The 13th Malaysian Law Conference kicked off today with a keynote address by Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail followed by a luncheon talk by former judiciary chief Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah.

In his speech, Abdul Gani touched on globalisation, the main thrust of the three-day confab held at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, with a focus on the implications of opening up the local legal services market.

"What should be more of concern now is how to go about maximising the opportunities of globalisation especially in the legal profession," he said, referring the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) which Malaysia has signed.

Citing Singapore as an example, he said it had introduced special rules and guidelines before allowing foreign firms to enter into joint ventures with Singaporean law firms.

Abdul Gani said there was no running away from globalisation and liberalisation of the legal services market trade given the widening spectrum of business matters ranging from mergers and acquisitions to contractual agreements for franchises, dealerships and product sales.

"It has dawned upon me that local expertise is limited in various disciplines of the law which have become increasingly important," he said, adding Malaysian law firms would encounter stiff competition from foreign counterparts who will "penetrate the perimeters of our comfort zones".

"By being overprotective, the Bar could be limiting the expertise required to be shared with our lawyers by foreign lawyers which international and multinational firms (based here) might have opted to use."

Complaints body

In his address, Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah gave an overview of the recommendations made by the government-appointed Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Royal Malaysian Police.

Although the bulk of the recommendations have yet to be implemented, he said that positive changes have been made in certain areas.

"By and large, the inputs I get today do seem to indicate that recommendations on human resources, logistics, housing and finance have received immediate attention.

"The sub-committee on human resources is looking into training programmes, new types of allowances and incentives and compliance with human rights obligations." He said this was one of several sub-committees that have been tasked with looking into the commission's recommendations.

"I was made to understand that the police have some reservations to our more radical recommendations such as an external complaints body. But we hope that after this, the recommendations will be given due consideration and implemented immediately," he added.

Legal education

More than 400 legal eagles including 70 invited foreigners are attending the three-day meet which will discuss the latest developments in the legal field and the government's response.

Papers will also be presented on arbitration, access to justice, improving legal education and awareness, globalisation, mediation and on IT and cyberlaws.

Among the speakers are former Court of Appeal judge Mahadev Shankar, Prof Bruce Lasky from the Open Society Justice Initiative, Industrial Court President Yussof Ahmad, Nicola M Padfield from the Law Faculty of Cambridge University, former Prisons Department head Zaman Khan and US District Court judge Bernard Zimmerman.