Bar: It’s time to rethink publicity rules for lawyers

It is time to reconsider if publicity rules for lawyers are too restrictive as part of a blueprint to revamp the country’s legal profession, said Malaysian Bar president George Varughese


BEAM Team

29 May, 2017

Bar: It’s time to rethink publicity rules for lawyers | BEAMSTART News

- From our Sponsors -

KUALA LUMPUR: It is time to reconsider if publicity rules for lawyers are too restrictive as part of a blueprint to revamp the country’s legal profession, said Malaysian Bar president George Varughese.

He said the Bar would look into some of its rules to move with the times and be more in sync with foreign jurisdictions which had relaxed their rules to be more competitive.

The new president, who was elected at the Bar Council annual general meeting on March 18, said he was devising a three-to-five year plan for the Bar.

“Perhaps we need to look at those rules and see if lawyers can advertise their services more freely, but not to a point that would bring the industry into disrepute,” he told The Star.

On online lawyer directory services such as BurgieLaw and CanLaw, he said such websites were still being studied, with CanLaw having approached the Bar to look into their service.

“If it’s good for the profession, this could be an area to be liberalised a bit,” he said.

He added that the Small Firms and Future of Law Committee was in charge of looking into online services such as lawyer directories and legal document templates to see if they could exist without contravening the Legal Profession Act.

Varughese said de facto Law Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said was also keen to develop a blueprint and had arranged several meetings with the Bar to see how to work it out.

He said it was more important for the Government to focus on the blueprint than to pry into the Bar’s internal election procedures, referring to a proposed Bill to appoint two government representatives to the Bar to change its election process.

Asked if Malaysia was facing a glut of lawyers, Varughese disagreed, saying law graduates were still able to find places for pupilage after graduation.

Bar statistics recorded steady growth in the number of registered practitioners, from 15,896 in 2015 to 16,414 last year and 16,524 this year.

- From our Sponsors -

Latest Jobs

Account Executive

GrowthBook

Full Time

USD 100000 — USD 150000 yearly

Growth Marketing Manager, SEO & GEO

Firecrawl

Contract

USD 70000 — USD 100000 yearly

Android Engineer

Ziina

Full Time

USD 80000 — USD 140000 yearly

Founding Design Engineer

Solve Intelligence

England,

Full Time

USD 70000 — USD 150000 yearly

Backend Developer

CozmoX AI

Karnataka,

Full Time

USD 2500000 — USD 6000000 yearly

Sales Development Representative

Corgi

Texas,

Full Time

USD 90000 — USD 150000 yearly

Fullstack Engineer at Bemlo - Linear for healthcare scheduling (W22)

Bemlo

Stockholm County,

Full Time

USD 90 — USD 160 yearly

Forward Deployed Finance Systems Analyst

Concourse

New York,

Full Time

USD 120 — USD 160 yearly

Sales Development Representative

Camber

New York,

Full Time

USD 60000 — USD 120000 yearly

Founding Applied AI Engineer at Kastle

Kastle

California,

Full Time

USD 140000 — USD 180000 yearly

BEAMSTART is a hub for everything Startups, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation. Connect with a global community of people, and stay updated with the latest startup jobs, news, and discussions.

 
© 2016 - 2025 BEAMSTART. All Rights Reserved (Legal).