Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The Bar's evaluation team re-visits UUM and MMU

Reproduced from the Malaysian Bar Website

The LPQB Evaluators with the mooting team of Multimedia University.

The Malaysian Bar's evaluation team recently re-visited Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) at Sintok, Kedah and Multimedia University (MMU) in Malacca to undertake a total review on the conditional exemption from Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination given to UUM and MMU law graduates two years ago.

The conditional exemption which required UUM and MMU law graduates to undergo an intensive course on conveyancing practice and legal opinion writing and drafting before they could be called to the Malaysian Bar had also expired on April 15 this year.

The Bar's evaluation team, appointed by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board ("LPQB"), was headed by former Bar Councillor, Roger Tan. Their last visits to UUM and MMU respectively took place in August 2008 and September 2008.

During their visits to UUM on March 19-21, 2011 and MMU on April 12-15, 2011, the Bar's team members were joined by representatives from the Judicial and Legal Services. Each of the evaluators was assigned to a particular area of law whose main role is to advise the Evaluation Committee on the necessary recommendations to be made to LPQB.

The Evaluation Committee is headed by the Chief Registrar of the Federal Court, Datuk Hashim Hamzah who also took part in the two evaluation exercises. The other Committee members are: Tan, Puan Aliza Sulaiman, LPQB Director, Tuan Muniandy Kannyappan, Head of Research Division, AG Chambers and a former LPQB Director, Professor Zita Mohd Fahmi of the Malaysian Qualifications Agency, Prof. Dr. Aisah Bidin, Dean of Law Faculty, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and a representative from Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam.

During the two visits, the evaluators were tasked to review whether, by comparing the law syllabus taught by the two universities and the ten areas of law covered by the CLP course, namely Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Tort (General Paper), Contract (General Paper), Advocacy and Duties of Counsel (Professional Practice), Ethics of the Legal Profession (Professional Practice), Land Law and Land Dealings (Professional Practice), Bankruptcy & Winding Up (Professional Practice), Probate & Administration of Estates (Professional Practice) and Civil Procedure, the law graduates of these two universities should be completely exempted from the CLP exam.

In the process, the evaluators attended lectures, tutorials and moots; and examined and interviewed graduated students, existing students and their lecturers and tutors. Copies of the syllabus, examination questions, students' assignments and examination answers (categorised from poor to good), marking schemes, external examiners' comments, teaching materials and other relevant materials had also been extended to the teams during and prior to their visits. Tan had also taken close to 800 pictures during the two visits.

At the visit to UUM, the following were responsible for the respective areas of law:

Civil Procedure: Puan Suzana Atan, Deputy Head of Civil Division, AG Chambers and Gnasegaran a/l Egamparam, Chairman of Penang Bar.

Criminal Procedure: Datuk Razali bin Che Ani, Head of Prosecution Unit, Kedah and Salim bin Bashir Bhaskaran, legal practitioner from Shah Alam.

Evidence: Tuan Roslan Hamid, Session Court Judge, Sg. Petani and Low Chi Cheng, legal practitioner from Kuala Lumpur.

Contract: Tuan Mohd Radhi bin Abas, Head of Contract and Medico-Legal Unit, AG Chambers and Datuk Hj. Khutubul Zaman Bukhari, a former Bar Council Chairman and current Chairman of Bar Council's Arbitration & Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee.

Tort: Tuan Muniandy Kannyappan and Tony Woon Yeow Thong, Secretary of the Malaysian Bar.

Ethics of Legal Profession: Puan Soo Ai Lin, then Director of LPQB and Hendon Mohamed, a former Chairman of Bar Council and now a Bar Councillor.

Land Law: Roger Tan and Andrew Wong Fook Hin who are both former Bar Councillors and at one time a Chairman of Bar Council's Conveyancing Practice Committee.

Bankruptcy: Puan Balqis Aini bt Mohd Ali, Session Court Judge, Petaling Jaya and Azman Ali b. Thaiyub Khan, legal practitioner from Petaling Jaya.

Winding Up: Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Prof. Dr. Aisah Bidin.

Probate & Administration of Estates: Tuan Amernudin bin Ahmad, Session Court Judge, Butterworth and Lee Chooi Peng, legal practitioner from Kuala Lumpur.

UUM
UUM
The LPQB Evaluators at UUM.
Interview of students in progress.
Andrew Wong with some of the students of UUM.
Interview of students in progress.

At the visit to MMU, the following were responsible for the respective areas of law:

Civil Procedure: Puan Suzana Atan and Robert Lazar, legal practitioner from Kuala Lumpur.

Criminal Procedure: Tuan Shahidani Abd. Aziz, Head of Prosecution Unit, Melaka and Salim bin Bashir Bhaskaran.

Evidence: Tuan Ahmad Kamar Jamaludin, Session Court Judge, Kuala Lumpur and S. Gunasegaran, Chairman of Johor Bar.

Contract: Tuan Mohd Radhi bin Abas and Hj. Abdul Murad b. Che Chik, Chairman of Bar Council's Conveyancing Practice Committee.

Tort: Tuan Muniandy Kannyappan and K Anandaraj Krishnasamy, legal practitioner from Seremban.

Ethics of Legal Profession: Puan Soo Ai Lin and Hendon Mohamed.

Land Law: Roger Tan and Andrew Wong Fook Hin.

Bankruptcy: Puan Balqis Aini bt Mohd Ali and Teh Yoke Hooi, member of the Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board.

Winding Up: Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Prof. Dr. Aisah Bidin.

Probate & Administration of Estates: Lee Chooi Peng.

MMU
MMU
Interview of students in progress.
Evaluator Lee Chooi Peng with MMU law students.

5 comments:

  1. Mr Roger Tan,

    Please do visit Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) in Trengganu as well. Please....? :-(

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Anonymous,

    Your university, UniSZA has to follow up with the Legal Profession Qualifying Board. Best wishes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No comments or opinion on the performance, imo that's the juiciest part ;P

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mr Roger Tan,
    When we will get to know the result of the interview from the LPQB Evaluators ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Anonymous,

    The Bar Council will issue a circular to our members soon on this matter.

    ReplyDelete