MITAA at Twenty: Fellowship with Purpose
In 2026, the Malaysia Inner Temple Alumni Association (MITAA) turns twenty. From a gathering of 37 barristers in Kuala Lumpur, it has grown into what the Inn describes as its most active overseas alumni association. Its story is one of fellowship made practical: a collective voice for Malaysian Inner Templars, a platform for legal education and a durable partnership with the Inn.
That story began on 14 April 2006 at the Royal Lake Club in Kuala Lumpur. The initiative was led by the late Justice Tan Sri Abdul Malek Ahmad, then President of the Court of Appeal and an Honorary Bencher. His aim was simple and enduring: to foster fellowship among Malaysian Inner Templars and maintain close links with the Inn.
MITAA was registered on 23 August and formally launched on 15 September 2006 by the Rt Hon Baroness Butler-Sloss of Marsh Green GBE, a former Treasurer, accompanied by the late Patrick Maddams, then Sub-Treasurer. It was the first overseas alumni association in the Inn’s history and, from the outset, was committed to serving its members and the wider legal community.
That purpose was tested almost immediately. In November 2006, MITAA opposed a Bar Standards Board proposal to defer Call until completion of pupillage in England and Wales, explaining the consequences for overseas students intending to practise in Malaysia. The proposal was dropped in 2007. When the timing of Call was reconsidered in 2023–24, MITAA again ensured that the Malaysian perspective was heard.
Legal education has been another defining strand of MITAA’s work. The Tun Azmi Inner Temple Scholarship was established in 2010 for deserving Malaysian Bar students. That year, MITAA worked with the Judiciary, the Bar Council, Lincoln’s Inn Alumni of Malaysia and others to organise Malaysia’s first Advocacy Teachers Training Course. Six trainers from the Advocacy Training Council taught 50 Malaysian judges and senior lawyers the Hampel method.
The Inn’s support was instrumental in bringing the course to Malaysia. Patrick Maddams hosted a lunch at the Inn for Tun Zaki Azmi, then Chief Justice of Malaysia, and Charles Haddon-Cave QC (now Lord Justice Haddon-Cave), then Chairman of the Advocacy Training Council. At that lunch, agreement was reached to send trainers to Malaysia. Further courses followed in 2011 and 2012; today, Malaysian trainers continue through the Bar Council to teach advocates nationwide.
The Inn has called students to the Bar from what is now Malaysia since at least 1926, marking a century of connection in 2026. Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, and first Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Abdul Rahman, were both members of the Inner Temple. To mark the 400th anniversary of the Inn’s Royal Charter, MITAA presented a portrait of Tunku Abdul Rahman in 2008. For the 60th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence in 2017, it presented a portrait of Tuanku Abdul Rahman, who was called to the Bar in 1928. Both portraits now hang in the Treasury Building, linking Malaysia’s constitutional history with the Inn’s. In 2019, MITAA and the Inn further honoured Tuanku Abdul Rahman with the documentary Tuanku Abdul Rahman: The Making of a King.
When the pandemic interrupted travel, MITAA continued its educational work online. In June 2022, a Family Law Arbitration webinar with the Bar Council’s Family Law Committee attracted 240 registrations and featured former Treasurer, Master Donald Cryan, and Suzanne Kingston of the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators. In September, Inner Temple librarians Rob Hodgson and Tracey Dennis delivered ‘Legal Research Tips’ with the Kuala Lumpur Bar Committee; more than 100 participants stayed for the full 90-minute session.
The Inn has called students to the Bar from what is now Malaysia since at least 1926, marking a century of connection in 2026.
During MITAA’s first twenty years, the Inn has had just two Sub-Treasurers: the late Patrick Maddams, who served from 2005 to 2018, and Greg Dorey CVO. Patrick was a steadfast friend and adviser who visited Malaysia often, made the country a regular fixture in successive Treasurers’ programmes and encouraged meetings with judges, lawyers and students. Greg has continued that tradition, sustaining the Inn’s engagement with MITAA and its links with Malaysia’s judiciary, Bar and students. In 2024, he accompanied the then Treasurer, The Hon Mr Justice Michael Soole, to the Palace of Justice and the Kuala Lumpur High Court, took part in an advocacy seminar and met 150 law students.
In April 2025, Treasurer Richard Salter KC delivered a keynote address at the Securities Commission Malaysia on Regulating Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets: Current Issues and Emerging Trends, alongside senior representatives of the Commission and Bank Negara Malaysia. The event brought UK and Malaysian regulatory perspectives into dialogue. Later that year, MITAA joined the Pegasus Scholarship Trust exchange programme, hosting Fatima Ismail of 1 King’s Bench Walk for six weeks. In 2026, we welcomed Christian Weaver of Garden Court North Chambers, Manchester. Tailored placements and court visits enabled both scholars to experience Malaysian law in practice and build lasting professional relationships.
Both portraits now hang in the Treasury Building, linking Malaysia’s constitutional history with the Inn’s.
Our anniversary programme in September 2026 will welcome the 2026 Treasurer Helen Davies KC and Sub-Treasurer Greg Dorey to Kuala Lumpur. At its centre is the MITAA @ 20 Conference on 7 September, organised with the Securities Commission Malaysia. Under the theme ‘Digital Assets, AI, Law and Regulation: Courts, Markets and Institutional Responsibility’, it will bring together the judiciary, regulators, practitioners, financial institutions, market participants and academics. The Chief Justice of Malaysia, the Rt Hon Tun Wan Ahmad Farid bin Wan Salleh, will deliver the keynote address. Master Helen Davies, Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan and speakers from Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom will examine pressing questions for courts and markets: legal certainty, investor protection, digital asset regulation, algorithmic contracting, AI-generated evidence and institutional responsibility.
On 8 September, the programme will continue with a courtesy call on the Malaysian Judiciary at the Palace of Justice, hosted by the Chief Judge of Malaya, the Rt Hon Datuk Seri Hashim bin Hamzah. Visits to the Kuala Lumpur Commercial Courts and other institutions will renew the personal connections on which this relationship depends. The Anniversary Dinner on 9 September will honour those who built MITAA and those who will carry it forward. A commemorative publication will gather their memories and photographs. Together, these events celebrate what has been achieved and invest in the next chapter.
A commemorative publication will gather their memories and photographs. Together, these events celebrate what has been achieved and invest in the next chapter.
Twenty years on, MITAA remains guided by Justice Tan Sri Abdul Malek’s founding vision of fellowship with purpose. That vision has been sustained by the commitment of our members and the friendship and steadfast support of The Inner Temple. As we enter our third decade, our purpose is not simply to preserve this relationship, but to deepen it: to connect Malaysian Inner Templars more closely with the Inn, contribute more actively to its life and work, and create new opportunities for the next generation. The foundations laid over the past twenty years are strong. We now look forward to building the next twenty years together.
The Hon Justice Faizah Jamaludin
Court of Appeal, Malaysia
President, Malaysia Inner Temple Alumni Association