by Ganesh Sahathevan
As reported on a related blog:
NSW LPAB Executive Officer Louise Pritchard had personal knowledge of operational matters excluded from the NSW LPAB Annual Report 2018, which she attested was compliant with NSW Public Sector rules
The exclusions concerned the conduct of the College Of Law in Malaysia and Australia and the 2018 and subsequent annual reports have yet to be amended even though the College's misconduct in Malaysia was made public in 2019 on a well known investigative news site published in Malaysia.
Meanwhile the College continues to expand its business overseas on the strength of its approvals from the NSW LPAB, and its relationship with NSW Law Society, but that does raise questions in Asia and the UK and elsewhere about the credibility of the NSW LPAB and NSW Law Society with regards for example the standing of Australian lawyers seeking to practise in Asia and the UK on the strength of their NSW admission. There will be concerns about the NSW LPAB placing parochial considerations over and above professional concerns.
The credibility of the NSW LPAB in Malaysia and Singapore is already in question given its finding that investigations into the 1MDB kleptocracy affair, and other instances of corruption in Malaysia were false, untrue and otherwise unreliable. In doing so the NSW LPAB re-interpreted (if not re-wrote) the facts of a judgement of the NSW Supreme Court which found against the Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan, who was found in Malaysia to have interfered with its judiciary.
TO BE READ WITH
Saturday, August 12, 2023
Australia's College Of Law must come clean on Malaysian debacle before it is permitted to sell its law courses to students in India, and other foreign jurisdictions - Australian regulators including its own NSW Law Soc being less than frank about its activities
by Ganesh Sahathevan
The NSW Law Society's College Of Law is attempting to enter the Indian market via its College Of Legal Practice in the UK.
Meanwhile, despite ongoing investigations into its activities in Malaysia, the College has failed to inform students in India and the UKof that fact. The attempt to enter the Indian market via its UK subsidiary does seem to be an attempt to avoid questions about the Malaysian affair.
Enabling the College's misleading advertisement to foreign students is the fact that regulators in its home jurisdiction , including the NSW Law Society , have chosen to ignore reports out of Malaysia.
END
TO BE READ WITH
Bar Council education ‘JV’ must be clarified
KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 – The Malaysian Bar Council launched its first education venture, a LLM in Malaysian Legal Practise (LLM), last year in collaboration with the College Of Law Australia.
The LLM does not seem to have the approval of Malaysia’s Legal Professional Qualifying Board (LPQB) but the website for the course, which is hosted in Australia, prominently displays the Bar Council crest.
The crest has not been used before to promote a course of study, and queries put to Bar Council President Fareed Gafoor about the use of the crest have been acknowledged but remain unanswered.
NMT has however sighted an email from Fareed dated Friday, May 24, 2019 with regards the LLM and the use of the crest where he states:
Dear Rajen,
We can’t remain silent on this.
Abdul Fareed Bin Abdul Gafoor
Sent from my iPad
It is understood that “Rajen” refers to Rajen Devaraj, Chief Executive Officer of the Bar Council Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur.
The Bar has remained silent for nearly 2 months since.
Key person suddenly retired during extensive query
The College of Law used to be represented in Malaysia by its Director, Peter Tritt. Tritt have been queried extensively about the LLM and about the College’s business in Malaysia but has refused to provide answers. Tritt has been based in Kuala Lumpur since 2017 but announced on Friday that he had “retired” from the College on 30 June 2019.
It is understood that Tritt has forwarded queries sent him to his head office in Sydney and hence it appears that Tritt is under orders from his Chief Executive, Neville Carter, to remain silent.
Questionable advertising claims?
In advertising on the College’s website Carter has claimed that he had established a Professional Legal Training course for Malaysian Law students seeking admission to practise in Malaysia. There seems to be no evidence of such a course, or of any national level training course for the existing Certificate of Legal Practise.
Carter has also claimed to have produced the “inaugural” Handbook in Legal Practise for Malaysia, in the late 80s. A search of the main law libraries in Malaysia directed by the Chief Registrar, Federal Court Malaysia, has not found any such handbook.
He has also claimed to have, during that time to have identified and addressed “gaps” in Malaysian legal practise, but not even those in practice during that period and since have ever heard of him. Nor are senior practitioners aware of “gaps” that needed that to be addressed by external consultants.
As CEO of the College Carter has ultimate responsibility for the College’s Malaysian operation headed by Tritt and variously named the “College Of Law Asia Pacific” and the “College Of Law Asia”. A search by NMT has not revealed any entities registered under those names in Malaysia or in Australia, not even a foreign entities registered to conduct business in Malaysia.
Meanwhile the College, in collaboration with the Bar Council continues to sell its LLM and other courses in Malaysia, deriving a fee income from Malaysian courses.
-NMT
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