About us

Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you

– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Gender equality advocate and former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Sheila Eleanor De Costa has been in practice for more than 34 years as an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court in Malaya and during that time she has had experience in a variety of areas, namely Corporate Law, Corporate Financing, Conveyancing, Family Laws, Probate & Administration and litigation.

Background

Sheila studied law at Manchester Polytechnic and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Law in 1982. She was called to the Bar of England and Wales from Grays Inn London as a Barrister in 1983, and was called to the Malaysian Bar in 1984.

Sheila was doing a mixed practice of corporate conveyancing and litigation, and acted for banks for syndicated loans, road concession agreements both locally and in Sabah. She is also one of the first lawyers to handle islamic loans and SME loans, with clients from East and West Malaysia. She has acted for government and statutory bodies like Felda , JKR and Bank Negara Malaysia  and Tabung Pemulihan Perumahan Terbengkalai (TPPT)-(Abandoned housing Projects),  Embassies, and Insurance Companies and International Schools. She also practised family law, divorce custody and adoption, as well as welfare matters for runaway girls. She has performed legal aid as a supervising solicitor, and conducted cases on labour law and employment and dismissal where she acted for both the employer and the employee on many separate occasions.

Sheila has also crafted constitutions for both clubs and societies, as well as residence associations. She has provided advisory on formation of offshore companies, Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H), cross-border transactions, probate and administration, drafting of Wills, codicils, advice on Trusts and registration of Trademarks for international companies.

She is highly skilled in drafting, and has been commended by many clients (including Banks) accordingly. She a network of barristers and solicitors in England, Singapore, Hong Kong.and Australia.

She has a particular passion for educating young lawyers and for many years gave voluntary Professional Ethic lectures and marked the pupils’ exam papers. She is also a former member of the sub-committee of the Professional Standards & Development Committee of the Bar Council.

Sheila also served on the Bar Council’s Ad Hoc Committee to revamp the Legal Profession Act. She was admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore on 11th July 2001.

Current Engagements

She is the current President of the Selangor & Federal Territory Eurasian Association (SAFTEA). In 2013, she initiated legal proceedings and led the challenge to claim the legitimate expectation of SAFTEA for the rights to a piece of land for the Eurasian community. She participated as a speaker on many occasions both within and out of Malaysia to publicise and promote the cultural roots and contributions of the Eurasian committee in Malaysia. She chaired the fund raising campaign by the Eurasians for the “Pray for Japan Tsunami Appeal “. She founded and financed the “De Costa-Su Scholarship” for tertiary education among the Eurasians.

Sheila is also the Deputy Chairperson of the Advisory Panel of the Women’s Institute of Management (WIM) Malaysia, a non-profit organization and self-sustaining Women’s Non-Governmental organization which have established programs that have benefited 30,000 marginalized women of all races in Malaysia.

Contributions to the Malaysian Bar

Sheila has also made significant contributions to the Malaysian Bar in the following areas:

  1. Sub committee member of the Committee to reform the Legal Profession Act from 2018 to 2021.
  2. Sub committee member of the Professional Standards and Development Committee of the Bar Council from 2010 to 2012.
  3. Sub committee member of the Selangor Bar -Professional Standards and Development  & Young Lawyers and Pupils from 2019 to 2020.
  4. Lecturer and invigilator for the pupils ethics programme.
  5. Set  questions and marked exam papers for the Pupils ethics programme.
  6. Trainer for new lecturers and markers for the Pupils Ethics programme.
  7. Examiner for viva voce exam for pupils in the PSDC.
  8. Represented the Bar Council as Counsel for pupils call to the Bar from 1997 to 2018.
  9. Presented Seminars on Land law to 2 Law Firms.

Get in touch

Our team of legal experts are ready to serve you.

inquiries@decosta.law

+60 3 8733 6833

A-02-21, Jalan Sri Kenari 10, Taman Sri Kenari,
Sg Chua, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia

  • 2 + 45 =

    Etiam magna arcu, ullamcorper ut pulvinar et, ornare sit amet ligula. Aliquam vitae bibendum lorem. Cras id dui lectus. Pellentesque nec felis tristique urna lacinia sollicitudin ac ac ex. Maecenas mattis faucibus condimentum. Curabitur imperdiet felis at est posuere bibendum. Sed quis nulla tellus.

    ADDRESS

    63739 street lorem ipsum City, Country

    PHONE

    +12 (0) 345 678 9

    EMAIL

    info@company.com