Law graduate’s burning desire to practice snuffed out at CLP

 

With a debt load of his own coupled with his father’s savings spent to read law, a graduate is devastated that his career has ended even before he is called to the Bar.

The 33-year-old, who only wants to be known as Jaya, said this is owing to the limit on attempts taken to pass the certificate in legal practice (CLP).

“Give me my right to education,” he pleaded as he described how he could no longer re-sit the paper on the criminal procedure as he had exhausted all three attempts.

Jaya said the Legal Practice Qualifying Board (LPQB) decides on the qualifications that entitle a person to become a qualified person and the CLP is a prerequisite for most overseas degree holders.

He said the board conducts the written examinations comprising five papers covering Malaysian substantive and procedural laws.

“The exam is imposed on graduates of specified universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand and I had done a twinning programme with a local private college.

“My parents spent close to RM150,000 so I could complete the required final year at the Aberystwyth University in Wales and I was excited to return home, complete my CLP and start chambering.

“In 2017, when they introduced the capping of four attempts to pass the CLP, it became an added stress for students to pass or never to be able to practice law,” he explained.

There was an additional unfair limitation of three tries for those who failed only one paper, Jaya said, remembering how his career pathway came to a thundering halt last year and dashed the hopes of his parents.

His 73-year-old father, who wanted to be known only as Chandran, speaking tiredly, described how his son’s dreams had unfairly come to nothing.

“It has been his childhood dream which also reflected my dream to become a lawyer when I was a youth.

“But since I could not afford to go to law school, I wanted to give my son that chance.

“To my knowledge, students pursuing other professional careers like doctors, engineers or accountants are not imposed with such an unfair limitation,” said Chandran, adding that he became depressed when his son’s career came to an abrupt end.

A representative from the LPQB office confirmed that they had received many appeals from students who had exhausted their three tries on the single paper. However, the decision by the board remains unchanged.

This means they would not be given another chance to re-sit the CLP exam.

Give us another chance

Explaining how students who had failed only one paper were further sidelined with the imposition of only three attempts and not four, Jaya estimated that hundreds of other CLP students were in a similar predicament.

“I just want to be given that one more chance that is given to students who failed more than one paper.

“They are allowed four attempts and those who failed just one paper are only allowed three attempts,” he rationalised.

As a working student with a debt load, Jaya found it hard to find employment in legal jobs as most companies with vacancies for legal executives were only accepting fully qualified lawyers.

Working as a paralegal, he said even his career development was limited.

A fellow working CLP student, who wanted to be known only as Safiya, said she was forced to exhaust her last attempt under a lot of stress as it was during the movement control order (MCO) in April 2021.

“I asked LPQB if I could postpone my resit to after the MCO but they told me that I would forfeit my last attempt if I did not attend the examination.

“I too want another chance at resitting the one paper I had failed,” said the 33-year-old who now works in human resources and accounts.

In October last year, a group of NGOs and activists called on the government to abolish the four attempts limit imposed on CLP students.

They included Enlight Malaysia, Liga Rakyat Demokratik, Pertubuhan Serikat Rakyat Malaysia, lawyer Asheeq Ali Sethi Alivi, Michelle Ling Shyan Mih of Gerakan Guaman Rakyat, and Selangor PKR Youth deputy chief Mohd Shahffeq Eqhwan Shahrom.

The group called for graduates to be allowed to continue taking the post-graduate course to qualify as advocates and solicitors. - Mkini