The Council of Legal Education has said all advocates will have to undergo fresh training under the Advocates Training Programme (ATP) Curriculum.

This comes at a time when there are concerns about quality of advocates who join the profession and increasing cases of unethical conduct among lawyers.

The council chief executive Wambua Kituku said the curriculum would transform legal education by nurturing 21^st Century lawyers who would strengthen the legal system and improve access to justice.

He said the training would entrench personal and professional ethics as the cornerstone of successful legal practice.

“The training emphasises the place and growing role of technology in legal practice as central not only to the delivery of a winning ATP programme but also as a substantive cross cutting issue,” he said.

Unethical conduct

Speaking in Naivasha during the launch of the curriculum, the CEO said the document would replace the old curriculum that has been in operation from 2009 to 2018.

“Lawyers appear to have a narrow and structured role in society, yet the context of change calls for a more involved lawyer, one who actively participates in change,” he said.

Wambua challenged legal practitioners to uphold their dignity noting that tens of cases of unethical conduct both in and out of court had been reported.

“Part of this curriculum deals with how advocates should relate to each other and their clientele since the issue of unethical practices has emerged in various quarters,” he said.

Eric Gumbo of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and a member of the council admitted that issues of unethical practices were being dealt with internally.

New ideas

“We have had issues with some advocates who have failed to remit clients money and this has been dealt with internally and by the relevant government agencies,” he said.

Gumbo defended the quality of new advocates saying they were qualified and met the set standards.

He lauded the new curriculum, saying that it would come with new ideas.