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.”
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS