Farah DeBA has 25 years experience in legal practice and has been involved in a wide spectrum of advisory work ranging from real estate, property development, acquisitions, sale & leaseback arrangements, consumer & corporate banking (conventional & Syariah), intellectual property, corporate & commercial contracts to estate planning.
She has extensive experience in advising various financial institutions in respect of the various nature of banking transactions (conventional and Islamic), property developers in respect of mixed integrated development (housing, commercial and industrial projects), foreign acquisition & disposal of assets in Malaysia. She is currently a partner of Messrs. Wong Lu Peen & Tunku Alina. She has advised wide range of clientele including various financial institutions (both Islamic and conventional) property developers in respect of mixed integrated development (residential, commercial and industrial projects), foreign clients on foreign acquisition and disposal of assets, body corporates on long-term lease and land development arrangements concerning infrastructure and privatized projects locally and internationally (including in the Middle East).
Farah also has first-hand experience in setting up an Islamic financing unit of a co-operative society including the provision of training for the staff and preparation of the standard operating procedures for the financing unit. She is also involved in advising clients on special projects for the development & construction of transportation hub, hotels & medical centers. Additionally, she advises clients from time to time on various ad-hoc corporate and regulatory issues including the recently introduced regulatory regimes relating to competition, data protection and privacy issues.
Special Focus
She was instrumental in establishing the Inheritance and Succession Practice Group in the Firm. She formulated the idea of expanding the real property practice of the Firm to the provision of estate planning & business succession instruments to Muslim and non-Muslim clients.
She is the current STEP Malaysia Branch Chairperson for term 2016 -2018. STEP being Society of Trust & Estate Practitioner.
Farah provides a full range of inheritance & succession advisory services with special focus in asset protection & preservation, estate & business succession planning, probate & administration affecting Muslims & non-Muslims. Her clientele include various high net worth individuals, trust companies, foundations (family holdings & charitable), professional will-writing companies & other body corporates. Her team’s practice includes:
- calculating & computing distribution computation for Muslims & non-Muslims;
- determination of heirs (forced heirship rule);
- attendance in Shariah courts;
- Wills writing & review;
- Structuring & preparing wealth and estate planning instruments including trusts & business succession instruments, preparation of buy- sell arrangements;
- Creation & formation of trust foundations (charitable or other cause based organization);
- probate & estate administration including assisting & facilitating legal representatives with the administration and management of the deceased’s estate, calling in of assets, attending to transmission until distribution of assets to beneficiaries
- application for letter of representation and resealing thereof including obtaining distribution order & order for sale
Qualification
- Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya since 8 May 1992
- LL.B (IIU,Malaysia) -graduated from International Islamic University, Malaysia
- LLM (King’s College) – Masters of Laws from King’s College, University of London
- Chairman of STEP Malaysia Branch for Term 2016- 2018
- Committee Member of STEP Malaysia Branch for Term 2013-2015
- Registered Mediator with the Bar Council Malaysian Mediation Centre
- Full Member of Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
Non–Practice Engagements
- Presented a paper on “Restraint against Dealing under the Caveat System in Malaysian Land Law – Its Implications” organised by Asia Business Forum
- Initiated various workshops amongst others entitled “Hukum Faraid and Islamic Estate Planning: A New Perspective” hosted by Zaid Ibrahim & Co back in 2005
- Panel speaker for all various STEP events in Penang and Kuala Lumpur
- Speaker for STEP Conference Singapore in 2015