Questions we get asked.

Legal research, drafting documents, preparing case files, attending client meetings, and supporting litigation and corporate matters. You sit on live files from the first week with a named supervising lawyer responsible for your work.

It is a hands-on role. You will not spend the month photocopying.

For the litigation trainee programme: an LLB or equivalent, either completed or currently being completed with exams finished. CLP, the Bar course or an LLM are welcome but not required. Fresh graduates are welcome.

If you have not studied law, apply for the internship, same form, same assessment.

Yes. The litigation training programme is part-time, 8am to 12pm, paid RM250 a week over four weeks, so RM1,000 in total. We publish the figure rather than leave it to be discussed later, so you can decide whether it is worth your time before you sit the assessment.

Part-time is deliberate: it is meant to fit around CLP, the Bar course or final-year study, so you can get real files without giving up your studies.

There is also an optional class each day, 7 to 8am, before the working morning starts. It is not paid and not compulsory, and nobody is marked down for skipping it. They exist because most of what makes a good litigator is not picked up from the files alone.

Thomas Philip is a disputes firm. Litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution, which is why the trainee programme is litigation and only litigation.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The office address and directions are provided when a place is offered.

Not through this site. Every pupillage candidate at Thomas Philip first completes the four-week litigation training programme, and then the paralegal role that follows it.

Your performance is reviewed by the partners. Candidates who demonstrate genuine legal aptitude, professionalism and commitment are considered for pupillage at the firm.

No, and we would rather say so plainly. Completing the placement makes you eligible for consideration. The decision depends on your performance during it and on the firm's capacity at the time.

We run a rolling intake rather than fixed cohorts. Tell us your earliest available date on the application form and we will work around it where we can.

Because the scoring assumes everyone wrote under the same conditions. Forty minutes, typed in real time, no pasting, it is the fairest way to compare answers, and it is how the work itself often happens.

If the clock runs out you can still submit what you have written. We see that time ran out and read your answers accordingly.

We aim to review every application within seven days of submission. Candidates taken forward are contacted by email. There is no separate interview stage; the assessment and your documents are what the decision is made on.

Yes. Every applicant receives a written outcome, including those we do not take forward. We do not leave people waiting on silence.

An AI-assisted first read scores every application against our published criteria and writes a short reasoning note. It ranks and summarises, it does not decide.

Someone at the firm reviews every assessment and can override it in either direction before any outcome is sent to you. If you would prefer a manual review from the start, ask us and you will get one. It will not count against you. The full process is set out here.

The written answers. They carry more weight than any other part of the application, including your transcript. Strong answers will carry a modest academic record; the reverse is not true.

We are looking for whether you can identify the real issue and weigh the evidence honestly, including the parts that hurt the client's case.

Yes. We ask that you wait six months and that the new application reflects something that has changed, further study, work experience, or a stronger piece of written analysis.

It is held by the firm, used only to assess your application, and kept for six months from the outcome, or 12 months if you asked us to keep you on file. You can ask to see, correct or delete what we hold at any time. See the privacy notice for the detail.