Gopal Subramanium, Solicitor General and Chairman of Bar Council of India (BCI) has released a note on legal education reforms. The 7-page reform note details 10 action items that have been stipulated with deadlines to complete the reform process. Here is the list of action items and timelines for reform.

The proposed measures for reform are divided into Institutional Reforms, Reforms in Content and Structure, and Measures to Improve Pedagogy and Methods of Teaching.

Institutional Reforms:

1. Uniform admission procedures for all the recognised law schools in the country.
2. Establishment of the National Academy for Law Teaching and Continuing Legal Education.
3. Revised list of requirements for accreditation of law schools.
4. Benchmarking and quality evaluation of law schools.
5. Standardisation of the academic calendar.

Reforms in Content and Structure

1. Five-year dual-degree LL.B. programmes to be made the norm; three- year LL.B. programmes to focus on specialised areas of law.   

   Moving forward, only five-year, dual-degree LL.B. programmes would be recognised by the Bar Council. BCI will continue to encourage three-year LL.B courses for specialised areas such as Intellectual Property Rights, which are undertaken by post-graduates. Along with the LL.B. Programmes, it is also important to strengthen the current LL.M. degree that is awarded by various law schools across the country, especially in light of the fact that the LL.M. degree is often a stepping-stone to legal academia. BCI is also exploring the option of a nine- to twelve-month LLM degree programme that can be undertaken immediately post graduating an LL.B. programme.

   
   
2. Balance between doctrinal and vocational education.
3. A revised curriculum. 

Measures to improve Pedagogy and Methods of Teaching 

1. New technologies to be used in legal education.
2. Measures to attract and retain better faculty.
3. Mix of small and large class sizes for teaching.
4. Medium of instruction - The medium of instruction at all law schools would be English, and this would be a mandatory and strict requirement for accreditation of the law school.
5.  Use of contemporary teaching techniques, and adoption of the Outcomes Model.
6. Continuous education and skill upgrades for faculty.

Bar & Bench will do a detailed analysis of these reforms and seek expert opinions on legal education. The BCI, which has been a passive spectator in the past, is now aggressively pushing for reforms. The Chairman has been very serious about pushing path-breaking reforms ever since his first day in office. First, a new website for information on the BCI, a vision statement for legal profession, All India Bar Exam and now a detailed vision statement for legal education reforms, these are some of the reforms that the Chairman has initiated.

The Chairman, in his first vision statement had mentioned some statistics of the Indian legal community. He said “Indian legal profession today consists of approximately 11 lakh (1.1 million) registered advocates, around 1,000 law schools and approximately 5 lakh (0.5 million) law students across the country. Every year, approximately 60,000 law graduates join the legal profession in India”. This legal education reform envisages to monitor the large pool of 1000 law colleges and 60,000 law graduates who join the legal profession every year. If each of these changes are implemented then the legal education space will drastically change, which is much needed in this country. 

Detailed note by the BCI Chairman, Gopal Subramanium