The Year 2012 at a Glance

2012 had been a good year. I got married, moved to a new home and started my own law firm.

My firm was up and running within two months. Work had been trickling in rapidly thanks to friends and clients’ constant support and referral. I have clients from my old firm trusting and following me to my new establishment. I also have clients who were excellent paymasters. One even pays me the day after I issue the bill! I must thank all of them for the great support.

January
I got married on 14.1.2012. It was held at the Grand Ballroom of Crowne Plaza Mutiara, Kuala Lumpur. It was attended by friends and family of over 400 people.

A day after my wedding, I tendered my resignation from my old firm. Few days later, I was flown to Fukuoka by LexisNexis SEA, a multinational legal information provider, to attend the LexisNexis Customer Engagement Workshop at Fukuoka.

February

My yearly social media reflection article on Putik Lada “What lies ahead for social media” was published.


My Putik Lada article was the most read article in The Star online on that day.

Stay tuned for this year’s article in The Star’s Putik Lada!

March

I was interviewed by BFM Radio on the topic “Msia I Can Series: The Right To Your Privacy“. I was reliably informed that the podcast was one of the top hit links on BFM Radio.

In the same month, my firm commenced business.


My office.

April

My article “Grave repercussions for internet users” was published in LoyarBurok. It was a turning point of my legal practice. The article caught the attention of the media and soon a campaign was started to seek for the repeal of s. 114A of the Evidence Act 1950.

May

I attended the International Trademarks Association (INTA) held at Washington D.C with my wife. It was the first time I attended the conference under my law firm’s banner. We also stopped by New York City.


The trip was fine except that I accidentally cut myself on the forehead and had allergy probably due to dust mites/beg bugs.

I also attended the Marcus Evans Intellectual Property Conference at Marina Sands Bay. Many thanks to Eddie of eLawyer for the free ticket.

I met many in-house counsels of many large or reputable companies. Frankly, I didn’t get any work from people that I met through this conference. Some law firms paid US$10,000 to US$40,000 just to attend this event. Hope they got some work!

June

I was featured in The Malaysian Observer.TV (also known as www.mobtv.my), an internet TV portal and also Malaysiakini. Again, it was about s. 114A of the Evidence Act 1950.

I also spoke at the LegalTech forum. It was my first time speaking for my law firm. It was about “Social Media Marketing for Lawyers”. Presentation slides can be downloaded here. Unfortunately, it was a small crowd.

July
Wife and I attended Timothy Tiah & fourfeetnine’s Wedding.

August

I climbed Mount Kinabalu and conquered it with altitude sickness.

FCL&Co also had its first attachment student. Chia Ann joined us for a month. We wrote an article together and it was published in the December 2012 issue of The Bridge, a quarterly magazine published by the Malaysia Canada Business Council.

September

I spoke at the International Malaysian Law Conference (IMLC) and shook Tony Fernandes billion dollar hand.

October


#Stop114a campaign in the China Press.

I wrote the “Personal notes on the #stop114A campaign” blogpost.

November


My wife and I attended the Nestle Gala Night. We won a 40 inch 3D LCD TV which was sold for RM2,500.

December

My wife and her friend launched an online party ware store called “Think Party Thoughts!“.

My wife and I travelled to Melbourne to attend Gavin Tan and Christina’s wedding. We also stop by Sydney to visit Sui Lin.

Lastly, my inaugural column Bread & Kaya was published on Digital News Asia. It’s my first permanent column.

2013
I notice that I’ve been slacking in recording my life through the 2012. I hope I won’t repeat the same mistake in 2013.

I also hope to have a little one by this year. But there’s no rush.

I hope 2013 will be as good as 2012.

The Year 2011 at a Glance

2011 was probably one of the most eventful years in my lifetime. The good gets better and the bad gets worst. Here are the eventful periods of 2011.

January
I spoke at the 11th edition of Kuala Lumpur’s Pecha Kucha at Delucca. Thanks Niki Cheong for the invite.

February
I wrote an article entitled “Right to Privacy in Malaysia:Do we have it?”. It was later published by Malaysian Insider.

March
I appeared as a guest on NTV7’s Breakfast show to speak on data protection and social media laws.

I also appeared as a guest on BFM Radio to speak on social media laws.

April
My house was burgled. We lost cash and an old Nokia 8850.

May
I attended the International Trade Marks Attorneys conference at San Francisco. Cycling around SF was the highlight of the trip.

June
www.xes.cx hits 10 years.

July
July marks the second Bersih rally in Kuala Lumpur. I was part of the Bar Council’s observers. I witnessed how Malaysians, all of races, were united. I was also unfortunate to witness police brutality.

My blogpost on Bersih and live updates were read by thousands of people.

August
Got my third payment from Nuffnang!

September
I wrote an article entitled “All Lawyers should have an iPad!”. It was published on LoyarBurok and stayed on as one of the most read article for few weeks.

I also launched my bLawg, FoongChengLeong.com.

October
My firm sent me to Chiang Mai to attend the Multilaw Academy. It was a wonderful experience to meet lawyers of various countries. I had so much fun there.

November
My firm had a company trip to Phuket. I made my tuxedo through their well known one-day service.

December
This month was probably the worst month of 2011. Grandpa and my friend, Jessie passed away.

I was also hospitalised for suspected dengue for 3 nights.

The only plus point was that I had a fat bonus.

2012
2012 is going to be another eventful year. I got married, moving to a new home and setting up my own law firm soon. I can’t wait to write another blogpost to reflect on what had happened in 2012!

The Year 2010 at a Glance

2010 went by like a breeze. I must say it has been a good year overall – although there had been some downs. Work was enjoyable, got promoted, parents are well, A and I hit our 3 years mark, got featured in newspapers and media and so on.

I read from somewhere that one should always look back on what has been achieved throughout the year and vow to achieve better next year. It is also good to reminisce the good and bad times in a year.

Here’s a summary of it. Click on the links for the full story 😀

In January, I got featured in Astro B.yond TVC together with other fellow bloggers.


Looolllinnnggg

In the same month, my 2nd article on Putik Lada was featured in The Star. I wrote about Social Media and Law

The entry was retweeted many times and got me a cool 400 page view! I’ll be writing another article on Putik Lada again in January – stay tuned!

April wasn’t a good month as I had a streak of bad luck. It started off with a RM100 parking fine. Then Mum had an accident, my car broke down in Court and got towed, tyre was punctured and petrol leaked from my car thereafter!

But the month of April was an eye opener. Jamie Toh broke “the world record” by finishing 10 sticks of raw siham cockles.


PURE RAW COCKLES SOAKED IN BLOOD!

May marks the death of my brother in law. May his soul rest in peace.

On the same month, I travelled to Boston to attend the International Trade Mark Association conference. In the meantime, I stopped by New York City.

I met up with Timothy Tiah and fourfeetnine there as well.

You can read all my entries on NYC and Boston here.

June sparked my interest in Data Protection. I was featured in The Star newspaper in an article entitled Keeping it Private.

It spearheaded me in this data protection field and got invited by various organisations to talk about the impending Personal Data Protection Act 2010. I did probably around 15 talks on this topic alone. Work started trickling in after all these talks.

Data protection wasn’t the only topic I spoke about. I spoke about social media as a panelist in the Asian Blogger & Social Media Conference with other fellow bloggers fehmes Niki Cheong, Kenny Sia and KinkyBlueFairy.

Right after the conference, I was featured in The Star newspaper in the article “Tweet below the law

September is the month where civilians p4wned a robber. The security guards at my area caught a robber and got the robber’s picture published in a leaflet!

In November, I was featured in Klue magazine as one of Malaysia’s Top Ten Hottest Bloggers.

It was embarrassing -___-

Later in that month, the KL Bar IT Committee organised the IT Law Forum @ KDU College of Law and Business on 12.11.2010. Organising it wasn’t easy. We had so many twists and turns.

In the end, it went well!

December was an entry busy month for me. Although I took the entire month off to clear my leave, I had to go to the office everyday. Gah.

Anyway, I look forward to 2011. Happy New Year everyone!!! Have a great year ahead!

The Year 2009 At a Glance

My highlights for the year 2009 are as follows:

Survived an 8 hour ride from Mersing to Tioman Island on a fisherman’s boat

Shortly after the Tioman trip, attended one of my best buddies’ wedding.

Took Pushmore‘s 100 days pull up challenge.

But only managed to hit 96 days before succumbing to high fever and 2 injuries to my fingers which required physiotherapy

Got my 2nd cheque from Nuffnang

From that cheque, I traded in my 10 year old Satria for a Proton Saga SE

Spoke @ eLawyer Forum on Blogging & Law Forum 2009 in KL and Penang and Writing Blogs @ New Straits Times and Asian Business Forum


KL


Penang

Appointed as Deputy Chairman for the KL Bar Information Technology Committee

Appeared in the New Straits Times, Sin Chiew and China Press

Wrote for Putik Lada in the Star newspaper

Attended Muay Thai camp @ Koh Samui, Thailand

Was in Hong Kong to attend the Asian Patent Attorneys Association Meeting

Attended a wedding in Adelaide

Had a great time with some great friends in Melbourne

Looks like 2009 had been a good year! I look forward to 2010!