Kuala lumpur: The 'New Bar Course' (NBC) will be introduced to replace the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination under a new approach that places greater emphasis on practical training and professional skills. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform), M. Kulasegaran, announced the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) had completed its review of the Common Bar Course (CBC) curriculum on March 31 through a dedicated committee.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, the committee had proposed that the CBC be renamed the New Bar Course and be applied to individuals who are not qualified persons under the Legal Profession Act 1976, whether they obtained their law degrees locally or abroad. Under the NBC, which will replace the CLP examination, the LPQB will introduce two programmes known as the Conversion Course and the Legal Practice Postgraduate Certificate (LPPC), Kulasegaran stated during Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was responding to a query from Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan (PN-Kota Bharu) on the latest status of the NBC and the articled clerkship pathway review undertaken by the LPQB. Kulasegaran explained that the Conversion Course would be a three-month online programme designed for overseas graduates needing a structured introduction to Malaysia's legal system, including core substantive laws. This course would be conducted through a Learning Management System (LMS) developed by the LPQB and assessed through Computer-Based Assessment (CBA).
The LPPC, meanwhile, would be a six-month vocational programme for both local and overseas graduates, focusing on legal practice before they undergo pupillage. The LPPC is conceived as a new approach that places greater emphasis on practical skills development than the CLP examination, with a more relevant assessment method, Kulasegaran noted.
In addition, the LPQB established an NBC Task Force on April 27 to undertake a study titled "A Study to Develop the Operational Framework for the New Bar Course (Conversion Course and Legal Practice Postgraduate Certificate): From Policy to Practice". Kulasegaran explained that the study aims to develop the operational framework for the NBC and ensure the smooth implementation of the proposed course.
The task force comprises experts from public universities, private higher education institutions and members of the Malaysian Bar, with the 12-month study running from May 1 this year until April 30, 2027. Regarding the articled clerkship pathway, Kulasegaran mentioned that the LPQB had also established a special committee to undertake a Strategic Review and Enhancement of the Articled Clerk Pathway, with the nine-month study scheduled to run from March 1 to Nov 30, 2026.