ABOUT AMANAH LAW
A practice built on the quality of the page, not the weight of the folder.
Founded in George Town, Penang — serving clients across Malaysia and those with cross-border commercial dealings.
Back to HomeOUR STORY
Practising in George Town since 2009
Amanah Law was established with a straightforward intention: to do commercial contract work well, and to be honest with clients about what that requires. The name reflects that disposition. Amanah, in Malay, carries the sense of trust held in stewardship — a quality we consider fundamental to legal engagement, not incidental to it.
The practice operates from George Town and has worked with clients across the full range of commercial contracting — from early-stage businesses putting their first supplier relationships in writing, to established organisations managing multi-party distribution and licence arrangements. The common thread is care for what the documents actually do.
We do not take on more mandates than we can attend to properly. Each engagement receives the attention it warrants, with a named practitioner who remains available through the work.
OUR APPROACH
Reading a contract carefully before drafting it
Contract drafting that serves a client well begins with understanding the commercial arrangement, not with selecting a template. We take instructions through a written intake and a follow-up call, and we ask questions about the relationship and the risk allocation before we write a word.
For review work, the mark-up we return is not a list of legal edits — it is a document that explains the consequence of each change we propose, so that the client can make an informed decision about which positions to advance and which to accept.
Negotiations, where they involve us, are conducted with the same disposition: clear about the client's position, measured in approach, and attentive to the points that genuinely matter.
THE TEAM
The people you work with
Sharifah Khairani
PRINCIPAL, CONTRACT PRACTICE
Called to the Malaysian Bar and practising in commercial contracts for over fifteen years. Leads the drafting and negotiation work across all service lines.
Raveenthiran Letchumanan
ASSOCIATE, COMMERCIAL REVIEW
Focuses on contract review and negotiation support for clients in the technology, distribution, and services sectors. Attentive to cross-border dimensions of Malaysian agreements.
Nurul Baizura
CLIENT ENGAGEMENT & OPERATIONS
Coordinates client intake, manages matter documentation, and ensures that communications and timelines are handled with care throughout every engagement.
HOW WE WORK
Standards we apply to every engagement
Written intake for every matter
Every engagement begins with a structured written intake so that commercial context and priorities are clearly understood before drafting begins.
Professional confidentiality
All client matters are held in strict confidence as a matter of legal professional obligation. Engagement details are not shared with any external party without consent.
Scope agreed before commencement
Fee and scope are set out clearly before work begins. Changes to scope are discussed and agreed before they affect the fee.
Malaysian Bar compliance
All practitioners are members of the Malaysian Bar and hold current practising certificates. Practice is conducted in accordance with the Legal Profession Act 1976.
Plain-language explanations
Every draft and mark-up is accompanied by notes that explain each material provision in plain terms. Clients should understand what they are agreeing to.
Named practitioner throughout
Each engagement is handled by a named practitioner who remains the point of contact from intake through completion — no hand-offs to unintroduced parties.
EXPERTISE & CONTEXT
Contract law in the Malaysian commercial context
Malaysian contract law is grounded in the Contracts Act 1950, a codified statute drawing heavily on English common law foundations, with local judicial interpretation developed over decades. Commercial practitioners working in this jurisdiction need to hold both the statutory framework and the case law in mind when drafting or reviewing an agreement.
The Penang commercial environment, particularly in George Town, includes a mix of trading companies, professional services firms, technology businesses, and logistics operators — each with contracting needs that differ in their commercial risk profile. A supply agreement for a manufacturer has different pressure points from a services contract between a consultancy and a government-linked entity.
Amanah Law approaches each mandate with that specificity in mind. The firm's experience spans industries including technology services, distribution and trading, construction subcontracting, professional services engagement, and intellectual property licensing. This range informs the drafting because the practitioners understand what the commercial arrangements actually look like in operation, not only on the page.
For clients with counterparties in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, or other common-law jurisdictions, the practice has experience in adapting Malaysian drafting positions to agreements that will be governed by foreign law, or that need to account for enforcement outside Malaysia.
WORK WITH US
Discuss your matter with us.
Reach out with a brief description and we will let you know how we can help — plainly, and at a pace that works for you.
Get in Touch