University of Fiji Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Justice Devendra Pathik School of Law, Professor Shaista Shameem says the remark by Attorney General, Graham Leung that the three universities are churning out law graduates in ‘assembly line fashion’ is not only untruthful but also derogatory and demoralizing to young lawyers.
While labelling the Attorney General’s speech at the Fiji Law Society Convention as ‘simplistic and full of generalizations’, Professor Shameem said that, as Dean of the JDP Law School, she had expected a bit more depth to the AG’s observations about the state of the legal profession in Fiji.
She says she cannot speak for the other law schools, but as far as the University of Fiji is concerned it has carefully crafted a boutique law school with a low number of graduates every year who are at the top of their game.
Professor Shameem says the fact that the University of Fiji’s law graduates are 100 percent employed after admission shows that high government officials need to do their research before making sweeping statements such as those made by the Attorney General in a public forum.
Professor Shameem says she had been equally disappointed with Leung’s earlier statements at the Fiji Law Society Convention that senior lawyers need to mentor young graduates more as they did not appear to be too skilled.
She pointed out that, candidly, there are simply not enough good senior lawyers in Fiji to set an appropriate benchmark for young law graduates to learn from.
Professor Shameem says youngsters are very eager to learn as they love the law but, unfortunately, there is a legal leadership vacuum.
She says the older lawyers are not necessarily setting a good example.
Professor Shameem says some are arrogant, consistently unprepared, discourteous, indeed outrightly rude, to younger lawyers and never on time for appointments.
She says she has also observed lack of respect for the court and significant politicization of the profession to its detriment.
Professor Shameem said the JDP School of Law teaches ethics, advocacy for the public good and respect for everyone, colleagues and clients alike, as core aspects of the legal curriculum and it is clear from feedback from the industry that these lessons are learnt well by their students.
She adds many law firms regard law as a money-making profession rather than one of public service and imbued their young interns with less than satisfactory moral standards thus compromising their training.
Professor Shameem says as Dean of the JDP Law School she has a duty to inform her graduates which private or public legal organizations to apply to after graduation and which ones to steer clear of.
She says the most important lesson that the law schools can teach their students is that law is an honourable profession, however, unfortunately, there are many impediments to reaching this goal.
She adds one major obstacle is leadership at all levels.
She encourages the Attorney General to take the lead to ensure that all young lawyers are able to find shining examples to learn from.
When contacted by fijivillage News, Leung said he has no comments and the Vice Chancellor of University of Fiji is entitled to her opinion.
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