SINGAPORE — While aspiring lawyers may get more time to learn the ropes as their practice training period will be doubled from six months to a year, lawyers told TODAY that there are some concerns about the cost firms may incur.
A new Bill tabled in Parliament last Tuesday would introduce changes to the process law graduates have to go through to be called to the BarLawyers welcomed the move as it would give trainees more time to learn, but said that firms will have to figure out how to deal with the additional salary costs
Last Tuesday , the Ministry for Law tabled the Legal Profession Bill. If passed, lawyer-hopefuls will see some changes to the processes involved in passing the Bar.Increasing the practice training period from six months to a year“The Bill, when passed, will strengthen the professional training regime for lawyers in Singapore and better equip law graduates with the necessary skills and competencies to meet the demands of the future economy and society,” said MinLaw in a press release on Oct 3.
Mr Marshall Lim, partner at Martin & Partners and former deputy public prosecutor and deputy senior state counsel, also said that the extended training period is in line with “the realities of legal practice”. Currently, firms have to make an assessment at the four-month mark whether they wish to retain trainees after their training ends.
When it comes down to the dollars, Mr Teng echoed other lawyers' sentiments that firms will have to evaluate whether to charge their clients for their trainees’ work. “Some people feel like forcing trainees to train in fields that they’re not so interested in is not so productive. But of course, a different view is that as a lawyer, you should be well-rounded and at least know the basics of each practice,” he said.
Mr Firli Farruk, a first-year law student at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, worked as a paralegal for four months before starting his undergraduate programme. During this time, he found that six months are not enough for trainees to fully grasp the depth of the legal system. They are required to have six months of relevant legal training before they can sit for the exams required for the Bar.
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