Lowering the Singapore Bar: Levelling the Playing Field?
NG SOOK ZHEN
Juris Editor
It used to be that foreign educated lawyers with below average grades had an additional hurdle to cross when competing with locally trained lawyers for a place in the rat race.
But if things go according to the new plan, more foreign-trained lawyers who excel only after law school will be attracted to practice in Singapore.
Previously, foreign trained students with a second lower degree could only be admitted to the Bar after at least two years of work experience. Come 2010, they may be admitted directly.
The benefits of lowering the standards of admissions to the Bar are obvious. Without the need to spend two years garnering work experience before crossing the hurdle of the Bar Exam, more foreign-trained lawyers will be attracted to practice in Singapore, easing the shortage of lawyers here.
Moreover, the range of human ability falls over a spectrum – to place an additional hurdle for students with a borderline second lower honour is unfair to students who have barely missed the mark. The reform remedies this problem by allowing the recruitment market to dictate what the industry needs.
However, the voice of dissent is not to be ignored.
Undoubtably, there will be a perception that an easier route to the Bar is carved. Foreign-trained lawyers who graduated with a second lower honours can just as easily qualify for the Bar as their peers who have studied harder to achieve better grades.
The move also risks lowering the education standards of lawyers as a whole, and may give greater margins for error in an industry that cannot afford blunders.
Yet, qualification to take the Bar exam and entrance to the Bar are distinct issues and should not be conflated into one.
As Ms. Grace Tan, a pupil at KhattarWong remarked during the recent forum on Pupillage (see: Pupillage and You), “The Bar Exam is the most difficult exam ever – I’m not kidding.” As long as there is a revision of the syllabus to the Bar exam to make it more rigourous, the fear of lowering standards is essentially unfounded.
After all, the working world presents the true test of flight for a legal eagle.
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