The manager who rose to become a top legal mind
KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk V.K. Lingam, 56, is a prominent lawyer who started his career as a senior manager with several multinational and local companies in the early 1970s and 1980s.
He joined UMW Holdings and served as its human resource manager before reading law at the University of Buckingham in England.
He completed his studies in 1985 and rejoined UMW as its group legal adviser.
Four years later, he set up his own practice.
The well-connected Lingam has been involved in a number of high profile court cases, including filing three defamation cases that involved a total of RM190mil against lawyers, a journalist and several others over an article, which appeared in the British-based International Commercial Litigation magazine, in the late 1990s.
In one of his cases, Lingam represented Berjaya group tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan in a defamation suit against veteran journalist M.G.G. Pillai and three others.
In the landmark case, Pillai was ordered by the High Court to pay Tan RM10mil in damages.
Pillai appealed to the Federal Court, but the High Court decision was upheld although the quantum of damages was reduced to RM2mil. Pillai has since died.
Lingam had also acted for a string of high-profile clients including advising Tan Sri Eric Chia when Perwaja Steel was saddled with RM6.9bil in debts in 1996.
He had also advised former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was sued by his former deputy Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for defamation.
1 comment:
BERSIH works !
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