|
Christopher Leong, Vice-President of the Malaysian Bar
"Qualifying for the Bar: Standards across the Jurisdictions" (Jointly organised by Bar Council and Taylor’s University)
Taylor's University Lakeside Campus (29 July 2011)
[Salutations] Good morning and salam sejahtera. On behalf of the Malaysian Bar, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this Conference on Legal Education, jointly organised by the Bar Council and Taylor’s University.
At the outset I wish to acknowledge and thank HELP University College for its generous sponsorship towards the Conference, and Taylor’s University for the use of its lovely facilities.
I must say that I am particularly delighted to be here with you this morning as I am an alumnus, not of the university but when it was known as Taylor’s College. This institution has grown over the years, from strength to strength and from success to success. Much of this I believe is owed to the people who have taught and are teaching here. It is therefore with much pleasure that I thank Taylor’s University and the Bar Council for inviting me to say a few words by way of opening remarks. I would not take too much of your time as we all look forward to getting to the heart of the program. I would however like to take the next five to ten minutes to say a little about the Common Bar Course (“CBC”).
Our pursuit in this regard is done with a teleological intention, ie we look towards achieving an end or purpose in mind.
The idea for a CBC and a Common Bar Examination (“CBE”), despite minor apprehensions from some quarters, is certainly not a newly-created notion. In fact, since 1993 the Bar Council has been advocating a convergence of the present multiple entry routes into the legal profession through the establishment of a CBC. We are, as you may already be informed, happy to note that the proposal for the CBC has been agreed to, in principle, as announced by the Attorney General of Malaysia, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, who is also the Chairman of the Legal Profession Qualifying Board, during the recent 16th CLP Convocation in March 2011.
The CBC will create a uniform standard, as it will be the single entry point into the legal profession for all law graduates who read law locally or who graduate from foreign universities. It will put an end to the multiple entry routes into the legal profession requiring different standards of entry, a situation we currently face.
Once implemented, the CBC will replace the Certificate of Legal Practice –which was conceived as, and intended to be, an interim measure –as well as the UK Bar Exams and all other qualifying means to practise law in this country. Therefore it is incumbent upon all law graduates to enrol, complete and pass the CBC before they can be called to the Bar.
Training for any lawyer-to-be starts with a law education. However, whatever is learned at a law school merely forms the early foundation upon which good, and even great, lawyers are built. For in the practitioner’s world, some of what is learned at law schools has to be re-learned and complemented by further training.
The CBC is an extensive and comprehensive 20-month practical skills training course. With the CBC, therefore, it is envisaged that deeper foundations will be laid, which are based on the potent combination of both theoretical learning and practical skills, such that law graduates will be better armed and prepared to face the challenges that lie ahead of them.
The CBC embraces the modern approaches to professional legal education found in other Commonwealth jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore, and combines them with local requirements. A 20-month course divided into five semesters, the CBC extends itself to law graduates intending to hone their skills, with the main focus on practical and, some may say, survival skills. Its primary emphasis will be on aptitude, basic legal skills and core areas of practice. Through a stringent assessment system, quality skills will be a key component, which in itself will run for the first three semesters, taking up the first year of the course. Eight months will be devoted to a combination of compulsory and elective subjects plus pupillage. This combination is intended to deal with the shortcomings of the present pupillage system, as it takes peer learning as a simultaneous challenge.
The vulnerability and competitiveness of the current economic environment, both domestically and internationally, means that having a university degree is merely a first, very small step towards employability. Qualifications alone do no guarantee employment. Just last week it was reported in the media that 71,000– comprising 20% –of the total who are unemployed in Malaysia are diploma or degree holders. This statistic will continue to rise since it is estimated that close to 180,000 fresh graduates swarm the job market annually. Anecdotal evidence show that there are many law firms looking to hire and employ lawyers but vacancies are not filled because applicants do not have the requisite skills.
Having an academic qualification alone is not sufficient. There must be quality, knowledge, skill and ability underlying the paper qualification. The equation we are seeking in our push for a uniformed standard for entry into legal practice is the pre-requisite qualification plus a strong dose of practical skill achievable via the CBC. We do not wish to see law graduates who cannot find employment or who cannot hold on to a job.
With the CBC, the end or purpose we have in mind is, of course, to create practitioners who are better prepared professionally to meet the demanding needs of legal practice, especially in light of market liberalisation not only domestically but in countries worldwide. Our law graduates and lawyers must be able to be regional and global lawyers, going toe to toe against, standing shoulder to should with, and perhaps a head above the rest. In a nutshell, we wish to make law graduates better, stronger, faster and more employable. Better and stronger in that we emplace principles and determination in them like steel into their backbone, and faster in terms of their mind and thought processes.
I congratulate all of you who are here today to learn how legal professionals are trained in various countries, to hear for yourselves how our present systems are benchmarked against the best from other countries, and more importantly to participate and play a part in charting the course for a journey that you and your future fellow professionals will take.
Towards this end, therefore, what we seek in the CBC are sterling quality and uniformity within the legal profession – the teleological intention I mentioned at the beginning of this speech.
The CBC is a development that is long overdue. It is a change that will lay the groundwork for a stronger foundation based on its set objectives. It is an advancement that is imminent. And, as with all change, there may be concerns, anxieties, self-reflections, resentment and maybe even resistance.
But change we must, and change we will.
In the words of the author Art Williams, “I’m not telling you it is going to be easy — I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it”. Ladies and gentlemen, better lawyers make a stronger Bar, and a stronger Bar makes a better Malaysia.
On that note, I thank you, and wish all participants a productive and enjoyable conference.
Christopher Leong
Vice-President
Malaysian Bar
 |
News 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Circular No 110/2012: Seminar on Introduction to ICC Arbitration: An Insight into the 2012 ICC Rules
