Bar Council proposes action plan to improve, modernise legal profession - Azalina

The Bar Council has proposed an action plan to improve and modernise the legal profession in the country before any amendments are made to the Legal Profession Act (LPA) 1976.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said she would bring the proposal to the Cabinet for consideration soon.

And if, in principle, the Cabinet approved, then a special committee will be set up to implement the action plan, she told a press conference after chairing her second official meeting with representatives from the Bar Council at the Kuala Lumpur Regional Arbitration Centre (KLRCA) here today.

Azalina said the Council had also proposed 12 moves to improve the proposed amendment to the LPA, involving Common Bar Course, ethical and professional standards for practitioners, legal aid tasks, name of legal firms and methods of legal profession (publicity) rules.

She said the moves were proposed to ensure a comprehensive and holistic amendment could be done to the LPA.

Azalina said this was in line with the current development and to give a new breath to the legal profession in the country so that local legal practitioners could compete in the international arena.

Asked whether the Bar Council welcomed the government's plan to amend the LPA, the minister said the Council wanted it to be done comprehensively and not just involving certain sections of the Act. - BERNAMA