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Sunday Times (Used by permission)
• CLP was only a stopgap measure, says Abu Talib
• If at first you don't succeed...
• Not impossible to pass first time
The Certificate in Legal Practice is the be-all and end-all for many law
graduates. Mention the CLP examination and many law graduates cringe with
memories of having to resit this 'mother' of all examinations -- the one which
determines one's admittance to the Bar. Will it be scrapped? Sonia
Ramachandran and Audrey Vijaindren find out
THE end may be in sight for the contentious Certificate in Legal Practice
examination for students with foreign qualifications.
The Common Bar Course, which the Bar Council had been calling for incessantly,
is finally in the making.
Work started on it last year, said Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan.
Ambiga said the Legal Profession Qualifying Board, of which
she is a member, had set up a committee last year to look into this matter.
"We are serious about setting this up. This is a work in progress. We believe
this is a system that will be fair to all graduates and will help us maintain
the standards we would like to see.
"With an average of between 800 and 1,000 students called to the Bar yearly, it
is imperative that we are rigorous about our standards," Ambiga told the New
Sunday Times.
The aim of the course is to have a common examination for all law graduates
entering the legal profession, irrespective of where they had pursued their
undergraduate degrees.
The intention is to standardise the point of entry and ensure that all entrants
satisfy the standards set by board.
"The Common Bar Course will, therefore, be the ultimate filter for entry into
the profession.
"The legal fraternity hopes the course will create less disparity among those
entering the profession," said Ambiga.
Law lecturer Professor Mohd Darbi Hashim said the Common Bar Course had been
discussed for the last 15 years.
The former dean of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) said many attempts to come
up with the course ended in failure.
"In the present context, the CLP has outlived its relevance. Its curriculum is
outdated.
"While professional legal education in most countries today has adopted more
innovative, practical, experiential, and hands-on approaches in the training of
lawyers, the CLP continues to adopt the three-hour written examination mode
where students can prepare themselves either by attending formal or informal
private tuition or simply self-study."
Darbi said there was widespread complaint about the varying standards and level
of competency among graduates entering the legal profession.
"With the introduction of a common Bar examination, law faculties in
universities can be left to design their legal education at the academic level
and leave the professional training to those running the common examination.
"This way, law lecturers in universities can pay full attention to the academic,
theoretical and conceptual aspects of the law and the legal system rather than
mixing their roles as academics as well as professional legal trainers."
The common Bar examination will also provide fair and clear opportunities for
law faculties in universities to measure the quality of the legal training they
had been providing.
Darbi said the large number of failures in CLP examinations was not because the
testing level was extraordinarily high compared with other Bar examinations.
The root cause was the poor training candidates received in the early part of
their legal studies in their universities or colleges.
"In their subsequent preparations for the CLP examination, they are simply
coached to learn the rules, cases and sections from statutes by heart and tackle
past exam questions.
"There is little mastery of the legal reasoning and epistemological thinking
that form the foundation of their legal analyses and arguments.
"It is perplexing that 50 years after independence and rapid development in
education, legal education, generally, and professional legal training,
specifically, we are still struggling to find our footing and direction.
"Even countries like Fiji and Papua New Guinea have established a coherent
system of professional legal training," said Darbi.
He said the time was ripe for those concerned with the future of the legal
profession to put their shoulder to the wheel and accomplish the unfinished
task.
"This is not easy. We can anticipate strong resistance from local law faculties
trying to preserve their turf and from other quarters as well."
What you need to know...
Q: If the Certificate in Legal Practice is for students with foreign
qualifications to familiarise with local laws, why are students who have done
the British Bar Vocational Course (BVC) exempted from the CLP?
A: The CLP is a professional examination similar to the BVC,
which is to prepare graduates for legal practice.
A statement issued by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) in 1997 said
a person only becomes a barrister after being called to the English Bar. A
candidate may take whatever course of study that can make him a barrister.
In the case of the BVC, a candidate must ensure that after successful completion
of the BVC, he is called to the English Bar and becomes a barrister before he is
deemed to be a "qualified person" under the Legal Profession Act 1976.
Therefore, while the BVC is now a prerequisite to becoming a barrister, the more
important requirement is to be called to the English Bar.
Q: Is it true that prospective CLP candidates are required to
state their race in the application form?
A: No, this is not true.
Q: Is there a quota for CLP passes?
A: There has never been any quota for the number of passes, whether on a
percentage basis or along racial lines.
This has been repeatedly stated by Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail,
the chairman of the LPQB, at all convocation ceremonies.
Q: The CLP fees have gone up from RM2,500 to RM4,000. Since the LPQB only sets
exam papers and does not conduct any classes or lectures, is this increase
justified?
A: The fee was RM2,500 initially. It was only raised after 20 years. Between
1984 and 2004, the fees remained the same.
Only in 2005 and 2007 have the fees been increased. The hike is due to the
escalation of costs in conducting the CLP examination.
Q: Students have been asking for the examiners' report to know where they went
wrong in the exam. Why doesn't the board provide this?
A: It is not the normal practice. The practice of providing the examiners'
report will facilitate spotting of questions, which is inappropriate when we are
seeking to test the ability and familiarity with local laws.
However, the general report of the examination results is normally incorporated
into the speech by the chairman of the LPQB at the convocation ceremony.
Answers provided by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board
CLP was only a stopgap measure, says Abu Talib
HE Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination was meant
to be conducted for two years only.
Former attorney-general Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said the
examination was introduced in 1984 for those who could not sit for the English
Bar examinations because of a change in regulations.
"The Inns of Court amended its rules with regard to the qualifications necessary
for admission.
"The new rules stipulated a minimum of a second class honours degree for a
student's admission. At that time, a number of Malaysian students were studying
in British universities.
"The issue then was that if they could not gain admission to the Inns of Court,
they would not be able to return to Malaysia and practise.
"After consulting the relevant people, we proposed to the
government the setting up of the CLP to help those without second class honours
degrees," Abu Talib said.
The government, he said, agreed for the CLP examination to be conducted for two
years to help students caught in the change of rules.
"Then, there were requests for an extension of the period and also other
requests to consider allowing students with qualifications from Australia and
New Zealand to sit for the CLP.
"The CLP now appears to be a permanent feature."
Abu Talib also conceded the current CLP fee of RM4,000 was exorbitant.
If at first you don't succeed...
SURIAKUMAR Arulampalam, 42, is attempting the CLP exam for the third time and
hopes this July will be the last.
Currently attending classes at a private college in Kuala
Lumpur, he said passing the examination would "complete" him.
"During my first attempt, I self-studied. I did not register at any institution
and tried to master the syllabus on my own. But it was not as easy as I had
expected.
"Now I attend lectures three times a week and study past-year questions. But as
much as I study, I realise it is impossible to know every aspect of the legal
procedures."
Suriakumar said the CLP examination did not give students a fair chance. Neither
did he think it would develop good lawyers.
"The exam does not have to be scrapped but it should be
revamped. The CLP should be making better lawyers rather than restricting the
number of lawyers.
"Most of the people I know end up pursuing other careers after failing a few
times.
"Some take other professional exams like the MBA (master's in business
administration)."
Suriakumar said the Legal Profession Qualifying Board might be doing the right
thing in regard to the examination syllabus and the marking process.
"But there has to be transparency so that the exam is not seen as a barrier."
Does memorising and regurgitating the code of ethics really work?
He thinks not.
"It is like expecting someone to be a model citizen just because he knows the
school's moral textbook by heart."
Suriakumar added it was difficult to know where he had gone wrong when there was
no feedback.
The CLP is a challenge for those who cannot get into local universities.
Ong Kay Jin, 24, said the system was unfair as you have to resit all five papers
even if you only fail one.
"Perhaps, the better option would be to allow those who failed a particular exam
to resit that paper alone instead of the whole exam."
Ong said a Common Bar Course should be implemented for local and foreign
graduates to ensure a level playing field.
Naresh Kumar, 60, said age was no barrier in the examination.
But this commissioner for oaths said every time he got his results, it was a
"real shocker".
"Each time I leave the exam hall, I feel like I've done very well, but it turns
out to be the opposite. I have failed four times.
"Now I have to reregister and that is going to cost me RM4,000. I don't
understand where I keep going wrong."
Naresh said the examination should be scrapped.
"I hope to represent clients one day but this examination makes it impossible. .
"There are students who passed the exam but perform badly as lawyers and some
very good lawyers who had failed the exam a few times.
"So, what is the purpose of the exam if it does not reflect the qualifications
of a person?"
Not impossible to pass first time
FOR Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) law lecturer Professor Dr Lim Heng Gee,
1985 will always be special.
This was the year he sat for an examination which he
described as "one of the most interesting in my life".
"I was one of the second batch of students to attempt the CLP (Certificate in
Legal Practice) examination and it was a very interesting, though hectic, time
for me.
"It wasn't easy as I had to travel back and forth a few times a day to teach at
UiTM in Shah Alam and attend classes at Universiti Malaya. But I was determined
and disciplined.
"In the end, it was well worth the effort."
No doubt a lot of hard work is needed to pass this
examination, he said, but passing the CLP was not impossible.
"After completing my external London law degree, I started lecturing. I didn't
have to take the CLP exam as I didn't intend to practise law but I knew it would
help me learn the practical aspects of Malaysian law and pass that knowledge on
to my students."
Overall, Lim said, the whole experience was "fun".
A statement most students who are cramming for their CLP examination may think
absurd.
"I know some students view the CLP exam as a burden and a barrier but they have
to go through it as it is an important step to enable them to practise locally.
"Some students come out of the exam hall thinking they have done very well, only
to be disappointed later when they they fail.
"But this does not necessarily reflect on their intelligence or imply they did
not study enough. They could have just been out of point.
"In my 27 years of teaching, I have encountered students who obtained low marks
in open book exams. Being able to take in all your study material is not much
help unless you first understand the question and the subject itself.
"The key is to understand and answer within the context."
Most get disappointed, Lim said, when they fail at the first attempt. Having
lost hope, they turn to other careers.
"It can be frustrating on the students' part and in all fairness, it might be
helpful if there were examiners' reports which point out the overall weaknesses
of the answers.
"They have a right to know where they went wrong."
Lim said in 1985, he and almost 50 per cent of his classmates passed in their
first attempt.
One of them is UiTM associate professor S.T. Lingam.
Lingam believes if students put in the effort, they would pass the examination,
except for some isolated cases.
"It is not a question of whether the calibre of students then and now is
different."
But he admitted there were a few things the Legal Profession Qualifying Board
could do to help these students.
"Some students tell me that the CLP exam is a gamble. It is like playing the
lottery.
"And because they don't get a general report on the exam, they have no way of
learning from their mistakes.
"The report does not have to be in-depth, it just has to list the points that
students need to have when answering a particular question."
The range of thinking of the markers, Lingam said, also played a role in
determining the students' results.
"There are some markers who are more lenient than others. The markers should
also take into account the overall look of the paper and general understanding
of the student."
But students should not be quick to fault the pass rate of the examination, he
said, and to disqualify its importance.
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Circular No 106/2012: Accountant’s Report 2011
The CLP was set up as a temporary measure but definitely lasted more than the two years that it was supposed to operate initially.
As I have written elsewhere some years back, the CLP was originally meant to HELP law graduates without the second class lower degree. It evolved and proved to be a HINDRANCE to most such law graduates.
To use a metaphor, it was design as a BRIDGE to help affected law students. Instead, it became a WALL. As I wrote elsewhere, a BRIDGE is a HORIZONTAL construct while a WALL is a VERTICLE construct.
Since my return from New Zealand whose law graduates were THEN not subjected to the CLP regime, I have, despite my dispensation from the CLP, gone to see several Bar Councillors to ask them to redress the situation.
I always came away with promises of help for FUTURE law graduates. It has been nearly TEN years and we are still saddled with the CLP and all the negative perception it represents.
I will greet the dismantling of the CLP as a measure that has been long overdue.
We must, if need be, replace the CLP with something more relevant instead of the chew-and-spew methodology that is the CLP. Any system that we adopt must SERVE such students and NOT QUASH them, it must HELP such students and NOT HINDER them.
I am putting such views forward because I have always believed that I must do my little bit to leave any place that I have been a better one for people coming after me. It is just a Boy Scout concept but it has marked the endeavours of my entire life.
Stephen Tan Ban Cheng