Legal professionals are facing an employment crisis due to a rise in the number of law schools in the nation over the past decade, with those who have passed the bar examination finding it difficult to gain employment, Minister of Examinations Tung Pao-cheng (董保城) said.
Taiwan has an abundance of law school graduates entering the job market each year, “but the supply exceeds demand,” Tung said.
“This reflects a big disparity between the higher education system and the requirements of the nation’s workforce,” he added.
He said the problem began with colleges and universities setting up new law schools and legal studies courses in the past 10 years.
“This led to a large number of law students, with law now being the 18th-largest major study program in post-secondary education. These law schools produce about 5,000 graduates each year,” Tung said.
Tung said that two to three decades ago, only 30 people passed the bar examinations at the most. Since then, the pass rate has risen to more than 10 percent of students, which has resulted in nearly 1,000 aspiring graduates passing the bar each year.
“This led to a significant increase in the number of qualified lawyers, but they are underemployed, as they cannot find jobs in the legal field,” he said.
More of them end up as what are known as “straggling lawyers” — referring to those who have passed the bar and have a license to practice, but are unable to find jobs in a legal firm.
Taiwan Bar Association chairman Lin Kuo-ming (林國明) said the problem originated with the Ministry of Education, which relaxed the regulations and permitted the establishment of more law schools.
The Ministry of Examination made the problem worse by raising the percentage of students who can pass the bar exam each year, Lin added.
According to data from the Ministry of Examination, about 13,000 lawyers qualified last year to practice law, but only about 7,000 of them are registered as practicing lawyers.
It is still a highly sought-after profession, because top attorneys receive high salaries, with some earning up to NT$1 million (US$33,300) per month, Lin said.
However, Lin said the average salary for lawyers has been on a downward spiral in recent years. The average monthly salary for a practicing lawyer is about NT$90,000 to NT$100,000, according to figures from the Ministry of Labor, while trainee lawyers earn about NT$30,000 per month.
To alleviate the oversupply problem, the Ministry of Examination instituted a new system whereby those who pass the bar can work at government offices. However, the program is limited to those who have a lawyer’s qualification certificate and have worked in the legal industry of at least two years.
Lin said the new system is totally inadequate to deal with the problem.
“Even when law graduates obtain a lawyer’s qualification certificate, they have to go through an apprentice period at a law firm,” Lin said. “But there are not enough trainee opportunities for the new lawyers and they cannot easily get a start in a firm. This creates a vicious cycle, and the standard and quality of legal professionals will steadily decline.”
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS