Cecil Lim read law at the University of Leicester, where he obtained his Bachelor of Laws (Hons) in 2011 before being called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, London in 2016. He subsequently earned a Master of Advanced Corporation Law from the University of Michigan Law School, a Master of Accounting from the University of Cambridge, and a Master of Laws from Columbia Law School, New York. While at Columbia, he was awarded the Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law.

He undertook his pupillage at the Sabah State Attorney-General’s Chambers in Kota Kinabalu before chambering at Shook Lin & Bok in Kuala Lumpur. He was admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in September 2018 and as an Advocate of the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak in Sabah in April 2019.

Cecil has worked at several corporate law firms, focusing on corporate and commercial law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate advisory, joint ventures, foreign direct investment, regulatory compliance, and fintech. He has led and conducted due diligence exercises and has drafted or reviewed a broad range of transactional and non-transactional documents.

He also possesses in-house experience, having served as Regional Legal Associate at a fintech company, which is a Recognized Market Operator as licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia for equity crowdfunding. He later gained further exposure as in-house counsel at one of the largest infrastructure conglomerates in Malaysia. During his tenure in-house, Cecil amended the listing rules of a private digital securities exchange, contributed to the development of an internal equity crowdfunding framework, and advised on fundraising initiatives and the tokenisation of alternative assets.

He is currently under our Capital Market/ Initial Public Offering (IPO) Practice Group under the supervision of our Senior Partner, Dato’ Azmi Mohd Ali and the Partner, Norhisham Bahrin.