Becoming a Barrister!

Studying in a foreign country is perhaps the most common ambition for students of South East Asian countries like Bangladesh. When the student is a law student or has the ambition to become a lawyer then coming to UK and gaining a Barrister Certificate (popularly known as Bar-at-law) is a must for most of the capable students (perhaps for all of the students who are financially capable). It is, however, not easy for those students, except for handful of them to go through the whole process, in fact for most of them finding the right path to achieve that goal becomes so difficult that they feel like they have opened Pandora’s box. Some would just relinquish the dream of becoming a Barrister. This is because of the fact that most often student do not know firstly, what information is to be looked for, secondly, where to look for them, and thirdly, they simply become confused by the colourful and sometimes misleading information provided by the countless agents and study counselling services. The intention behind writing this post is to give an understanding to those students who want to follow the path of a Barrister but in doubt as to how to do it. It is to bear in mind that the post is written on the sociological context of Bangladesh.

The first thing that is to be pointed out here is that most of the students do not know about the nature of the Barrister Certificate. Some even go so far as calling it a Barrister Degree. In my opinion this is where the confusion starts. Barrister is a Title, much like the Title of Advocate in Bangladesh. One cannot call it a degree in any way as it is in essence a permit to practice law and not a certificate of achievement (at least not in the sense of an academic degree), secondly it is not awarded by an academic body but by the English Bar Council (Just as the certificate of Advocacy is awarded by the Bangladesh Bar Council). Where does this information fit into current discussion? Well the first mistake students do is that they think that it is some sort of course which they should study to become a Barrister. Which follows there second mistake what information is to look for?

A Students then start to hunt for colleges and/or universities in UK for a suitable degree that would lead them to study Bar-at-law (a popular phrase, although the notion should be to become Bar-at-law or to become a Barrister). But what they do not know is that a law degree is only the first stage and even a simple LL.B. in UK may not be enough to be enrolled in the BVC (Bar Vocational Course) it has to be a Qualifying Law Degree or often known as QLD (see http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/trainingandeducation/careers/Training/QualifyingLawDegree/). An LL.M. degree is never going to qualify a student for BVC, unless s/he has considerable experience in Legal Practice (at least two years, although it depends entirely on the Bar Standards Board). Likewise an overseas Graduation in Law is not going to qualify as a QLD, but what it can do in some instances is give the student some concession or exemption in some of the subjects in the QLD. In which case the student may not has to undertake one/two or few of the subjects or modules, as the ‘Bar Standards Board’ (BSB) say it. But in all cases an overseas student has to undertake QLD. Therefore, it is a good idea to go for the QLD as early as possible (preferably right after the H.S.C exam in Bangladesh). There are arguments in opposition as well, for example, some say a student have to return to his/her home country after becoming a barrister and undertake practice in his/her own jurisdiction, in that case s/he has to know the laws of his/her jurisdiction therefore a national degree in law is also highly appreciated or at least expected. This is one of the reasons a student might want to undertake a law degree in Bangladesh.

In all the circumstances a student should look for a UK based college or university which would provide him/her with the necessary qualifying law degree needed for BVC. In this case browsing the net for information would be the best idea. One can directly contact the Bar Standards Board (http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/) for further information. Choosing a good institution is the key behind successful completion of the process. In this instance I would like to make a point that most of the Student Counselling services in Bangladesh are more or less business oriented institution and may often confuse or mislead students for the sake of their business. In my experience most of them do not even have a clear idea as to which path should be suggested to the students who want to become a barrister and would, therefore, provide wrong information.

A student who has already gone through the rigorous 4 years LL.B. course in Bangladesh should go for the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) or Common Professional Exam (CPE). These are some course that would provide a Graduate (either from Law or other background) a crash course in law enabling them for the BVC. So what happens after one achieves the Qualifying Law Degree (either by achieving English LL.B. degree or by GDL/CPE)? S/he applies for a membership in one of the Inn’s of Court in England and enrols in BVC course. There are certain other criteria’s to become member of the Inn’s of Court. One of them is that you have to have an internship in one of the Law Firms in UK.

It has to be remembered that Bar-at-law is not an academic degree but a professional certificate, therefore, it cannot be achieved by an academic course (although it does require certain level of academic achievement). There are also numerous loop holes in the system which needs to be patched by the student in order to go through the whole process. It also requires a substantial amount of ambition, stamina, patience and money to complete.