©The
Star (Used by permission)
by Lee Shih
COMING TOGETHER: Young lawyers breaking fast with their Muslim counterparts in Malacca on September 20. Also present were Chairman of the National Young Lawyers Committee, Roger Tan (seated third from left), Chairman of Malacca Bar Committee, Ng Kong Peng (seated second from left) and Malacca State Bar Committee members.
Higher pay and opportunities for international exposure within a local setting
may help stem the pace of lawyers leaving Malaysia for other jurisdictions.
THIRTEEN thousand. That is roughly the number of lawyers currently practising in
Malaysia. It gives the impression that there are more than enough lawyers here.
So why should we worry if a few hundred, or even a thousand, lawyers leave the
profession to work in other jurisdictions?
Around 1,000 new lawyers join the profession annually so shouldn’t there be
plenty of legal talent here in this country?
There is, however, cause for worry. Increasingly, law firms are complaining of a
general decline in the quality of lawyers entering the profession. Our brightest
and best law graduates are choosing instead to practise in other countries.
Further, the pace of lawyers leaving Malaysia for other jurisdictions like
Singapore, Hong Kong and the Middle East appears to have also accelerated, and
this exacerbates the legal brain drain that we are facing.
In her Putik Lada article ‘Not as Glamorous as Boston Legal’ (The Star,
Aug 15), Melissa Tai touched on some of the problems the profession faces in
attracting and retaining legal talent. What I will be setting out is a wish list
of sorts and some solutions to this problem.
Wish List
At the top of any lawyer’s wish list would be the obvious factor of higher pay.
Undoubtedly, other jurisdictions offer a significantly more attractive
remuneration package, even after factoring in the higher cost of living.
It is accepted that present market forces result in relatively low legal fees
being charged, which in turn contributes to a relatively low amount of pay
compared with other jurisdictions.
The difficulty in attracting lawyers to stay in Malaysia goes beyond the issue
of pay. One of the strong appeals of working overseas is the opportunity to be
exposed to more international and high–calibre work. There is no easy answer to
this, as other countries like Singapore, for example, also grapple with the same
issue of lawyers leaving for this reason.
One possible solution could be a controlled liberalisation of the Malaysian
legal market to allow foreign law firms to practise in Malaysia. This may help
to provide international exposure within a local setting. This idea has been in
the pipeline for many years and it remains to be seen when it will be
implemented.
Steps which law firms themselves can take would include a change in the work
culture and the general improvement of the work–life balance of their lawyers.
Firms may need to restructure the work and careers of their lawyers to meet both
the firm’s needs and the lawyers’ personal priorities.
Law firms must also recognise that up to 70% of the younger lawyers are women
and that part–time and flexible work arrangements have to be offered. The
existence of family–friendly parental leave schemes would be more beneficial
than having such talent leave practice altogether.
Bringing back respect to the profession
Taking a step back from what law firms can do, there is the more over–arching
issue that must be addressed. Respect must be brought back into the profession
in order to continue to attract and retain our brightest talent.
Firstly, the starting point has to be the improvement of the quality of law
graduates entering the profession. Hence, the announcement of a Common Bar
Examination is welcomed and it must be compulsory for all graduates, whether
from local or foreign universities, to pass the Common Bar Course before they
are admitted to the Bar. Everyone has to go through the same gatekeeper, and
higher standards can be more easily maintained.
The implementation of the Common Bar Course would have to go hand–in–hand with
an improvement to the present pupillage system. Pupillage is the compulsory
nine–month period in which a law graduate undergoes training with a senior
lawyer to gain practical experience before being admitted to the Bar.
A proper pupillage structure for the determination of certain core skills, the
teaching of such core skills by the senior lawyer or the law firm, and an
assessment of such skills must be put in place.
Secondly, an essential aspect of bringing back respect into the profession is
the need for an efficient and strong judicial system. The frustration of having
cases unduly postponed or court hearing dates being fixed more than five years
down the road will drive lawyers away from practice in Malaysia.
The surfacing of images of a lawyer apparently brokering the appointment of
judges leads us to question the integrity of the judicial system. The sluggish
investigation into the findings resulting from this apparent brokering of judges
and the stalling of the implementation of the Judicial Appointments Commission
also raises doubts on the sincerity for judicial reform.
Conclusion
The fall–out from the subprime crisis has resulted in large lay–offs from major
law firms in America and in England. China, post–Beijing Olympics, may well also
experience some slowdown. The effect of these events is that it may result in a
brief respite from the exodus of legal talent from Malaysia as job opportunities
in other jurisdictions may become harder to come by.
But immediate steps must be taken to allow us to continue to attract and retain
our legal talent. The solutions I have touched on are not exhaustive but may
well go a long way to plugging the legal brain drain we are experiencing.
The writer is a member of the Bar Council’s National Young Lawyers
Committee (NYLC). Putik Lada, or pepper buds in Malay, captures the spirit and
intention of this column – a platform for young lawyers to articulate their
views and aspirations about the law, justice and a civil society. For more
information about the young lawyers, please visit
www.malaysianbar.org.my/nylc.