The words ‘English legal scholarship’ though high sounding have a similar function to the words ‘disposable paper cup’. Each adjective strengthens the message that one cannot expect much in terms of long term quality or utility from it. — Geoffrey Wilson
Critics may argue that Prof. Wilson, the founder of the Warwick Law School, was being too harsh when writing on English legal scholarship. Back in 1987, such bold criticism of legal academics was uncommon. Interestingly, the British Journal of Law and Society’s endorsement of the socio-legal approach to legal research had important consequences on writers of legal education.
Today, in Pakistan, there is little or almost no empirical/data-driven/purposeful research on legal education or its reform. Recently, the Supreme Court ordered the constitution of a committee to suggest improvements in legal education, and directed the law ministry to provide assistance in the formation of the body. This is in continuum of a series of directives that have been issued by the apex court in the past.
In 2018, the ex-CJP Saqib Nisar approved a number of recommendations by a special committee on structural reforms in legal education, including an entrance level Law Admission Test (LAT) and a uniform five-year LLB degree. In 2019, former CJP Asif Saeed Khosa emphasized the need to improve the quality of legal education. He remarked, “We must have to launch a movement for restoration of the nobility of legal profession”.
Despite all these directives by the apex court, Pakistan continues to face a legal education crisis. According to unofficial statistics, there are more than 200 institutions offering undergraduate law programmes. Some of these are affiliated with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) recognized public sector universities while others are private institutions. Another interesting statistic is that there are more than 200,000 licensed legal practitioners in Pakistan, and the number is growing each year due the mushrooming of institutions offering law programmes. Out of these, there is a sizeable chunk of lawyers who are non-practicing but hold valid and active licenses. These are the dormant members of the bars, who play the pivotal role of voters in the Bar council elections at district, provincial and national levels. They also come in handy when it’s time to display the mighty ‘vukula baraadri’ brand of hooliganism.
Recently, the Supreme Court ordered the constitution of a committee to suggest improvements in legal education, and directed the law ministry to provide assistance in the formation of the body. This is in continuum of a series of directives that have been issued by the apex court in the past.
The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) is the key regulator to monitor the standard of legal education pursuant to the Pakistan Bar Council Legal Education Rules, 2015.
Legal education in Pakistan is being delivered through two models: a five-year LLB programme; and the three-year University of London external LLB (to which the 2015 regulations don’t apply). Many of the universities which are recognized or accredited by both the HEC and the PBC pay little heed to the 2015 rules. If one simply reads through rules 7 to 13-A of Chapter II, it becomes quite questionable whether many of the degree conferring institutions are in compliance.
As a starting point, the regulators should ask themselves what legal skills are required in present day Pakistan? Whether our legal education system is equipped to impart those skills?
Currently, our legal education system fosters an insular culture. In a post-pandemic world, the future of legal professionals is more likely to revolve around customer-centric, litigant-friendly, technological, efficient, accessible, value-added, data-driven, impactful, and more humane legal services. The practice of law, which has long been defined, and exclusively controlled by lawyers, is now expanding in scope and becoming consumer-driven. This signifies that the Gen-Z legal practitioners will now be required to have a wider multi-disciplinary skillset along with a more analytical mindset.
The UK has cut down the list of reserved services requiring licensed attorneys to a fewer categories. Now, the aspirants sitting for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), will no longer be required to attend law schools. In the US, the key stakeholders that include regulators and corporate legal clients are also working to reevaluate and restructure the role and delivery models in which licensed attorneys are required to perform what were once described as purely legal tasks.
Legal education in Pakistan is conservative and the key stakeholders — universities, law firms, regulators, bar councils and the judiciary — functioning as guilds, are resisting changes. The upliftment of the standards of legal education should be a common objective. However, an asynchronous, siloed, precedent-bound, self-regulated and data-deficient approach can hardly provide any solutions. In the long run, this will continue to erode the public trust and imperil the rule of law. Bold and outcome-oriented measures will be required to truly restore the nobility of the legal profession.
It is an open secret that a majority of top corporate law firms of Pakistan prefer to employ foreign-qualified graduates. This is because they have analytical skills, research and drafting skills and emotional intelligence.
Our local universities fail to provide practice-ready skills to graduates on entry into the marketplace. Emphasis is laid on cramming legal doctrines, legal jargon and acts and statutes. Our universities are preparing students for careers that are saturated. These institutions thrive on their hegemony, lack of accountability and inability to modernise. Many full-time law school faculty members have little or no practice or industry experience, and understanding of the marketplace or awareness of a variety of career paths.
It is also an open secret that the majority of the top corporate law firms of Pakistan prefer to employ foreign-qualified graduates. This is because they have more augmented skills which include analytical skills, research and drafting skills, emotional intelligence, people skills, technological skills, teamwork/collaboration, diverse cultural awareness, empathy, communication skills, persuasive skills, multi-tasking and so on.
The salient features of our legal education system include doctrinal-permeated pedagogy; patronage-based talent pools; and the maintenance of status quo. Physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy has highlighted that our higher education system is rife with favoritism, cancel-culture and ideological orthodoxy.
