'Legal assistant or sugar baby': Malaysian law firm's 'female and good looking' job ad draws criticism

The job description on an advertisement for a legal assistant seemed normal enough at first glance — it wanted someone to help prepare legal documentation for litigation and conveyancing cases.

But scrolling further down the ad revealed a rather unusual requirement from the law firm in Malaysia — applicants had to be "female only and good looking".

"Are you looking for a legal assistant or a sugar baby?," a netizen spoke out in a Facebook post on Monday (Mar 8) after she came across the advertisement on the Malaysian Bar's online job search platform.

Her post caught the attention of many, including Malaysian journalist Tashny Sukumaran who reposted the netizen's screenshot on Twitter, where it has gotten over 3,000 retweets at the time of writing.

Many slammed the job ad for being sexist and discriminatory, with one questioning the preference for a certain gender and looks over the applicant's talent. They also questioned if the law firm was an actual business or one that provided modelling services.

And, to make matters worse, the publication of the job ad coincided with International Women's Day, further fanning the flames among netizens.

Following the outage, the law firm behind the advertisement soon took it down, and told Malay Mail on Tuesday that it was an "honest mistake" — the advertisement was published without the partner's approval. 

"We have retracted advertisement and we regret the mistake," a spokesman said. "Once again, we offer our apologies."

According to a tweet from 2019, this wasn't the first time a law firm had requested for an applicant with an attractive appearance in an ad. The advertisement was also amended after people took notice.

rainercheung@asiaone.com