Certificate in Legal Practice (Malaysia)

The Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) is a course and examination taken by law graduates from outside Malaysia in order to become a qualified lawyer in Malaysia^[1]. The examination is conducted by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board of Malaysia and is governed by the Legal Profession Act 1976. The Board allows degree holders from certain universities in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand to sit for the examination.^[2] Except for graduates of Bachelor of Jurisprudence (Hons) or B.Juris (Hons) from University of Malaya^[3] and Bachelor of Legal Studies or BLS (Hons) from Universiti Teknologi MARA^[4], law graduates from local universities are not required to take CLP. After obtaining the certificate, just like any other law graduate, CLP graduate must proceed to do chambering, which is a form of apprenticeship similar to a pupillage in England. After completing nine months of chambering, the student may finally be called to the bar and become a qualified lawyer.

History

The Certificate of Legal Practice was originally designed in 1984 only as a temporary stop-gap measure to assist those Malaysians who were not able to sit for the English Bar Finals Examinations because they failed to obtain at least a Second Class (Lower Division) Honours in their British university law degree.^[5]. It was then a solution to those who can't apply to be a Barrister but ends up as another recognised legal qualification to be an advocate and solicitor in Malaysia.

The Examination

Examinations are normally held around July each year. Every student is required to sit for five subject papers, namely, General Paper, Professional Practice, Evidence, Criminal Procedure, and Civil Procedure. The student must pass all papers in order to obtain the certificate. If a student fails one paper he or she may be given a conditional pass and be allowed to resit that subject two more times. However, if a student failed in two or more papers, he must sit for the whole examination again in order to obtain the certificate. A student is allowed to sit for the examination four times.

The Legal Profession Qualifying Board only sets the examination and does not provide classes to prepare the candidate for the examination. Classes were initially conducted by the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya and later Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA but the task was subsequently delegated to private colleges only. Two of the major institutions that offer tuition for the CLP in Kuala Lumpur are ATC (formerly Kemayan ATC) and Brickfields Asia College. ATC also offers the course in its Penang Campus.

Criticism and Controversies

The examination is notorious in that it has a very low passing rate of between 10% to 20% each year.

The CLP board has pointed out, among other things, in an article published in The Star in 24 September 2008 as well as in its CLP Subject Guide 2008 issued to candidates, that “The examination is not a test of memory function by the candidates. It is the candidates who resort to regurgitation of information memorized by them”^[6]. This statement is controversial. The Professional Practice paper, for example, covers of Land Law, Probate and Administration of Estates, Bankruptcy and Winding Up, Ethics of the Legal Profession, and Advocacy. Any person familiar with legal education would understand that Land Law is among the bulkiest subject. Worse still, students were denied access to the many relevant Statutes (Acts of Parliaments) during the exams, such as the Bankruptcy Act 1967, Companies Act 1965, Winding Up Rules 1997, Probate and Administration Act 1959, Legal Profession Act 1976, Legal Profession (Practice & Etiquette) Rules 1978, Legal Profession (Publicity) Rules, and many more. And yes, this is just for the Professional Practice paper and the subjects depended heavily on these resources. As such, all is down to pure memory work.

The Subject Guides are also updated yearly to incorporate new laws but as a result of unimpressive editing skills, whatever laws that becomes obsolete has never been removed. In other words, whatever goes in does not come out. The mixture of obsolete and applicable laws left candidates to ponder in a sea of irrelevant materials. If the Englishmen were to use this approach (English Common Law could be traced to the 12th Century), their subject guide would be no thinner than the length of a lamp post. To make matters worse, candidates were very often examined on areas beyond the syllabus. If this is the case, what is the subject guide for?

In 2007, the then CLP Director, Khalid Yusoff, was jailed three months for forgery and cheating in the July 2001 CLP examination “master list”.^[7]. In May 2010, he was freed by the Court of Appeal.^[8]

Abolishment Plan

In May 2008, minister in the Prime Minister's Department Zaid Ibrahim, who was also the then defacto Minister of Law announced that the CLP would be scrapped and be replaced with the Common Bar Course and the Common Bar Exam. This proposed exam will be compulsory for every student wishing to practice in Malaysia, including local graduates.^[9]

The Bar Council has been advocating a Common Bar Course (CBC) and Examination (CBE) since the 1980s as a single entry point to the legal profession for both local and foreign law graduates.^[10]

Early in March 2011, the Attorney-General announced that the Legal Qualifying Board was considering implementing the CBC. Court of Appeal judge Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail is chairing a working group to study its implementation. The CBC would be a 20-month course that would also focus on vocational skills. The CBC model combines the modern legal education approaches in other Commonwealth countries as well as local requirements. There will be modules not commonly seen in other courses to meet specific needs among local graduates, such as the Legal Language and Communication Skills to address the poor command of English and the Practice Management Skills to expose lawyers intending to start their own firm on risk management. Of the five semesters, the first three are full-time studies while the final two are part-time, where students will be pupils at law firms concurrently. It will also feature a Student Law Office programme where the “students-at-law” will get to practice what they have learned in a simulated legal environment, which has been successfully carried out in Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA.^[11]

References

1. ^ http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/c.l.p.html
2. ^ "A Guideline and the Application Form to sit for the Examination for the Certificate of Legal Practice", Legal Profession Qualifying Board, Malaysia
3. ^ http://www.um.edu.my/mainpage.php?module=Maklumat&kategori=82&id=545&papar=1
4. ^ http://www.law.uitm.edu.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74:lw213-b-hons-of-legal-studies&catid=50:degree&Itemid=63
5. ^ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/6/focus/8011437&sec=focus
6. ^ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/24/nation/2086475&sec=nation
7. ^ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/8/1/nation/18461427&sec=nation
8. ^ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/5/28/courts/6353135&sec=courts
9. ^ "CLP to be scrapped, says Zaid". The Star. May 14, 2008. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/5/14/nation/20080514141117&sec=nation. Retrieved 2008-09-25. 
10. ^ http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/6/focus/8011437&sec=focus
11. ^ http://www.goodtimes.my/index.php/Education/bar-council-wants-only-one-qualifying-exam.html

External links

• Malaysian Bar Council
• ATC School of Law
• Brickfields Asia College