Legal education in Bangladesh has been experiencing a downward trend for a long time. We need lawyers with good legal knowledge and skills for our legal and judicial system.

Are our law schools ready to meet the emerging demand at all? We have been producing a large number of law graduates every year. But the majority of them are under-qualified or nonqualified in terms of their legal knowledge and skills in

research, analysis, language, and presentation. And thus we are lagging behind in the global competition.

The obsolete curriculum, traditional teaching and examination methods, lack of practical and clinical aspects in the curriculum, huge gap between teachers and students, teachers' engagement in outside activities, lack of interest, motivation, opportunity and skills for research and publications are some of the reasons behind this downward trend.

A handful of law schools at public and private universities offer courses on legal research and writing, and clinical legal education. The standard of the curriculum in these institutions is not beyond questions. The private law colleges, which are producing the majority of law graduates, don't offer similar courses. That is why a great number of lawyers (and future judges) are coming out with no skills in legal research, analysis, and writing.

Dr. Uttam Kumar Das Advocate

Supreme Court of Bangladesh