KUALA LUMPUR (June 22): Former Malaysian Bar president Manjeet Singh Dhillon has written to Attorney General (AG) Tan Sri Idrus Harun and Malaysian Bar president AG Kalidas about his concerns over former Federal Court judge Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram representing law firm Wong & Partners in relation to a civil suit against the firm, while he is also involved in the prosecution of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) cases.

Manjeet wrote to both of them last month following a report by theedgemarkets.com quoting Sri Ram as saying that there was no conflict in him representing the law firm while continuing with the prosecution.

A copy of the correspondence, in which Kalidas had responded, was sighted by theedgemarkets.com, while Idrus has yet to do so, despite Manjeet having sent a follow-up email on the matter three days ago (June 19).

The senior lawyer said while Sri Ram is a close friend whose ability and talent is well known, he was of the view that both the AG and the Bar should persuade the former Federal Court judge to remove himself from representing the law firm and its partner Brian Chia in the suit.

"If the above (media) report is correct, there is a major conflict issue arising as Sri Ram ... has been privy to an amazing amount of material in his involvement in closely related matters for the AG's Chambers. 

"Regrettably this is a situation where neither the cab rank rule of being a barrister arises nor to the right of a counsel of choice.

"I am frankly of the opinion that it behoves the AG and the Malaysian Bar to have Sri Ram removed as counsel from the concerned civil suits or from acting for Wong & Partners and Chia. A message has to be sent, more so when senior members of the Bar are involved," he said in the email to both of them.

Kalidas had thanked Manjeet for bringing this matter to the Bar's attention, saying he was concerned about ethical standards and the real possibility of conflict.

"However, at the moment, there is very little for the Bar Council to go on because we are not privy to all the details of the different suits and hence the line of conflict is unclear.

"We will monitor the matter including by holding a watching brief so that when more details are revealed we will be in a position to make an assessment and decide whether or not it is a situation of conflict," said the Malaysian Bar president.

On May 7, four law firms were engaged in filing 22 suits by 1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.

The 1MDB suit filed against Wong & Partners, which was previously its legal representative, involves purported fraud, where the company sought a sum of US$1 billion and payment of legal fees of RM664,821.21.

The case is coming up tomorrow at the High Court (Commercial) division before Judicial Commissioner Liza Chan Sow Keng for case management.

Sri Ram had maintained there is no conflict of interest in this instance and that he has to defend Chia as he is an important prosecution witness in the 1MDB-Tanore trial as well.

"There is no conflict. Brian is an important witness for me in the ongoing 1MDB-Tanore trial," he said.

"He is a member of Wong & Partners and is the primary target for the suit. I have to defend him in both arenas," said Sri Ram.

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