So, potentially, I can go to the crappiest university in the UK, do the BTPC, and get called to the Malaysian bar. Renders the list of qualified universities quite pointless.

Hey guys just wondering whether a Permanent Resident are allowed to take CLP examination and practice in Malaysia after the completion of the exam?

That really depends if you have got the luck. Just PM him and see?

Hello everyone. Just received my SPM results last thursday. My results are 3A+7A 1B+. I had interest in doing law. There are two paths going to bachelor of law. one is A level and the other one is foundation in law which provided by MMU.

I wanted to ask which path would u guys recommended? Is mmu a good university. I'm afraid i cant get the offer from mmu as my results are not very excellent! thanks for any replies!

You're right, I found out from the Ministry of Law website that the degrees aren't recognized.

No, I'm not a Singapore citizen or PR yet, but bearing in mind the fact that the Singapore government has a tendency to hand out PRs to skilled foreigners, obtaining a PR (and possibly citizenship in the future) should not be an issue. After all, the law schools in NUS and SMU admit international students who opt to take the tuition grant into their law faculties, in my opinion it would only be right to offer PRs to these students in order to serve their tuition grant in Singapore (and to retain the foreign talent they educated).

Hi chelsh,
Thanks for your reply. LNAT =A Test for entering Law Schools in UK ? As to which universities I am to apply, what are the bearings for me to get a place for BPTC after graduating ? Heard that it is very difficult to a place nowadays ? Kindly advice.

Hey guys I am a 2nd year law student currently studying in UK, I have been pondering my future prospect of a legal career in malaysia, these are some of the questions i have in mind:

1. Aside from the compulsory core subjects,What subjects do you advise law students take for higher employability?

2. What are the requirements to gain entry into top firms of Malaysia? Do they focus more on academic abilities or extracurricular acheivements?

3.How competitive is the process to secure pupillage in top firms? In UK it usually involves a painfully long application/online tests/presentation/group exercise/interview process.

4. What is are the salary prospects of a fresh lawyer in Malaysia? I know it is absurd to expect the fresh lawyers in Malaysia to be as well paid as those in Singapore or UK, but a starting pay of around 3,000 is hardly enough to pay for rent and usual expenses while having extra to spend.

Will be great to hear your opinions, students or practising lawyers alike!

Hey I took the UEC too, thinking of doing my CLP in brickfields. Brickfields accepts UEC as an equiavalent to STPM with regards to admission for CLP (although that follows the legal qualifiying board guidelines so no surprise).

But since they stated that they accept STPM or equivalent to enter into their undergraduate programmes, it should not be a problem.
Alternatively HELP and Taylors definitely accept UEC qualifications into their undergraduate courses, you could look into that too!

I would say it is not recommended to take A level Law as you will have the perception of thinking that a law degree might be as easy as what you did during A levels. You will be doing contract and tort law in A levels and the same modules for university but the modules in university will be tougher.

If you get rejected from top universities in Uk, especially those which require LNAT, definitely LNAT is the one which reduces your chance in gaining offers and not A levels Law.

I am in King's College London doing my final year in Law and I did A levels law before. UCL and Oxford rejected me due to my LNAT results. I didn't apply to LSE as their education counsellor told me not to take A levels Law and Accounting as it will reduce my chances in entering LSE (for year 2010 entry though, I am not sure whether the system has changed or not)

What universities do you plan to apply to?

1. I think you may have misunderstood my question, my question was directed towards modules choices for the undergraduate LLB. Are there certain module choices that are treated more favorably (or viewed as compulsory) by firms? This of course excludes equity and trusts, constitutional law, administrative law, land law, criminal law, tort law, contract law .

2. Am I right to say given the current trend of grade inflation (especially in UK, where more than 50% law graduates are awarded 2:1), a 1st class degree is the only thing that allows you to stand out from other applicants? It is a pity that extracurricular commitments are given so little weight, because being a student representative/ uni pro bono legal team etc does provide qualities and experiences that are central to being a lawyer.

3. I am aware of the challenges that one has to face while entering the legal profession in UK. Its currently almost impossible to secure pupillage without doing at least 6 or 7 mini-pupillages as well as doing the FRU in London before hand. To secure a vac scheme / training contract on the other hand requires one to go through the process I mentioned in my previous post. I know because I had first hand experience of assessment days of city firms.

Thanks for the your incredibly helpful thread by the way, definitely will recommend to any aspiring lawyers I know.

Firstly, I'm male. Check out my male tag.

Hard to believe Singapore would make it compulsory for all male foreigners to serve NS in order to fulfill the requirements of their tuition grant. What a waste of time for the foreigners, especially in an important industry such as law in Singapore.

Anyways, an extract from the ICA website,

"Main applicants who are granted PR status under the Professionals/Technical Personnel and Skilled Workers (PTS) Scheme or the Investor Scheme are exempted from NS. Male children who are granted PR status under their parents' sponsorship are liable for NS under the Enlistment Act. They are required to register for NS upon reaching 16½ years old and will be scheduled for enlistment at the earliest opportunity upon reaching 18 years old."

If I'm reading this correctly, wouldn't this mean that your friend (unless he's under 18, or was formerly a PR) would not need to serve NS? He would be way over 18 by the time he graduates/graduated from law school, also lawyers are categorised as Professionals under the PTS scheme. Also, first generation PRs don't need to serve NS.

Maybe the way to go about things is to apply for an Employment Pass first in order to carry out the Training Contract, complete the training and then apply for a PR in order to meet the requirement to be called to the Bar. However, I understand that there have been cases where foreigners that applied for an Employment Pass were offered Permanent Residence instead. It wouldn't make much sense to implement the policy you mentioned either, since Singapore is dealing with a falling birth rate and intends to bring in new PRs and citizens to reach a population of around 6.9 million. The implementation of such a policy would discourage foreign talent from working and living in Singapore.

But then again, those are just my thoughts. If such a policy really comes into effect, I would definitely reconsider practicing in Singapore as two years is just too long. Sorry for going off-topic here.

Apparently it's not necessary to be a PR/citizen when one serves the training contract, it would only be necessary to be a PR/citizen when all other requirements are already fulfilled (Training contract, Bar exam) in order to be called to the Bar.

Speculation is rife that international students graduating from Singaporean univerisites/Polytechnics are offered PRs by the ICA, the only condition they need to fulfill is that they secure employment in Singapore.

The conduct of a lawsuit is called litigation

I'm curious to see, what interesting thing you can learn in Malaysia. Seriously.

Since you said can practice a certain amount of litigation, example please?

From my point of view, there's nothing to be practice.

Most of my lawyer friends are doing paperwork pushing till 10pm in Malaysia compared to others that are practicing elsewhere in the world.

Essentially, as you have said, the process of bringing a case to court (or even any form of dispute resolution) is litigation. You have noted that most your lawyer friends do paperwork till late night. That is litigation. Whether they deal with substance or procedure, that is litigation. And they make money from this. This refutes your earlier point that there is nothing to litigate. Whether the practice itself is meaningful is a different question.

Meaning I am looking at the Executive, Juduciary and Legislature context. What's your view as you are a practicing lawyer ?

Is this not "useful information for prospective law students, a basic guide to become a lawyer"?