Often when I hear my fellow SUSS School of Law course mates, be it my seniors or juniors, comment that our law school students are matured students, I often stop and think… “what does that mean?”

For starters, does that mean that we are more matured than students from the other two law schools? Also, what does maturity mean?

Well maturity is a state of mind. While some may confuse the fact that one is older as being more matured, this is not the case. I am sure one can think of many instances where students in their 30s, or older, have acted in immature ways.

I was always aware that I was way older than most who are studying law. I was just at the monthly call for my application as Lawyer (Non-Practitioner) and most in that room had their NRIC numbers starting with the letter “T”.

Maturity, therefore, is not to be confused with older age. Maturity, to me, is about being wiser, the ability to assess situations, knowing when to choose your battles and having a clear idea of what you are doing and why you are doing it. There are times where I heard students from our beloved law school blaming everyone except themselves when they did not get the grade that they thought they deserved to get. I actually had one “matured” individual make an audacious claim that the faculty had deliberately construed to grade assignments and exam papers more strictly. Hence it was more difficult for his batch to obtain ‘A’s in the family law module as compared to students in my batch. When I probed further, he did not attend classes regularly. He did not read the additional readings. I did not ask him whether he read the basic readings. If I were to make an educated guess, I would say that he did not. On the flip side, I can say that I know almost everyone in my batch who scored an ‘A’ for our family law module. All these individuals almost never miss a single tutorial. Personally, I missed a total of 4 tutorials in my 4 years in law school. Every absence has an explanation email. I was either ill or had work commitments. I watched the recordings that very night and I asked my fellow classmates for notes that they took during class. All this was done within 12 hours after the very class that I missed.

Oh, and I read every reading. Even when time is limited due to work, I skimmed through the readings.

Some nice friends made that t-shirt. And no, I truly had a life while studying. I had more of a life than I expected.

Maturity therefore, has a very broad spectrum to many people.

To me, maturity is having a clear idea of where one wants to be in the future. Exactly two decades separated my first degree from NUS and my second from SUSS. When I obtained my first degree, I did not know what I wanted to do in life. I knew I wanted to make money. I was in a hurry to pay off my study loan. I therefore took up jobs that paid me well. If a bank offered me more, I went. Because sales had the possibility to make more money, I did it. Back then I was hardworking but I was not focused and I did not know where I wanted to be in the future. Heck, I did not even know if I wanted to be doing the very thing I was doing while I was doing it.

Now I do know what I want. From the very day I stepped into law school I openly said that I wanted to run my own practice. I love entrepreneurship. I love seeing the businesses I have painstakingly grown do well. I remarked to my wife that the company I built is now helping support multiple families. I beamed with pride when one of my staff invited the company to her wedding and called out the company for being supportive in whatever she is doing. I love trying to win business. I have pitched, and won, contracts from organisations that I would never have expected. Now I love law. Just like I love economics. So how do I do what I love because that is the only thing I should be doing? Well, I rejected the opportunity of joining a firm and drawing, what they felt, was a more than decent pay package. I was never interested in drawing a salary. I was always interested in growing my own files, having my own clientele. That was evident the moment I stepped into my beloved law school. At the infamous boot camp, the very first “welcome” module, we were told to select names for our law firm and gather into teams. I came up with the name “Don’t Sue Without Us LLC”. Ok I am sure that name is not going to be the name of my future law firm, but it was invigorating. Coming up with a firm’s name. Since that very day, I have considered what it would be like to build a firm. Yes that was about six years ago. I do remember boot camp. Oh it kinda looked like this…

So now that I have gone through one year of being a practice trainee, I truly believe that I should do what I have always said I was going to do. Grow my own business. Am I taking a salary from any firm? No I am not. I will be joining a firm that allows me to do my own files while providing me with the required guidance when I require it. I have my own clients and I am blessed to have a large portfolio of corporate clients who, to many, were surprised that I have a degree in law. Apparently updating LinkedIn helps. I log in to LinkedIn perhaps once every quarter… Facebook and Instagram way less frequent. Oh I think I need to improve on this. I am kinda old school. Blogs and YouTube are all the content that I consume.

Well if I really believe I can make it in growing my own legal practice, there is no such thing as starting too soon.

Wish me luck!

Yours sincerely,

Daryl