Shalinee Fernandez has bagged Women Icon Of the Year

Shalinee Fernandez has bagged Women Icon Of the Year

• July 01, 2021

Shalinee Fernandez

Senior Legal Counsel Asia-Pacific, Ansell

It is truly a privilege and honor to be named as ‘Women Icon of the Year” powered by Times Women under the Category of Women Leadership Awards. To be in a position where I am recognized on merit and my hard work all these years doing what I truly love and to be able to inspire and help other women is a very rare opportunity that not many of us are blessed with, and one that I embrace with open arms.

I am a Malaysian of Indian origin and a lawyer of over 18 years standing and an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. I am also the midst of completing my papers to be called as a Solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales Australia; 

I completed my Bachelor of Laws - LLB (Hons) (University of London in 1999 and thereafter my Certificate in Legal Practice (Post Degree Qualification) in 2001 and have recently completed my 2nd law degree in the University of New England, Australia.

I started my legal career in 2001 - 2002 Reading in Chambers (Pupillage) at MESSRS LEE HISHAMMUDDIN, Kuala Lumpur which is one of the largest firms in Malaysia under an extensive chambering program covering both Litigation as well as Corporate matters.

I went on to become a Legal Associate at MESSRS ONG & MANECKSHA in Penang in 2002 where I successfully conducted full trials and hearings in areas of civil litigation, banking and debt enforcement, probate and family law, personal injury and tort, landlord and tenant disputes, eviction proceedings and then moved on to becoming a Legal Associate at MESSRS HAKEM ARABI & ASSOCIATES where I specialized in corporate litigation hearings, winding up, liquidation and post liquidation of companies.; 

In 2007, I went on to become a Partner at MESSRS JERALD GOMEZ & ASSOCIATES where I handled diverse legal work in relation to general civil litigation, employment matters, probate, family law-contentious divorce proceedings and adoption, industrial relations, defamation and injunctions; 

In 2007 - 2008 I made the transition into the corporate world and became the Legal Manager in the Enforcement Division at The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange focusing on enforcement and initiation of action against public listed companies in breach of the Listing Requirements of the KL Stock Exchange and handling all related legal proceedings instituted by and against the Stock Exchange; 

I landed my first legal role in a multinational in 2010 - 2015 where I was the Legal Counsel for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei in BLUESCOPE Steel Limited which is an Australian flat product steel manufacturer. I headed legal and compliance matters for approximately 8 entities under BlueScope Group across Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei and advising the Presidents/Senior Management in relation to all legal matters involving the group of companies.; 

I transitioned from a Manufacturing Counsel into an Information, Communications and Technology lawyer in 2015 - 2017 where I held the position of Regional Legal Counsel Asia-Pacific for ATOS, a French multinational ICT which specializes in hi-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and cyber security services where I headed the Australian continent, New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

At end of 2017 I decided that I had wanted to challenge myself and as a single young woman I moved to Delhi India to gather more work experience given India is 1 of the largest IT hubs in the world. It was not an easy feat being a foreigner starting afresh in another country. But I was determined and I successfully secured the position of a Legal and Regulatory Counsel -International Markets at OLA (A.N.I. TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.) which is an Indian origin online app of ride-sharing/hailing and 1 of the largest international ride-share companies in the world. I was based in Bangalore India and in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, where I was part of the International legal team expanding Ola outside India and heading all legal, compliance and regulatory matters across Australia and New Zealand throughout the year 2018.

I completed my international role and returned to Malaysia in 2019 where I then secured the role of Senior Legal Counsel Asia-Pacific at ANSELL which is an Australian multinational corporation listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, a world leader in health and safety protection solutions which includes Personal Protective Equipment, industrial and medical gloves. I am currently part of the Ansell Global Legal Team supporting Ansell's Global Operations of Sourcing and Manufacturing supporting 11 Operation and Manufacturing sites across Asia-Pacific including Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and India and across Europe- Portugal, Lithuania, Russia and handling all legal matters in relation to this organisation. It is a privilege to be part of this amazing organization working across the globe to battle the pandemic and supplying global medical gloves and Personal protective Equipment to the frontliners and general public.

My Personal Achievements include being actively involved in Animal welfare from 2008 till to-date; I am the former Legal Coordinator for Malaysian Dogs Deserve Better, Former Vice President of Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue 2 large NGOs in Malaysia; 

I was recognized at the Top 50 Legal Falcons (Lawyers) in the World, an international award recognising my contribution to the global legal industry at the Lextalk World Conference in Dubai in April 2021; 

ClickAway Creators Youtube page 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QabyEZCCX8 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5xm0KjSaaA 

I received recognition to be the Panelist Speaker on Women Empowerment at LexTalk Awards, Lextalk World Conference at Dubai in April 2021; 

I received recognition to become the KeyNote Speaker-Legal Excellence Forum organized by Marcus Evans on Cross Border Transactions during COVID - Challenges and Opportunities for Global Lawyers 2021; 

Growing up in school, I was the District Champion Elocutionist/ Public Speaker and Debater from 1992 - 1994; 

I have been a Member of World Wildlife Fund (WWF); Member of Malaysian Bar Council; 

The International Projects I have worked on include the following:

1) Gov-Next ICT Project- Western Australia where I successfully led and completed negotiations for a 5 year IT infrastructure panel contract with the Government of Western Australia’s “GovNext-ICT Project” while working alongside key personnel from across the globe within Atos whilst conducting intense parallel negotiations with Atos’ subcontractors comprising of Australia’s biggest TELCO giants-TELSTRA, OPTUS, VOCUS and other big players such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure as cloud service providers 2018; 

2) Successfully led and concluded the Sponsorship and Supply Agreement with Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation in Atos’ capacity as the major IT Provider for the Commonwealth Games alongside the Atos Major Events & Olympics team 2018; 

3) Concluded numerous tenders, IT panel contracts, Technology Contracts, Software Licensing from the Ministry of Defense in New Zealand and other government agencies throughout New Zealand 2017; 

4) Successfully negotiated a 5 years IT panel contract with the Ministry of Defence – Royal Navy of Oman 2017; Heading all legal, compliance and regulatory matters across Australia and New Zealand 2017; 

5) Being a Malaysian lawyer who stepped out into the foreign markets on her own and leading an Indian giant MNC OLA which is a rideshare giant into setting up operations in international markets in Australia and New Zealand; 

6) Completed my Australian law degree with the University of New England 2020; in the midst of completing my papers to get called as a Solicitor in the Supreme Court of New South Wales Australia 2021; 

7) Sitting as an Advisory Board Member of Kartavyam (with Trust), a Delhi based NGO established in 2001 and registered on 1st May 2015 that upholds the Rule of Law and helps the Indian society on social, animal welfare, women, education, environment, helping eradicate poverty and impoverishment and bringing upliftment in the lives of those who are in need of it through all different verticals more so during the global COVID-19 pandemic where dire help is needed especially for the lesser privileged who have been most hard hit.; 

I speak 4 Languages which are Malay, English, Tamil, Hindi.

My hobbies include cooking, reading, music, arts; gym and health