Dyah studied Comparative & International Dispute Resolution. She is a Senior Associate at Hogan Lovells in Jakarta. She has been recognised by Chambers Asia Pacific Indonesia 2018-2021 as a ranked lawyer in antitrust/competition practice and brought the firm to become top tier in the antitrust/competition practice in Legal 500 Asia Pacific Indonesia 2019. Dyah shares her profile on International Women’s Day.
I lead the ACER (Antitrust, Competition and Economic Regulation) practice, and am also a member of the LAE (Litigation, Arbitration and Employment) practice. Because the Jakarta office is smaller than other Hogan Lovells offices, I work on any matter that is contentious or potentially contentious.
Some of the things that I do in my job are assisting clients in agency investigations – whether it’s the police, the competition authority, the prosecutors’ office or the anticorruption watchdog. I help them by preparing a defence or deck of evidence etc. I also assist clients in court litigation and arbitration. I scrutinised an internal investigation for alleged fraud or misconduct in a company, and assisted the company in taking the necessary actions to remediate damages, including filing a lawsuit and making a criminal report. Recently, I also assisted disputing parties in trying to reach settlement: they came to me after years of disputes, to help find some middle ground and put the consensus in writing to ensure it will be enforceable.
The only non-contentious work I do is assisting clients in filing mergers with the Competition Authority.
When I came to CCLS, I had been working for around 4-5 years, and I kind of started to get ‘specialised’ but not quite. That’s why even though I took the CIDR specialism, I also took several modules from the antitrust subject.
It was the best decision because, in both subjects, I met professors and prominent practitioners whose names I had only ever seen in journals or news, I also learn a lot about the basic principles, the background and history of why a law principle is the way it is – I had never given this much thought before.
I learnt how to be curious about things: before CCLS, I just did things because I wanted to get them done and tick the checkbox. But after CCLS, I started to contemplate the why and the how and be more curious about what’s happening around the world. This helps me a lot in providing 360° legal advice that helps the client to assess their position and anticipate all possibilities.
I have a group of friends in my CCLS cohort that I cherish the most. We went to the Shakespeare’s Head so many times, I've lost count. We also had a Game of Thrones night, and we get together to watch and play the board game.
I got married when I was doing my LLM at CCLS, my closest and dearest friends attended (and even gave me a surprise party after).
Do a lot of research! If you want to be a law practitioner and are thinking of a postgraduate degree to boost your career, then search for a school that offers the right balance of theory and practice, whilst also having a great reputation in the particular subject that you want to specialise in.
Don’t just hold on to your dream, start the baby steps to make it happen. I was dissuaded from becoming a lawyer too many times, even by my parents, but if I can do it, every woman can too.
Would you like your story featured? Contact ccls-alumni@qmul.ac.uk.