PETALING JAYA: Local law graduates are exempted from taking the Certificate in Legal Practice examination because a CLP module is already part of their final-year course, says a former Malaysian Bar president.
Salim Bashir said local graduates studied Malaysian law and the CLP module, whereas overseas graduates studied English law for three years to obtain their basic degree.
They had to return home to do the CLP examination before becoming lawyers.
He said the CLP examination was designed about 30 years ago because those who obtained a law degree overseas could not enter the Bar in the UK.
“They came home and did the CLP examination which is partly the study of local substantive and procedural laws,” he said.
Salim said this in response to a FMT columnist who felt it was unfair to place a cap on the number of CLP sittings that law graduates from overseas or private universities are entitled to take.
Salim said the only issue is that the CLP is seen to be academic and less emphasis is placed on the practical aspect in training lawyers.
“Our solution is to have a common Bar course in order to maintain the quality of law graduates, local and foreign, who intend to go into practice,” said Salim, who is also chairman of the common Bar course committee tasked to prepare a curriculum.
Since 2017, the Legal Profession Qualifying Board has required CLP candidates to pass the examination within four sittings in five years or re-sit a single paper with a maximum of three attempts.
Salim said even local universities placed emphasis on quality, by setting a maximum of three sittings for students to pass core legal papers.
Another senior lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, said quality could not be compromised as the CLP is a professional examination.
“Even in the United Kingdom there is a limit on the number of sittings for the Bar examination there,” he added. - FMT
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