I34 lawyers ordered to re-sit exams

KAMPALA.
A total of 134 lawyers who did their final examinations at the Law Development Centre (LDC) in August have been ordered to re-sit some papers if they are to practice law or be considered for graduation which is slated for March next year.

This group is part of the 301 lawyers who registered for the post- graduate diploma in legal studies last year.

Mr Hamis Lukyamuzi the LDC spokesperson said that the group will not practice law until they re-sit and pass the papers they failed.

“The fact is that, they can neither graduate nor practice law unless they first re-sit all the papers they failed. The earlier the better for them,” said LDC spokesperson, Mr Lukyamuzi said in an interview on Tuesday.

According to the examinations results released by LDC, a total of 105 passed out rightly, 37 passed by compensation –meaning they failed to get the 50 percent pass mark in some papers and examiners deducted from other papers to add where one was weak, seven lawyers failed the course, nine missed the exams, one died while six abandoned the course .

Two lawyers were discontinued after failing both oral and written practical examinations which they were supposed to pass by 50 percent pass mark.

A total of 279 lawyers passed the compulsory subject which has not been the case in the last decade. The compulsory subject is a combination of core subjects including; Professional Conduct, Judicial Conduct, Revenue Law & Taxation and Accountancy for Lawyers.
Other well done subjects include; Civil Proceedings, Criminal Proceedings and Domestic Relations.
Lukyamuzi attributed the good performance to a number of interventions including among others, assigning each student a lecturer to act as professional mentor and academic parent for personal guidance –something that never used to happen in the past.

“These days we test our students’ ability to think critically, analytically and to apply the law, and this is one of the methods that have enabled many pass our exams these days,” he said

Utility
LDC is the only institution in the country that admits law graduates to obtain diplomas in legal practice .A lawyer cannot practice as an advocate in Uganda without the diploma. Over the years, there have been calls to break the monopoly of LDC to offer the bar course but this move has faced stiff resistance from the Law Council, which argues that opening up the market could compromise the standards

LDC is currently in the process of reviewing its curriculum for the bar course that will see some subjects which have been compulsory made optional.

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