CLP removal will help standardise exam for local, overseas graduates

KUCHING: The move to replace the Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP) examination with Common Bar Course (CBC) and its examination (CBE) augurs well for all budding lawyers.

The CBC/CBE will help to standardise the examination as it is common to all law graduates without distinguishing whether their degrees were obtained abroad or locally.

At the moment some law graduates have to take the CLP before they are allowed to practise while others do not.

Some claim there are no clear guidelines on who should take the CLP and they also think that the CLP is a form of discrimination.

Many feel the CLP is tough as the quota system is imposed, but there are also others who think CLP holders enjoy the best of both worlds as they were having legal knowledge from abroad as well as Malaysia.

Lawyer Voon Lee Shan believed the CBC/CBE would be fairer than the CLP, hoping that the former would put in place a way to stamp out any form of discrimination against any law graduate.

“The examination may be tough.

“However I am a bit cautious as I do not know the details of the implementation of the CBC. I just hope that it would be fair to all and without any element of discrimination,” Voon, who is Sarawak DAP treasurer and also Batu Lintang assemblyman said when commenting on the latest development yesterday.

“Any form of discrimination especially in regard to the classification of ‘Bumiputera’ or ‘non-Bumiputera’, as far as the legal profession is concerned, should be stamped out, Voon said, adding that such discrimination would also be unconstitutional.

He, however, said he was glad to see positive development in the legal field and it would help to improve public confidence in the profession.

Voon said the board of examiners for the CBE must be a blend of qualified persons including judges from Commonwealth countries.

He said the board must not disregard candidates who graduated with their law degrees from foreign countries.He claimed the law syllabus of local universities was too wide in scope and not much in depth.

He said law graduates from foreign universities had the benefit of having learned foreign laws as well as Malaysian law.

“Local law graduates only ‘tuned’ to local scenario unlike those from the foreign countries, say England, Australia or New Zealand,” he added.

Prominent criminal lawyer Lim Lian Kee said the CLP was introduced in the early 1980s because prior to that time many graduates who obtained below second class honours law degree were not qualified to sit for Bar examination, be it abroad or locally.

Therefore some affected students at that time met up with the then Federal Attorney General and the Lord President to seek their assistance so that they could be given the chance to sit for the Bar examination, he said.

So CLP was introduced in 1984 for aspiring lawyers, Lim pointed out.

With the introduction of the CBC/CBE, the government may have a problem in implementing it because of a peculiar constitutional issue.

He said the Peninsular Malaysian states and Sabah and Sarawak had different laws to regulate or govern the legal profession.

The Peninsular Malaysian states used Legal Profession Act while Sabah – Sabah Advocates Ordinance and Sarawak – Sarawak Advocates Ordinance, he said.

“How are they are going to reconcile these, I do not know yet. I also need to get the details of the CBC/CBE,” he said.

However if the CBC/CBE was to improve the profession or quality of lawyers, Lim said he was all for change.

“A common examination for all, be it local graduates or those from England, Australia and New Zealand, should be a positive change,” he said.

On Wednesday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said the change was mooted to maintain high quality legal industry.

“Having CBC will ensure law students are properly trained before they enter the legal profession.

“The course and examination will be compulsory for each student wanting to be a practising lawyer, irrespective they graduated locally or abroad,” he had said.

Those not intending to become lawyers are not required to take the course or examination, he had added.

CLP used to be a compulsory requirement for law students with LLB degrees conferred by universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and certain universities in Australia and New Zealand.

Students have long complained of very high rate of failures in the CLP examination, with each year set a very strict quota of passes.

The CLP was also tainted by a scandal where question papers were found to be sold to students about six years ago.