence and soar higher. Besides acknowledging the students’ academic achievements, this ceremony also acknowledges students who are active in extra-curricular activities outside the law school, emphasising the importance of being holistic students.
The distinguished guests who were present at the ceremony were Puan Jamhirah Ali, Director of the CLP Exam, LPQB, Mr Harmahinder Singh and the members of the Taylor’s University Legal Profession Advisory Panel.
The first line-up of the afternoon was a speech by Mr Harmahinder who delivered his welcome address, where he thanked the Legal Profession Partners for taking time off their hectic schedules to attend the ceremony. He then introduced the occasional speaker for the ceremony who was none other than Pn Jamhirah Ali. In her speech, she spoke about her experience, transitioning from a deputy public prosecutor to being the Director of the CLP exam and encouraged students to work hard as it is indeed not an impossible feat.
After the speeches, the ceremony then continued with the presentation of awards. The first category of awards to be presented was the Special Awards of Recognition which were presented to students for their contribution to the Law School. The recipients of these awards received a Certificate of Recognition from Taylor’s Law School.
Special Awards of Recognition were given to members of the Taylor’s University Mooting Team who represented the law school in the 14th LAWASIA International Moot Competition held on the 24th to and 25th of August 2019. The Law School’s Moot Master, Mr Harcharan Singh, said a few words before he presented the certificates to his students. Coincidentally, Puan Jamhirah, the occasional speaker for the event, also served as a judge at the LAWASIA Mooting Competition where two of our teams appeared before her and was given a special shout-out at the beginning of her speech.
The school also sent students to compete in the 8th Novice Arbitration Mooting Competition (NAMCO) and those who participated in this competition were also given certificates of recognition.
Besides mooting competitions, Taylor’s Law School also recognized the hard work and achievements of students involved in extracurricular activities. Special awards of recognition were also given to them to appreciate their effort and to encourage them to achieve greater things in their careers. One of these awards was given to Taylors’ Asian Law Student Association. Its president, Lim Wai Yee collected the certificates of recognition on behalf of her committee from their lecturer advisor, Ms Ambikai Thuraisingam. Ms Marini, the Programme Director of the LLB Programme presented the special award to the Law Society whose President, Amitaesh Thevananthan had received it on behalf of his committee. The remaining three special awards of recognition were given to Gan Yu Ju from the Legal Aid Centre and the Street Law Programme, the Prishant Linggaraj from the CRELDA Journal and Beverley Ramona Tan from the Lexicon Editorial Board.
The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the awards to recognise the academic achievements of the August 2018 Cohort . The first award which was the Chooi & Co + Cheang & Ariff Award for the Best Performance in Legal Skills was given to Jazmine Poh Tze Yee. The Azmi & Associates Award for Best Performance in Contract Law, the Azmi & Associates Award for Best Performance in English Constitutional & Administrative Law, the Shearn Delamore & Co Award for Best Performance in Tort Law, the Shearn Delamore & Co Award for Best Performance in English Legal System and the Daniel & Wong Award for Best Performance in Malaysian Legal System were all bagged by none other than Nakeeran Kumar S/O Kanthavel. It was thus no surprise when Nakeeran was announced to receive the Zaid Ibrahim Co. Award for Best Overall Performance in Year 1.
The Awards for the August 2017 Cohorts were then presented. The previous year’s Best Student for that Cohort, Nessa Lee Ni Xuan shined again by receiving the Sivananthan Award for Best Performance in Criminal Law, the Ariff Rozhan & Co Award for Best Performance in English Land Law, the Daniel &Wong for Best Performance in Malaysian Constitutional & Administrative Law and the Raja Darryl & Loh Award for Best Overall Performance in Year 2. Besides Nessa, the other students of this cohort had showcased their merit by winning the best performance in the various subjects offered by the Taylor’s Law School, which included the Wong Jin Nee & Teo Award for Best Performance in Intellectual Property Law which was given to Chong Cai Yi, the Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill Award for Best Performance in Research, Writing and Drafting which was given to Eunice Yeoh Yi Ching, and the Asian International Arbitration Centre award for Best Performance in Alternative Dispute Resolution which was received by Lee Wei En. Besides these awards, Prishanth A/L Linggaraj received the Christopher & Lee Ong Award for Best Performance in International Human Rights Law while Chloe Chew Ning Xin received the Christopher & Lee Ong Award for Best Performance in Public International Law.
The last awards of the evening were presented to the August 2016 cohort who had completed their studies and was the graduating cohort. Sheryl Jee Miao Lan received the Shook Lin & Bok Award for Best Overall Performance in Year 3 on top of receiving the Ariff Rozhan & Co Best Performance in Malaysian Land Law and the Cecil Abraham & Partners for Best Performance in Equity and Trusts. The other two awards, the Y N Foo & Partners Award for Best Performance in Family Law and Best Performance in Company Law were given to Mahherrajan A/L Narayanan and Nur Athira Binti Abdul Razak respectively.
The ceremony ended with Mr Harmahinder presenting the tokens of appreciation to the distinguished guests and the Legal Profession Partners, followed by a group photo session. The masters of the ceremony for the evening, Lucas Issac and Chloe Ho thanked everyone for attending the ceremony and also owed their gratitude to the Student Awards organising committee for successfully carrying out a momentous ceremony. The guests, parents, lecturers and award recipients were invited to the lounge beside the faculty office for refreshments and an opportunity to network.
This event is held twice a year for the March and August cohorts respectively. It aims to motivate other students to work harder to improve their grades and to inspire others that nothing is ever impossible and the sky isn’t the limit.