Aznul Affendi bin Hasan Basri is a partner in Messrs Aznul & Co (Advocates & Solicitors), a boutique legal firm established in 1996. He has MA (Law) from the University of Cambridge and is a member of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn (1991).

 

Upon his return, he served with the Attorney General’s Chambers, Malaysia as an Assistant Parliamentary Draftsman where he was involved in the drafting of many statutes including amendments to the Federal Constitution and in the process, he mastered the finer points of drafting and statutory interpretation. He also represented Malaysia at a legal workshop in 1992 on the United Nations Convention on Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

 

He left government service to join a leading legal firm in Kuala Lumpur and was called to the Malaysian Bar in 1994. In 1996, he set up his own firm, Messrs Aznul & Co where he was involved in drafting a number of legislation on the construction industry and participated in the process of reconstruction and rebuilding of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

His current legal practice includes commercial and corporate law, regulatory compliance, competition law and data protection. He has advised on the drafting of legislation relating to the palm oil industry, ports, personal data protection, fish marketing industry, Fisherman’s Associations, competition laws, biofuel, and water where he deployed his expertise on statutory interpretation to good effect. He was involved in the patent aspect of the mapping of genome for palm oil and drafted the bye-laws for a major co-operative society. Aznul established the legal mechanism for a wakaf structure and was also involved in the restructuring of a major zakat organisation and the proposed introduction of cooperative banking laws in Malaysia. He advised on the cross-border corporate winding-up of a foreign branch of a Malaysian entity in India and the proposed establishment of a halal factory in China. He participated in the proposed incorporation of a statutory body in Johor established pursuant to a State Enactment.

 

In 2002, Aznul was offered an Associate Professorship in Law at a public university but chose to continue pursuing his legal practice in the private sector. In his spare time (as well as discharging his Firm’s corporate social responsibilities), he lectures in his areas of expertise at public and private universities, the latest being Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) and Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL).

 

Justice Abu Bakar Jais graduated with Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Malaya in 1986. He spent 13 years in the Judicial and Legal Service among others as Magistrate, Deputy Public Prosecutor and Senior Federal Counsel before practising law for the same number of years as a partner at both Zaid Ibrahim & Co and Hisham, Sobri & Kadir.

 

He was then appointed as Judicial Commissioner in 2013 and in 2016 became a Judge, serving at the Kuala Lumpur High Court and later at the Seremban High Court. He has served at the Commercial and Civil Divisions of the Kuala Lumpur High Court. He was elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2019, where he currently serves.

 

As a High Court judge, in 2016, he was appointed the Chairman of the Appeal Board of Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers pursuant to section 28 of the Valuers, Appraisers, Estate Agents and Property Managers Act 1981. He was also appointed the President of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in 2018 pursuant to section 45 of the Competition Act 2010 and the President of the Gas Competition Appeal Tribunal pursuant to section 28R(1) of the Gas Supply Act 1991.

 

During his service in the Judicial and Legal Service and in private practice, he appeared before the magistrate’s court right up to the Federal Court, arguing civil and criminal cases. As a judge, many of his written grounds of judgment have been reported on various areas of the law including civil, commercial, and criminal law.

 

Prof Dr Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmod graduated with Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of Malaya (1986), Master of Laws from King’s College, University of London (1988) and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland (1995). He also has an Advanced Diploma in Shariah Law and Practice from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) (1997). He began his career at IIUM as an academic staff in 1986 and retired as a Professor in September 2022. At IIUM, he held various administrative positions at the faculty and university levels, including Deputy Rector, Legal Adviser, Dean, and Deputy Dean. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of IIUM Holding and was awarded the “Tokoh Akademik IIUM 2020”.

An assessor for the Malaysian Qualification Agency (MQA), Prof Dr Nik Ahmad Kamal also chaired the MQA committee to draft the programme standards for law and shariah in 2014. He has served as an assessor and advisory committee member for various law schools in the country. He taught many subjects including Industrial Relations Law, Law Research Methodology, Constitutional law, Malaysian Legal System, and Criminal Law. He researched those subjects and published articles in local and international journals. He has co-authored textbooks and an e-monograph on Employment Law and Administrative Law. He is currently the Chief Editor of the Journal of the Malaysian Parliament. He chaired two committees to propose amendments to Acts of Parliament under the Ministry of Higher Education in 2012 and 2014.

 

Prof Dr Nik Ahmad Kamal is a Certified Integrity Officer (CeIO). He is currently a Commissioner of the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) and also a member of the Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.