Shook Lin & Bok

In 1918, Yong Shook Lin was called to the Bar of the Federated Malay States. He was the first Chinese lawyer to be admitted to the local Bar. A graduate of Cambridge University, he proceeded to set up his practice under the style of Messrs Yong Shook Lin, in Kuala Lumpur, in Malaya (as Malaysia was then called). The setting up of Messrs Yong Shook Lin meant that his firm holds the distinction of being the first to be established by a local advocate and solicitor, making it one of the oldest law firms in Malaysia. In 1938, Yong Shook Lin was joined by Tan Teow Bok, a Queen’s scholar who had read law at Oxford University. The latter was admitted to both the Malayan and English Bars. The firm thereafter took its present name of Shook Lin & Bok.