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KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Bar's evaluation team recently re-visited Universiti Utara Malaysia ("UUM") at Sintok, Kedah and Multimedia University ("MMU") in Malacca to undertake a total review on the conditional exemption from Certificate in Legal Practice ("CLP") examination given to UUM and MMU law graduates two years ago.

The evaluators with the mooting team of Multimedia University

The conditional exemption which required UUM and MMU law graduates to undergo an intensive course on conveyancing practice and legal opinion writing and drafting before they could be called to the Malaysian Bar had also expired on 15 April this year.

The Bar's evaluation team, appointed by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board ("LPQB"), was headed by former Bar Councillor, Roger Tan. Their last visits to UUM and MMU respectively took place in August and September 2008.

During their visits to UUM on 19-21 Mar 2011 and MMU on 12-15 Apr 2011, the Bar's team members were joined by representatives from the Judicial and Legal Services. Each of the evaluators was assigned to a particular area of law whose main role is to advise the Evaluation Committee on the necessary recommendations to be made to LPQB.

The Evaluation Committee is headed by the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court, Datuk Hashim Hamzah who also took part in the two evaluation exercises. The other Committee members are: Tan, Puan Aliza Sulaiman, LPQB Director, Tuan Muniandy Kannyappan, Head of Research Division, AG Chambers and a former LPQB Director,  Prof Zita Mohd Fahmi of  the Malaysian Qualifications Agency, Prof Dr Aisah Bidin, Dean of Law Faculty, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and a representative from Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam.

During the two visits, the evaluators were tasked to review whether, by comparing the law syllabus taught by the two universities and the ten areas of law covered by the CLP course, namely Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Tort (General Paper), Contract (General Paper), Advocacy and Duties of Counsel (Professional Practice), Ethics of the Legal Profession (Professional Practice), Land Law and Land Dealings (Professional Practice), Bankruptcy & Winding Up (Professional Practice), Probate & Administration of Estates (Professional Practice) and Civil Procedure, the law graduates of these two universities should be completely exempted from the CLP exam.

In the process, the evaluators attended lectures, tutorials and moots; and examined and interviewed graduated students, existing students and their lecturers and tutors. Copies of the syllabus, examination questions, students' assignments and examination answers (categorised from poor to good), marking schemes, external examiners' comments, teaching materials and other relevant materials had also been extended to the teams during and prior to their visits. Tan had also taken close to 800 pictures during the two visits.

At the visit to UUM, the following were responsible for the respective areas of law:

Civil Procedure: Puan Suzana Atan, Deputy Head of Civil Division, AG Chambers and Gnasegaran a/l Egamparam, Chairman of Penang Bar.

Criminal Procedure: Datuk Razali b Che Ani, Head of Prosecution Unit, Kedah and Salim b Bashir Bhaskaran, legal practitioner from Shah Alam.

Evidence: Tuan Roslan Hamid, Session Court Judge, Sg Petani and Low Chi Cheng, legal practitioner from Kuala Lumpur.

Contract: Tuan Mohd Radhi b Abas, Head of Contract and Medico-Legal Unit, AG Chambers and Datuk Hj Khutubul Zaman Bukhari, a former Bar Council Chairman and current Chairman of Bar Council's Arbitration & Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee.

Tort: Tuan Muniandy Kannyappan and Tony Woon Yeow Thong, Secretary of the Malaysian Bar.

Ethics of Legal Profession: Puan Soo Ai Lin, then Director of LPQB and Hendon Mohamed, a former Chairman of Bar Council and now a Bar Councillor.

Land Law: Roger Tan and Andrew Wong Fook Hin who are both former Bar Councillors and at one time a Chairman of Bar Council's Conveyancing Practice Committee.

Bankruptcy: Puan Balqis Aini bt Mohd Ali, Session Court Judge, Petaling Jaya and Azman Ali b Thaiyub Khan, legal practitioner from Petaling Jaya.

Winding Up: Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Prof Dr Aisah Bidin.

Probate & Administration of Estates: Tuan Amernudin b Ahmad, Session Court Judge, Butterworth and Lee Chooi Peng, legal practitioner from Kuala Lumpur.

Some of the evaluators at UUM

Andrew Wong with some of the UUM students


Interview of students in progress

Interview of students in progress