DollarsAndSense Interview: 5 Questions With…

This article was first published on 5 Questions With ... by DollarsAndSense.sg by Timothy Ho (Timothy) on 14 March 2021 here.

DollarsAndSense: When we work with individuals who are in professional services such as lawyers, accountants and architects, we sometimes forget that while these they provide us with important paid services that we need, they may also be entrepreneurs themselves, having to deal with the challenges of running a business, on top of the professional services that they provide for their client.

One such individual is Mark Teng, a founding director at That.Legal LLC, a boutique law firm that specialises in intellectual property (IP) law.

That.Legal LLC aims to provide timely, cost-effective and commercially practical solutions such as IP Protection & Portfolio Management, IP Disputes & Litigation and IP Exploitation & Commercialisation. It also maintains a strong international network of intellectual property lawyers to assist Singaporean SMEs to go global. 

Since graduating from the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2011 with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Honours), Mark has worked as a lawyer who specialises in intellectual property. In 2019, Mark decided to take the entrepreneurial leap to start his law firm – That.Legal LLC, with a partner, Jonathan Foong.

Mark is currently serving as the Chairman of the IP Enforcement Sub-committee at the Law Society of Singapore and was named one of Singapore’s Top 20 Under 40 Lawyers back in 2017. He has also worked on a couple of high-profile cases, most notably the case of Global Yellow Pages vs. Promedia Directories. He is also currently the lead counsel in a highly publicised defamation lawsuit between marathoners Ashley Liew (our client) and Soh Rui Yong (the Defendant).

In this edition of 5 Questions With…, we talk to Mark about the reasons that led to him starting his own law firm and how it’s like not just being a lawyer but also an entrepreneur.

Timothy: Lawyers don’t typically get interviewed often on a personal level (unless they are talking to reporters on a case that they are working on). Since you agreed to this interview, we want to take the chance to ask you how hectic is a regular day like for you? Is it similar to what we watch on Suits, where work starts at 7 am and ends past midnight?

I wish we had as many high-profile cases as Suits had, but I’m still working on my Harvey Specter persona so that’ll have to wait. For now, my regular day is probably not far off from what you’d imagine.

When I embarked on my new firm, I was recommended “The 5am Club” by Robin Sharma, which gave me insights into the world before dawn. Waking up at 6am and watching the sunrise over a double ristretto gives this sense of freedom sans distractions and is a beautiful way to start the day. In this relentless age of complexity, these precious hours lend much-needed serenity, and provide this bubble of protection and armour for the challenges to come.

I start my first task of the day at 8am – prioritisation. With age and experience come the realisation (and admittance) that attempting to tackle everything at once never ends well. Single-tasking allows for focus and tranquillity, which is why prioritising of tasks takes priority.

At 9am, I dedicate the next 2 hours to the most pressing item on the to-do list for the day. Channelling my full, fresh self into crucial parts of the day’s agenda allows for peak performance, and also counters the natural urge to procrastinate.

The bulk of my day, 11am – 6pm, is set aside for meetings. These could entail external discussions on client matters, or internal huddles to smoothen processes out, for efficient running of the firm’s many chains of operations.

I look forward to 6pm daily, because that’s when I allow myself my only meal of the day. The “one-meal-a-day” intermittent fasting regime has been likened to a warrior diet, and over the past year, I have come to understand the analogy. Weight loss aside, having 1 meal a day has helped avoid the post-meal fatigue in the middle of the day, and has brought forward the time I leave the office to spend time with family back home.

After a full day’s work, 7pm calls for much-needed reverie. Some days, this comes in the form of hitting at balls at the driving range; other days, Netflix wins. My 12-year-old Golden Retriever goes to bed at 11pm, and my wife and I follow suit.

Many lawyers who have come before me have described lawyering as being more akin to a marathon than a sprint, and I fully concur. Pacing oneself definitely leads to better decisions and better health, whether physically or mentally.

This daily routine would not make it into any episode of Suits (we can’t afford a real princess in our cast), but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Timothy: You worked for about seven years with other law firms. What prompted you to take the step to start That.Legal LLC? Were you concerned about the financial risk of giving up a secured, high-paying job to start your own firm?

The pursuit of happiness has long been touted as one of the 4 unalienable rights. Financial aspect aside, happiness to me involves seeing personal growth in myself and in my team, and being able to build this dream team in my image is a far more important form of remuneration for me than what a stable financial package will provide.

Social media has glorified entrepreneurs over the past few years, but we know that only the few who succeed can see past the writing on the wall. Taking the leap towards starting my own firm was definitely not a hastily made decision, but those closest to me would tell you that it was very much in line with every fibre of why I chose to become a lawyer.

I find joy in seeking out the talents in people and honing them to perfection, and I feel like I have achieved what I set out to establish when my employees are genuinely glad to come to work. Knowing how to kindle that spark of excitement in my team with each new task we undertake is what keeps my flame alive, and is what sustains everyone even when the going gets tough. I’ve always enjoyed the humanity in otherwise mundane labour, and starting my own firm was one sure way I could bring to the table more than just a regular job with regular salaries. Because I work hard to achieve more than regular outcomes. The team that I’ve built has now become family, and though the start-up phase was tough, I know I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

Timothy: Most people think of lawyers as professionals who are trained in the law and who provide paid services to the clients. However, you are not just a lawyer but also an entrepreneur. What is the key difference between being a lawyer who is working at a law firm and having to run your own law firm?

I’d say that the one key difference is that the notion of “non-billable” work becomes more exciting. Attending conferences now serves as a means to forge new and lasting friendships by being able to make pivotal decisions that impact others, without having to crawl through the gooiness of all the hierarchies and red tape someone in a large firm would probably be subjected to. And running spreadsheets comes with much more joy when you can draw direct correlations between the numbers and your next meal.

Being a founding partner of my firm and building this family from infancy, I’ve seen my team grow, and most importantly, I’ve seen them stay. This proud father moment when you call for a toast with your team but have too many things to toast to is truly surreal, and in times like these, I’m so grateful I took that leap.

Timothy: Besides your (obvious) passion in law and in particular, intellectual property laws, what are 2 other passions of yours that you spend your free time on?

Golf and making my wife happy (in ascending order).

Timothy: Share 1 important advice that you have for Singapore entrepreneurs when it comes to intellectual property protection for their business.

If you haven’t registered your trade mark, do it now, before it is too late. If you wish to find out more, check out the top 3 reasons to register your trade mark here.