Implement Common Bar Course to address CLP under-performance, says lawyer

Free Malaysia Today

09-05-2025

Former Selangor Bar chief V Kokila Vaani says the proposed Common Bar Course, if properly implemented, can enhance legal training in Malaysia and produce competent, practice-ready lawyers.
PETALING JAYA : A lawyer is calling for the government to introduce the Common Bar Course (CBC) immediately to tackle the poor performance of aspiring lawyers at the recent Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination.
Vince Tan.
Vince Tan said the legal profession has long recognised the need for the CBC to be put in place.
'We keep talking about it, but it has yet to be implemented,' he told FMT.
Tan, a director of the Young Lawyers Community, also called for private universities to raise the entry requirements for law schools to ensure only 'the best of the best' enter the profession.
Last year, deputy law and institutional reform minister M Kulasegaran said the government was looking at introducing the CBC with the aim of meeting international standards, particularly the UK's Bar Professional Training Course.
A recent follow-up with the deputy minister revealed that the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) was in the process of drawing up a proposed structure for the CBC, before setting up a research team comprising academics from local universities to develop a draft curriculum.
A report recently released by the LPQB also spoke of the 'poor' to 'average' command of English among CLP candidates, inadequate preparation, failure to understand questions, the regurgitation of model answers, and a refusal to take the examination seriously.
V Kokila Vaani.
Former Selangor Bar chief V Kokila Vaani said the proposed CBC would involve continuous assessments instead of relying solely on a one-off examination.
She said this would allow for better evaluation of key skills such as legal reasoning, advocacy, communication and client interaction, which were crucial for real-world legal practice but often overlooked in traditional academic assessments.
Kokila said the CBC, if properly implemented, would enhance legal training in Malaysia and produce competent, practice-ready lawyers.
Six-month internships
Apart from the CBC, the LPQB report also recommended that CLP candidates undergo a six-month internship with legal firms before being allowed to sit for the examination.
Justin Yap, a CLP graduate from the 2019 class, said he supported the proposal as the examination was heavily theoretical, despite law being a practice-oriented profession.
'An internship at a law firm would expose candidates to real-world legal work and deepen their understanding of how legal principles apply in practice. However, the internship must be well-structured,' he said.
Tan said while internships were important, they may not be sufficient to prepare law graduates for legal practice.
He said a six-month internship may be ineffective if interns were only given routine clerical tasks, such as photocopying, instead of engaging in real legal work.
'True learning starts in pupillage,' he said.