Lawyer gave con man his first court case
19/03/2007 The Star 

KLANG: Cheated and violated! This is how a lawyer here described his feelings for having helped a man who had masqueraded as a lawyer here for eight months in 2004.

Gerard Lazarus said he had helped the man out by giving him a case when he first appeared in the Klang Courts.

“It used to be a tradition here for established lawyers to give a case to a newbie to help him start off his practice. I did that when this man started his practice in Klang,” he said.

Lazarus welcomed Selangor Bar Committee member N. Logen’s suggestion that lawyers be issued identity cards with their Bar registration numbers.

He added it was common to see individuals professing to be lawyers hanging around courts and outside police stations offering legal advice to family members of those charged with criminal offences.

“How do we know that these chaps are not bogus as well?” asked Lazarus.

Bar Council’s newly-elected chairman S. Ambiga said: “We are very concerned over what has happened but we do not think that issuing identification cards for lawyers is the answer as these can be forged.”

Ambiga added that the best solution would be for the public to check the status of lawyers with the Bar Council before consulting them.