Seeking ‘A Fair Field’ for Women in the Legal Profession: Pioneering Women Lawyers from Burma of 1924-19351

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Li Chen ◽  
Yi Li
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Inns Of Court ◽  
Professional Success ◽  
Bar Examination ◽  
Women Lawyers ◽  
Racial Hierarchies

The enactment of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act in 1919 tore down a significant gender barrier and opened doors of the once exclusively male legal profession in the United Kingdom. This article focuses on its early beneficiaries in Burma, a less studied colony of the Empire in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It traces the first four women barristers from colonial Burma, and their odyssey to gain tradecraft and skills through seeking legal education at the Inns of Court in London. It evaluates their performances at the Bar Examination and explores the challenges they faced as they beat a path into the traditionally male-dominated legal profession. Finally, the paper shows how these pioneering women barristers were able to utilise the fruits of their legal education to further the cause of promoting gender equality upon their return to Burma. However, their professional success also reveals the persistence of gender and racial hierarchies across the Empire despite ongoing legal reformation and political activism, as they were subjected to confrontations and discriminations throughout their career.

The Legal Profession

2019 ◽  
pp. 165-184
Author(s):  
John Baker
Keyword(s):  
General Practitioners ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Law School ◽  
Inns Of Court ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Common

This chapter traces the history of the English legal profession, which begins around 1200. From the start there was a distinction between advocacy and attorneyship. The pleaders in the Court of Common Pleas became around 1300 the order of serjeants at law, from whom the superior judges were chosen. A law school for ‘apprentices of the Bench’ in the thirteenth century was remodelled in the next century as a collegiate system, the inns of court and chancery, with its own learning exercises and degrees (bencher and barrister). Barristers practised as advocates, but not in the Common Pleas. In Tudor times solicitors appeared, as general practitioners. Serjeants lost their primacy to the newer rank of king’s counsel, but survived into Victorian times. Accounts are given of the judiciary and its independence, of the Civilian practitioners in Doctors’ Commons, and of the transfer of legal education to the universities.

Legal Education in Malaysia in the Context of Legal Practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2.29) ◽  
pp. 494
Author(s):  
Norfadhilah Mohamad Ali ◽  
Mohd Hazmi Mohd Rusli ◽  
Syahirah Abdul Shukor ◽  
Mohd Nasir Abdul Majid ◽  
Hendun Abd Rahman Shah ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Universities ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Law School ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Reasonable Expectation ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Private And Public

Upon attaining independence in 1957, most judges and lawyers in Malaysia received legal education and legal training in the United Kingdom. University of Malaya was the only premier law school in Malaysia during that time. Gradually, the number of law schools increased and now legal education is available in a number of both private and public universities in Malaysia. The landscape of legal education differ post 2008 when new law schools from public universities were made subject to a review conducted by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) – failure to obtain full recognition will result in students from the universities concerned, having to sit for Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) examination. In the light of this development, legal education in Malaysia has become under strict  scrutiny by the legal fraternity, and thus it is a question of what reasonable expectation should the country set on the legal education provided by universities. This article will address legal education from the point of view of universities, the relevance of the CLP examination and the level of skills and knowledge required to produce ‘practice-ready’ graduates. The discussion also considers the availability of the 9-months pupillage before admission to the Malaysian Bar and  other criteria for education as provided for by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA). The whole paper will be based on the  Legal Profession Act 1976, the MQA guidelines, the developments of legal education in Malaysia and the experience of laws schools under review by the LPQB and other stakeholders.   

Law Librarianship and Legal Information Provision in the 21st Century

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-10 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Legal Information ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn this analysis of the future of our profession, Barbara Tearle starts by looking at the past to see how much the world of legal information has evolved and changed. She considers the nature of the profession today and then identifies key factors which she believes will be of importance in the future, including the impact of globalisation; the potential changes to the legal profession; technology; developments in legal education; increasing commercialisation and changes to the law itself.

9. Delivering legal services: practitioners, adjudicators, and legal scholars

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Partington
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Private Colleges ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Legal Services ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
The Law

This chapter discusses the role both of those professionally qualified to practise law—solicitors and barristers—and of other groups who provide legal/advice services but who do not have professional legal qualifications. It examines how regulation of legal services providers is changing. It notes new forms of legal practice. It also considers how use of artificial intelligence may change the ways in which legal services are delivered. It reflects on the adjudicators and other dispute resolvers who play a significant role in the working of the legal system. It reflects on the contribution to legal education made by law teachers, in universities and in private colleges, to the formation of the legal profession and to the practice of the law.

The Statutorification of Common-Law Fields

2019 ◽  
pp. 212-290
Author(s):  
G. Edward White
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Profession ◽  
Civil Procedure ◽  
World War ◽  
Commercial Law ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter describes the process, over an interval between the years after World War I and the 1960s, in which most of the fields considered “basic” common-law subjects in legal education and the legal profession were dramatically affected by statutory developments that sought to modify common-law rules and doctrines in the fields. By the 1960s the “statutorification” of torts, contracts, commercial law, and criminal law was partially in place, and new rules for federal civil procedure had been promulgated.

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