NAGAVALLI Annamalai, a former World Bank lead counsel, was accepted into the Malaysian Bar on Monday, a journey that took her from a rural estate in Perak to Washington DC and back to Malaysia, where she now hopes to contribute to society.

The 60-year-old opted for early retirement from the World Bank, with her last posting in Bangkok, and returned to Malaysia in 2020 to care for her 93-year-old mother.

Prior to her 22 years with the World Bank, most of which she spent in Washington, she worked for Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) as a legal officer but did not have the opportunity to chamber due to time constraint.

Nagavalli said she simply did not have the time to chamber during her 13 years at BNM.

“They wanted me to start work two weeks after my exams, I hadn’t even received my results. When my results came, they had an interview to formalise the appointment,” she said.

When she retired, she found herself with free time, which she decided to put to good use by chambering.

She was admitted into the Bar after completing her pupillage at Mah-Kamariah & Philip Koh, under the tutelage of Koh, who was her former law lecturer at Universiti Malaya (UM).

“At that point (in 2020), it was the pandemic and the lockdown. I thought about how best to use my time,” Nagavalli told The Malaysian Insight.

“I got in touch with my former lecturer and asked if I could chamber with him.

“I never had the time earlier on in life to do chambering, it’s a totally different experience. It’s always useful to go through the process, getting admitted into a legal fraternity.”

Nagavalli said this was also a good opportunity to familiarise herself with the Malaysian legal system.

Nagavalli was the ninth of 10 siblings, raised by parents who were both rubber tappers in Kalumpang Estate in Tanjung Malim, Perak.

Besides Nagavalli, only her younger brother went on to pursue a tertiary education, while her other siblings only reached Form 3 and Form 5.

Nagavalli attributes her educational success to the fact that she was able to move away from the estate to a more urban setting during her formative years, while hard work and being focussed heled her in her professional success.

She was able to go to school in Raub, Pahang, for two years when her mother sent her to live with her newly married sister.

In Form 1, she went to Petaling Garden Girl School before she was transferred to the Methodist English School in Tanjung Malim to complete Form 2.

From there, she went on to Sri Aman Girls School where she completed her secondary education.

“There is a disparity in the standard of rural schools and urban schools then, maybe the field is more level now.

“I experienced this difference (rural and urban schools) and that difference made a difference in my outcome and how well I studied.

“When I look back, if I had stayed on (in the estate), I would have flopped in Form 3 or I might have made it to Form 5 and quit.

“Life would have been different. I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to be in an urban school and went on to work hard.

“When you grow up in poverty, excelling in education is sort of ‘escape route’,” she said.

Nagavalli thanked her siblings and her teachers for her success, especially in leading her along the path to legal practice.

“After completing my STPM, I had to apply for university and I told my teacher I wanted to be an economist.

“She looked at my result and she said why waste it on economics when I would qualify for law school.”

Given that she went on to work at BNM and then at the World Bank, Nagavalli reflects that she got the best of what she wanted, economics and law.

“Whatever ones heart truly desired, the universe always aspires to fulfil your it,” she said.

She completed her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) at UM, and went to do her Master’s at Harvard Law School, which was funded by a scholarship from BNM.

Giving back to the community

Now that she has been admitted to the Bar, Nagavalli said she is trying to find ways to contribute her expertise to society.

“I’m looking for firms that concentrate on pro-bono work, that’s my focus,” Nagavalli said.

“I’m keen to work with refugees and in making children get an education irrespective of their legal status.

“Every child deserves to go to school, we must not deprive children of its basic rights just because their parents are illegal immigrants or refugees. I wish our government was more enlightened. The value of education matters,” she said.

Given her background in the financial sector, Nagavalli said she is also interested in consumer protection law.

“Consumer protection in the financial sector can be upgraded. BNM has done a lot but we have to keep at it.

“We have a lot of misinformation, and also a lack of understanding and knowledge about digital payments, digital tokens and banking.

“Digital banks are being licensed, so now the question is how much do people know about the facilities, opportunities, risks and securities. This is something that I am quite keen to pursue.” – May 25, 2022.