Former Federal Court judge and senior lawyer
Gopal Sri Ram said he mutually agreed to leave the law firm of Soo Thien
Ming & Nashrah as a consultant.
Denying that he was pressured to bow out from the firm following his decision to represent Anwar Ibrahim in the Sodomy II case before the Federal Court, Sri Ram said he was still good friends with the firm.
"Please do not create stories that will affect our friendship," he told Malaysiakini.
Sri Ram said this when asked about a report by The Malaysian Insider that he was pressured to leave the firm for representing Anwar, a move that has surprised many.
He said he has formed his own firm following their mutual agreement for him to leave as a consultant with Soo Thien Ming & Nashrah.
"I just wanted to do cases I liked, so that there is no conflict," Sri Ram said, without elaborating further.
Before entering the judiciary from private practice, he founded the legal firm Sri Ram & Co, whose name remained till today.
Sri Ram was the first to be appointed from private practice straight to the Court of Appeal, in 1994.
Known for delivering judgments immediately after hearing submissions from lawyers, he was not promoted for many years remained an appelate judge.
He was finally appointed to the apex court by former chief justice Zaki Azmi in 2009.
Sri Ram, who is 70, retired as Federal Court judge in 2010 at the age of 66, the mandatory retirement age for judges.
Returning lawyer, critical cases
As
a returning lawyer, he appeared mostly at the Court of Appeal and
Federal Court, on several cases, albeit some controversial ones, in
which he was scheduled to represent Pakatan Rakyat on several election
petition cases.
He also appeared for Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) in its suit against the Selangor government.
However, the biggest surprise was when he appeared as the leading counsel for Anwar's defence team, taking over from the late Bukit Gelugor MP and DAP stalwart Karpal Singh, and senior lawyer and former Bar Council chairperson Sulaiman Abdullah, who had not fully recovered from a surgery.
His move to represent Anwar was heavily criticised.
Responding to the rap, Sri Ram said a lawyer is "like a cab driver, where if someone stops him, he takes them in".
Sri Ram appeared in Anwar's appeal hearing at the Federal Court, where submissions were heard for eight days and for which judgment is still pending.
Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria has hinted that Anwar's verdict could be delivered after six months, citing that judges at the upper courts are given leeway in terms of time to deliver the judgments if the case is complex.
Denying that he was pressured to bow out from the firm following his decision to represent Anwar Ibrahim in the Sodomy II case before the Federal Court, Sri Ram said he was still good friends with the firm.
"Please do not create stories that will affect our friendship," he told Malaysiakini.
Sri Ram said this when asked about a report by The Malaysian Insider that he was pressured to leave the firm for representing Anwar, a move that has surprised many.
He said he has formed his own firm following their mutual agreement for him to leave as a consultant with Soo Thien Ming & Nashrah.
"I just wanted to do cases I liked, so that there is no conflict," Sri Ram said, without elaborating further.
Before entering the judiciary from private practice, he founded the legal firm Sri Ram & Co, whose name remained till today.
Sri Ram was the first to be appointed from private practice straight to the Court of Appeal, in 1994.
Known for delivering judgments immediately after hearing submissions from lawyers, he was not promoted for many years remained an appelate judge.
He was finally appointed to the apex court by former chief justice Zaki Azmi in 2009.
Sri Ram, who is 70, retired as Federal Court judge in 2010 at the age of 66, the mandatory retirement age for judges.
Returning lawyer, critical cases
As
a returning lawyer, he appeared mostly at the Court of Appeal and
Federal Court, on several cases, albeit some controversial ones, in
which he was scheduled to represent Pakatan Rakyat on several election
petition cases.He also appeared for Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) in its suit against the Selangor government.
However, the biggest surprise was when he appeared as the leading counsel for Anwar's defence team, taking over from the late Bukit Gelugor MP and DAP stalwart Karpal Singh, and senior lawyer and former Bar Council chairperson Sulaiman Abdullah, who had not fully recovered from a surgery.
His move to represent Anwar was heavily criticised.
Responding to the rap, Sri Ram said a lawyer is "like a cab driver, where if someone stops him, he takes them in".
Sri Ram appeared in Anwar's appeal hearing at the Federal Court, where submissions were heard for eight days and for which judgment is still pending.
Chief Justice Arifin Zakaria has hinted that Anwar's verdict could be delivered after six months, citing that judges at the upper courts are given leeway in terms of time to deliver the judgments if the case is complex.
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