For some people, choosing law begins with a lifelong ambition. For Resshma Mohan, it started with Suits.

What began as an interest sparked by the popular legal drama eventually led her to Brickfields Asia College (BAC), a law degree at Queen’s University Belfast, experience at some of Malaysia’s leading organisations and, unexpectedly, entrepreneurship.

Today, Resshma is the co-founder of Kaapi Kreat, a South Indian lifestyle café in Cyberjaya. Yet despite the success of the business, her ambition to pursue the Bar remains firmly in place. Her journey is a reminder that your career does not always move in a straight line — and sometimes, taking a different route is exactly what moves you closer to where you want to be.

Growing up in Johor, Resshma came from a family where education mattered deeply. Her mother constantly encouraged Resshma, her brother and even her cousins to study and earn a degree. While education was expected, the choice of career was entirely Resshma’s. She had long admired Malaysian lawyers such as Karam Singh and Ambiga Sreenevasan, particularly their confidence and the way they carried themselves. But when it came to choosing law as a degree? Resshma readily admits that Suits played a major role.

With her mind made up, she enrolled in the Foundation in Law at BAC.

BAC’s UK transfer pathway was especially appealing because Resshma already knew that she wanted to complete part of her degree abroad. She struck a deal with her mother: if she passed her Foundation in one sitting, she could continue her studies in the UK.

She did exactly that.

After completing two years in Malaysia, Resshma prepared to leave for the UK in October 2020. There was just one complication. The world was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Understandably, Resshma’s father was reluctant to send his daughter overseas during such an uncertain period. So she did what any determined student might do. She made him a PowerPoint presentation and laid out how she would stay safe, wear her mask and avoid unnecessary outings. Eventually, her father agreed.

When she boarded that flight, Resshma became the first person in her family to pursue a degree in the UK. It was a proud milestone — but the university experience that awaited her was far from conventional.

At Queen’s University Belfast, Resshma had only around two weeks of normal university life before restrictions returned. After already completing the second year of her degree online from Malaysia, she now found herself physically in the UK but once again attending classes virtually.

As someone who strongly preferred traditional learning, handwritten notes and physical classes, studying online was not easy. Yet she refused to see the experience purely as something she had lost. Libraries and campus facilities remained accessible, and living abroad gave Resshma opportunities to travel, meet people from different countries and experience independence in a way she never had before. It made her realise just how much she was capable of handling.

After completing her degree, Resshma returned to Malaysia in 2021, determined to gain experience. She began working at a smaller firm before joining Skrine, one of Malaysia’s leading law firms, where she handled hundreds of active bankruptcy cases.

She enjoyed the challenge and responsibility. But there was a ceiling.

Without completing the Bar or Malaysia’s Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP), Resshma knew her progression within legal practice would eventually be limited. The CLP route was not one she wanted to pursue, while studying for the UK Bar remained financially out of reach. Instead of abandoning her ambition, Resshma changed her strategy.

She continued working, explored scholarship opportunities and gained experience at organisations including the Malaysia Competition Commission and fintech company Wise. Each experience gave her greater exposure to different industries while she continued looking for a way to fund the qualification she still wanted.

Eventually, she arrived at a very different solution. If she could not secure the funding, perhaps she could create it herself.

That idea eventually led to Kaapi Kreat. Resshma and her business partner Joshua, a content creator with a strong marketing background, realised they had complementary strengths. Resshma was looking for a meaningful new venture, while Joshua had an audience and creative skill set that could be developed into something larger.

The café was not the immediate plan. They considered several concepts, including an event space and creativity hub, before eventually landing on the idea of a café.

A trip to the UK helped cement it. While there, they visited café after café and returned to Malaysia inspired by what they had experienced. Soon after, they found a ground-floor unit in Cyberjaya that suited their budget and their vision.

Their attitude was simple: why not try?

With investments from Resshma, Joshua and several other business partners, Kaapi Kreat became a reality.

The café’s identity has roots in something both founders genuinely love: coffee. A trip to Chennai and their experience of South Indian cold coffee stayed with them, eventually influencing Kaapi Kreat’s South Indian identity.

For Resshma, everything began with coffee — and the name reflects exactly that. Today, Kaapi Kreat has grown into a popular lifestyle café, regularly drawing strong crowds, with expansion already being considered.

For Resshma, however, the biggest lessons have gone far beyond running a café. Entrepreneurship has required her to apply many of the same skills that law helped develop: analytical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, communication and resilience. Only now, she is applying them in an entirely different environment.

Success as an entrepreneur has not changed Resshma’s long-term ambition. She still wants to pursue the Bar abroad. Kaapi Kreat is not a replacement for that dream. In many ways, it is part of the strategy that could eventually make that dream possible.

Resshma’s journey shows that pausing a goal does not mean giving up on it. Sometimes circumstances change. Sometimes the route becomes longer. And sometimes the skills you gain along the way take you somewhere you never expected.

From BAC to Belfast, from law firms to fintech and from legal graduate to café co-founder, Resshma has continued to adapt without losing sight of what she ultimately wants. Her story is also an important reminder for students and graduates navigating their own futures.

Your degree can give you direction without limiting your possibilities. Your first career move does not have to define your entire career. nd even when the path changes, the goal can remain the same.

For Resshma Mohan, law may have started with a television show — but everything she has done since has been shaped by determination, courage and the willingness to create her own way forward.

Source: Adapted from Sivanesan Krish, “After pursuing law school, she’s now running a cafe in Malaysia to fund her bar studies,” Study International, 17 August 2026. Read the original article here.