Recognition for the HELP Bachelor of Laws (LLB) Hons degree by the Malaysian Legal Profession Qualifying Board enables HELP University’s Faculty of Law and Government to redouble its efforts as a leading law school to groom lawyers of quality and distinction.
Graduates of the HELP LLB programme are now eligible to pursue the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) to qualify as legal practitioners.
The three-year HELP LLB (Hons) is taught by the same team of law academics who have nurtured students to consistently achieve First Class Honours results at leading law schools in the UK under the UK Degree Law Transfer Programme.
The emphasis is on Malaysian law with comparative analyses of other jurisdictions. It has been crafted with the Faculty’s mission in mind, namely Grooming Employable Lawyers.
The Faculty has achieved this objective through a combination of excellent pedagogical skills, close tutorial support and pastoral care for students, and collaboration and input from leading legal minds both local and from the UK in the design of the curriculum and course content.
In addition, the Faculty has incorporated two compulsory modules that emphasize lawyering skills. These modules, Legal Skills and Legal Practice, introduce students to fundamental lawyering skills in their second and third year.
They are aimed at fulfilling the legal profession’s demand for competent and immediately employable law graduates by imparting skills such as legal research, drafting, advocacy, client counselling, opinion writing, negotiation and mooting.
These two modules are an essential component of the Faculty’s pedagogical excellence because they are taught by experienced legal practitioners. They are also graded to ensure that effective learning takes place.
“As a fresh graduate back in the early 90s when I embarked on my pupillage, I was so lost. I had a degree in hand but it did not prepare me for the real world”, said Vasantha Punniamoorthy, Dean of the Faculty.
“I did not even know the legal lingo that lawyers spoke. Our students now will never face the same problem. They are groomed and armed with the knowledge and skills for legal practice.”
The programme has been designed with expert input and delivered in a highly supportive learning environment led by dedicated and experienced lecturers. They comprise lecturers who are former practitioners who have turned to full-time teaching and current practitioners. They bring with them a wealth of practical experience that is invaluable in the teaching and reading of law.
A new strategy in the Faculty’s mission to groom employable lawyers is the introduction of the Legal Professional Training Course (LPTC) in September. It is aimed at preparing graduates who did not have the opportunity to pursue the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) in the UK and who will be sitting for the CLP exams in Malaysia by providing them with the relevant practical training.
Students entering the legal profession must not only know the theory; they must also understand how it applies, and this is only possible by giving them sufficient practical training for each module of the CLP.
The LPTC students will also have the opportunity to attend dinings with members of the Malaysian Bar and Bench, an experience that has been the tradition of the BPTC in the UK.
“Students who were unable to pursue the BPTC are welcome to join the LPTC at HELP,” says Vasantha. “You will have the opportunity to prepare for the CLP in a practical learning environment for a fraction of the cost.”
The Faculty provides a variety of other learning and practical experiences designed to strengthen students’ competencies.
It publishes two law journals: the HELP Law Review and the HELP Student Law Journal. These act as incubators of knowledge and ideas to sharpen legal thinking and encourage research, writing and publishing amongst the faculty members, students and members of the legal fraternity. Students learn the art of legal writing, reporting and presentation as essential tools to facilitate the creation and dissemination of legal thought and ideas. This is important to sustain law as a vibrant and living system of thought, philosophy, body of knowledge, and above all as a practice and profession.
HELP’s law students will also be equipped with soft skills that will help them in their careers: workshops in resume writing and accounting for lawyers; and seminars in business, economics, communication and psychology.
“They cannot be expected to only know the law”, says Vasantha.
“Law must be read as an integrated discipline, eg with economics and business. Graduates must be able to understand the law and ethics to cope with the rapid changes and challenges ushered in by the 4th Industrial Revolution and the digital era. All our students are also given the opportunity to do the Certificate in Data and Business Analytics course at no additional cost to them”.
Join HELP for a stimulating and inspiring LLB programme which grooms employable lawyers distinguished for their leadership, communication and organisational skills who are highly sought after by the profession.
Next intake: September 2019
For further enquiries on the law programmes at HELP University, kindly contact Amir Syah or Frances at 016 9849038.