During its plenary session on May 20, Parliament discussed the draft revision of the Law on Legal Status of Lawyers.

In accordance with the Law on Advocacy approved on October 18, 2019, the Law on Procedures for Enforcing the Law on Advocacy, and the Law on Courts adopted on January 15, 2021, the draft revision of the Law on the Legal Status of Lawyers was developed with 7 chapters and 41 articles.

Minister of Justice Kh.Nyambaatar said, “The current Law on the Legal Status of Lawyers provides that only judges, prosecutors, and advocates are considered lawyers. It was expanded in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court to include judge’s assistants, notaries, teachers of a government organization and accredited law schools, and lawyers working in legal firms.”

In accordance with the draft revision, the board of the Bar Association will approve the list of legal positions of lawyers working in legal entities, teachers of accredited law schools and state organizations.

The bill also stipulates that members of the Constitutional Court of Mongolia, the National Human Rights Commission of Mongolia and the Judicial Disciplinary Committee should submit a request to the Bar Association and register as a lawyer.

The bill initiators believe that it is possible to issue a lawyer’s license to a certain number of people who have worked or are working in this position, as the law specifically stipulates that they must have a high level of legal qualification, have worked in this field for a certain period of time.

During the meeting, some lawmakers expressed their views and asked questions. Particularly, legislator N.Altankhuyag clarified whether it is possible to cancel the evening class and whether the system of training lawyers can be changed.

Minister Kh.Nyambaatar said, “This time we are raising this issue. In other words, the draft revision of the Law on the Legal Status of Lawyers clearly stipulates that bachelor’s degrees will not be awarded for part-time or evening classes. It also stipulates that bachelor’s degree program must be completed by accredited universities.”

“The essence of this bill is the Bar Association, which is the self-governing body of lawyers. The concept of the draft law is written in terms of how to train and select the staff of this organization, how to provide long-term training, how to implement its management internally, and the conditions and criteria for training future lawyers. The bill also stipulates that law schools should conduct at least 30 percent of their courses in private law,” he said. 

Parliamentarian B.Enkhbayar said, “The Bar Association is a public organization. In accordance with the current law, its president is elected every two years. However, by electing it every four years, all power will be concentrated in the hands of the president.” 

Head of the Legal Policy Department of the ministry P.Sainzorig noted, “There are 15 private and public law schools. They are preparing constitutional lawyers. However, there is a problem that business and economics lawyers are poorly trained. In this context, we are introducing a policy to train lawyers by including business and economics in the main curriculum.”