Concerns over the declining quality of law graduates are fuelling calls from top legal minds to probe the reintroduction of a five-year LLB degree.
Leading the debate is Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe who has called on universities and the government to consider the re- introduction of the five-year training of lawyers.
Said Ngoepe: “There are complaints from many quarters, including the judiciary that the standards are not as they used to be; I am particularly referring to the younger generation of practitioners.”
Judge Ngoepe said, though one should guard against generalisations, the complaints “cannot be ignored or wished away”.
“Of concern to some of us is whether the public, that is the community … get their money’s worth. But what do you expect when a post-graduate degree is produced and ends up being nothing more than a glorified junior degree,” he said.
He emphasised that too many programmes have been cut off from the original five-year LLB.
In 1998, the department of justice under former justice minister Dullah Omar shortened the LLB programme from five to four years to make it more accessible to previously disadvantaged students. Despite the shorter period of study some students still opted for an extra year of study.
Some law experts believe a consequence of the shorter training has been that students are focusing on black-letter law — the basic standard elements of law. They therefore do not have time to do subjects that could provide them with more insight into the society in which they will practise.
Professor Christof Heyns, dean of law at the University of Pretoria, supports a five-year LLB degree. According to him students need to do a BCom or BA degree before starting an LLB. “Alternatively, I suggest they take another year or two after the LLB to do a master’s degree here or overseas or get some additional life experience,” he said.
“The legal profession has complained quite a lot, [especially] attorneys, advocates and judges [about the quality] of graduates,” said Heyns.
Most complaints have been about students’ low levels of literacy and numeracy skills. Furthermore, universities have been criticised for having low admission requirements for law programmes. As a result law could become a programme chosen by students rejected from other programmes with high entry requirements.
But not everyone believes the four-year LLB is flawed.
Professor Rob Midgely, dean of Rhodes University’s faculty of law and chairperson of the Law Deans Association, said it was premature to change the four-year LLB.
“We need to give the four-year programme a chance because the reasons to do it in the first place still outweigh those that suggest that it should be taken back to five years,” he explained.
The four-year programme, Midgley explained, was introduced because of the many socio-economic problems stemming from South Africa’s political background. These problems included the financial pressures of studying for five years compared to four and family expectations to complete studies sooner, start earning and saving the family from poverty. “This meant that it was better for students to choose the shortest route towards getting the degree,” said Midgley.
But Ngoepe said he has never found the explanation behind the four-year LLB convincing.
“Previously disadvantaged people, if given the opportunity and resources, would achieve like everyone else. They do not need to be patronised in such a manner. As I once said, if I could obtain the old post-graduate LLB degree through private studies with Unisa in the mid-Seventies while working, any determined person can obtain that degree as well,” he said.
Ngoepe said it was not only the curriculum that deserved attention. Practical training was also a concern. The practical training also concerns the Black Lawyers Association, said president Muzi Msimang.
“You don’t just blame the curriculum if the quality of graduates is poor. One should try to look at other things,” said Msimang.
He added: “Serving articles has been reduced to 12 months from the traditional two years and nobody is making a noise about it. I don’t think the number of years for an LLB affects the quality of the graduates, but the training once they finish the programme is to blame.”
Ngoepe said that in the past a junior degree such as a B Juris, which is a four-year degree, would demand serving articles for three years. Today, with a junior or four-year degree such as B Proc, graduates do not even serve articles for a full two years.
He said there were questions about whether some individuals or centres training articled clerks really offer adequate training and whether they were themselves qualified to offer proper training.
“I do not accept the excuses that all these changes were to make the professions more accessible. You may not compromise quality to open up a profession. Other ways could have been found,” Ngoepe said.