Transforming legal practice for the better

Last week, the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD), awarded post graduate diplomas to100 legal practitioners. They included lawyers, judges and prosecutors working with various public institutions. The country`s first of the kind, ILPD started its operations in 2008 with the mission of strengthening the capacity of the judiciary. The institution focuses on imparting practical skills to empower legal practitioners. “Unless a jurist has practical capacity to handle and solve issues, he can never serve effectively,” says Philbert Nkuranga, an advocate undertaking a short course at the institute. With five years experience in legal practice, Nkuranga says that his decision to join the institution is to improve on his capacity so as to serve effectively. “Skills acquired here give us the capacity to serve and for any legal officer who gets the chance into the institute, I am sure he takes note of changes in his operations,” he said. Nkuranga explains that “Not every judge is capable of writing a fair judgment in regard to professionalism unless he has the skills of judgment and this is part of what we learn.” He also notes that like any other profession, it is equally important for jurists to have both theory and practical skills for better service delivery. The ILPD Rector, Vastina Nsanze, says that in addition to serving legal representatives in public institutions, the institute will also admit those in private practice. She noted that there is need for legal officers to undergo such training not only to gain practical skills but also get to know new developments in the profession. “There are changes that jurists should learn about the profession like when new laws are enacted based on the changes that come with time,” Nsanze says. On addition to offering post graduate Diplomas in Legal Practice, the institute also offers Continuing Legal Education to Public notaries, court clerks and bailiffs among others. The Rector says the institute has the potential of transforming the judicial system and called upon government to put in place measures that will put it at per with regional and international standards. “We have had a problem of training our staff but you find that after they are in right positions, they look around for better paying jobs, making our effort to train useless” Nsanze explains. The institution has 23 staff members but according to Nsanze, there is need for more experienced lecturers. She advises that there is need to put in place attractive working conditions not only to win well experienced instructors, but also be able to retain them given the distant location from Kigali city. “The location of the institution is good but employees argue that it is in a remote area, some thing that has highly contributed to losing staff,” she said. Rwanda Bar Association Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Thierry Ngoga, appreciats ILPD`s efforts in empowering legal practitioners. “On behalf of the lawyers and others in legal practice, the training sessions are indeed bringing changes in the profession,” Ngoga says. Ngoga also expressed the need to bring the service to Kigali. “When prosecutors and judges go for studies in Nyanza, they continue receiving their salaries unlike lawyers who are independent,” he notes. He explained that it is too costly and sometimes impossible for some active lawyers to close their offices for nine month to go for the course. “Having an evening program in Kigali will work better for other lawyers who are busy during the day,” he says.The association`s CEO pointed out that there is need to train and have more lawyers with post graduate diplomas in legal practice, saying that the number from the Bar Association being trained for that particular course is still low. “For every intake, the Bar Association provides eight lawyers and I believe there is need for more,” he says.ILPD through its continuing legal education is currently training legal practitioners on various reforms mainly in commercial laws including the contract law, insolvency law and companies act among others. Ends