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Member of the Month: JUly
Tommy Lim Sen Teng
Tommy Lim Sen Teng
Tommy, byname of Lim Sen Teng, is a recent graduate from the School of Law, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Within four years of pursuing his study in UUM, Tommy was viewed widely as the leader of several student associations. He is an “idea generator” and self-motivated person, albeit he sees himself as someone who constantly has an irrational fear of making decisions. Owing to his strong interest in philosophy and criminology, Tommy’s favourite pastime is to read books of these genres. Besides being an avid reader, he also loves to indulge himself in spiritual movies in his leisure time.
Following his passion, law degrees were, unsurprisingly, Tommy's top choices in the UPU. Considering the fact that he is raised in a middle-income family and the advantage of local universities being exempted from CLP, he eventually decided to pursue a law degree in UUM with the support of Hong Leong Foundation despite being awarded with several scholarships from private universities.
LEADERSHIPS & ACHIEVEMENTS
Leaderships
In the eyes of the peers around Tommy, his multifaceted achievements in various student organizations and competitions speak volumes. Thus, he is often recognised as a person who always devotes himself to things he is truly passionate about. Throughout his four years of law studies, he actively participated and led several student organizations, not limited to only law-related organizations.
For instance, Tommy held the position of President in the Advocacy and Mooting Unit UUM (2019/2020); Founding Vice President of English Debate Unit UUM for two consecutive years (2017/2018 & 2018/2019); Director of the event of Charity, Culture & Caring (3C) UUM (2020/2021); and campus ambassador of Malaysian Law Student Network in the founding tenure.
His visionary leadership skill has led the Advocacy and Mooting Unit of UUM (“Mooting Unit”) to achieve several milestones. One of the most significant breakthroughs of the Mooting Unit is that he and his team managed to secure sponsorships from external guests and law firms during his tenure. In this regard, Tommy emphasized that such achievement was not done solely in his effort, but it involves a tremendous amount of effort put up by the Mooting Unit committees. Additionally, several other major changes made to the Mooting Unit include establishing its constitution and forming a structured committee board consisting of a large number of committee members. As described by his colleague, his calm personality enables him to make rational decisions in the face of adversities, and his leadership style can always encourage those who work under him to persevere and achieve the shared goals.
Tommy and his management team in Advocacy & Mooting Unit 2019/2020
Tommy and his management team in the event of Culture, Charity & Caring (3C) UUM
Moreover, as the director of Culture, Charity & Caring (3C) UUM, Tommy has successfully led the association with 130 committee members to gather more than RM4,000 charitable funds and organize volunteering activities to spread awareness on mental health, environment, animals welfare and students welfare. Also, it is worth noting that these activities had benefited more than 600 people in the community.
With that being said, his admirable leadership skills and qualities have undoubtedly left a mark in the organizations that he was involved in.
Achievements
Aside from the leadership roles, Tommy had also made some remarkable achievements in various kinds of competitions. As an eloquent speaker in many people’s eyes, one of Tommy’s notable achievements was in 2018, whereby Tommy as UUM and Malaysian representative delegate crowned champion in the Rajamangala University Malaysia’s Academic Presenter of 20th Indonesia-Malaysia-Thailand Growth Triangle (IMT-GT). In the competition entitled “Moving Towards Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0; The Role of Youth in Virtual Entrepreneurship”, he proposed several plans and solutions to tackle the issues in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Furthermore, some other significant awards bagged by Tommy are champion of International Speech Contest 2020 in Princess of Naradhiwas University, Thailand; 4th place winner in Malaysia Competition Commission Competition: Law Essay Writing Competition; and quarter finalist of The World Mandarin Debating Championship 2017. Tommy’s sheer dedication in seeking self-improvement has led him to accomplish his stellar achievements.
Tommy and Miss Sherry after bagging champion from in the Rajamangala University Malaysia’s Academic Presenter of 20th IMT-GT
On top of that, amidst Tommy’s busy schedules, he and a few of his friends (Jaden Teo Kai Jie and Lim Jing Jie) had initiated a non-profitable legal platform, named “Legal 8:30” in different social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. The idea of establishing Legal 8:30 came to his mind as he wanted to operate a public platform that could connect or enable interactions between law and non-law students. To put it simply, the main objectives of Legal 8:30 are to craft legal knowledge into a narrative and make them more accessible as law is closely related to our daily lives. Legal 8:30 transforms the research outcomes of the niche areas of law and trending legal issues into the form of video.
The Logo of Legal 8:30
TIME MANAGEMENT
In juggling his academics and active participation in student organisations and competitions, Tommy manages his time effectively by always keeping a monthly planner in his hand, enabling him to plan beforehand and always be mentally prepared for the upcoming deadlines. Furthermore, another tip that he practices for effective time management is to have a daily to-do-list. Every morning, he will look through his monthly planner and structure the tasks that must be completed within the week into his daily to-do list. Having a strong sense of responsibility and self-discipline, he will make sure that he completes his to-do list before the end of the day.
JOURNEY WITH AIAC
Tommy attributes his personal growth to his remarkable experience in competitions organized by the Asian International Arbitration Centre (Malaysia) (“AIAC”) and his experience working with AIAC. He had represented UUM to participate in the AIAC Pre-Moot for three consecutive years ever since he was in his First Year. He vividly remembers, during his first year, he was merely a researcher in the competition, but then he was given the chance by his seniors to submit in one of the hearing rounds. Unfortunately, his team did not make it till the end.
In this instance, he remarked that there are still areas that he could do better and improve further, so he decided to sign up in the following year. This time, his team was only one step close to entering the semi-finals. Following his third attempt, he had been pouring all his efforts for the best result, but unfortunately, the competition was cancelled due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, his journey with AIAC does not stop here. During his semester break, he had an internship placement in the AIAC, and he also became the chief volunteer in the similar competition when he was in his fourth year. To sum up, his involvement with the AIAC had formed a great part of his university life, shaping him into what he is today.
Tommy and his colleagues in the AIAC
WORKING EXPERIENCES
Tommy and his colleagues in Kompleks Mahkamah Sungai Petani, Kedah
Tommy has a strong dedication in exploring his interest in the legal field by taking up internship opportunities every semester break. From his first court internship in Kompleks Mahkamah Sungai Petani, Kedah, he then became a legal intern in Syarikat Lim Kiam Hoon Advocates & Solicitors twice. During his second time working in the firm, he realised that, with his past hands-on experience, he could put himself into more practical tasks. With his numerous involvements with AIAC, Tommy once had the chance to commence his internship with AIAC as well! Throughout the two months, he managed to supervise cases, organise events and competitions. Tommy truly values internship experience. To him, internship offers an opportunity to sharpen his soft skills and decide if a particular area of law is a good match for him.
FUTURE PLAN
Inquiring as to what his future plan is, Tommy responded that he is just like anyone else, feeling unsure about the future job opportunities during this uncertain time. Nevertheless, besides further venturing into litigation, he possesses a keen interest in exploring the niche practice areas such as space law, environmental law, communication law etc.
ADVICE
As a piece of advice, Tommy said,
“It is important to have the courage to follow one’s own heart and intuition. In life, people can give you advice and suggestions on how to live a life but bear in mind that those are from their perspective. You live your own life, so you make your decision.”
From that, we have to learn not to confine ourselves from taking any step further into the wide range of legal fields as we have more possibilities outside.
Written by:
Jamie Teh May Shuen & Sovitra Sukahut a/p Som
