PUTRAJAYA: Chief Justice Tun Arifin Zakaria yesterday advised lawyers to improve their advocacy skills.
He said based on his observation, the standard and quality of lawyers, especially the young ones, needed much improvement.
“The ability to speak in English should be balanced with skills to debate, this being that many lawyers speak English well, but are not able to come up with good arguments,” he added.
Arifin said this in his speech at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Office of the Federal High Court Registrar and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) at the Palace of Justice here.
He said an outstanding legal practitioner should be independent, of quality, with integrity, trained and did not rely on their excellent academic record alone.
Speaking to reporters after the MoU signing ceremony, Arifin said sometimes, lawyers criticised judgments by judges, saying the previous judge made better judgment.
“But the quality of a judgment (by a judge) also reflects the quality of lawyers,” he added.
On the signing of the MoU, he said it was the first involving the judiciary and a public institution of higher learning. — Bernama