Legal studies, career prospects in law and legal advice in Mauritius

Legal studies, career prospects in law and legal advice in Mauritius

Legal studies and career prospects in Mauritius

Working in the legal profession requires a high degree of integrity and a perfect mastery of the legal system. In Mauritius, the University of Mauritius offers courses in Llb, LLM and a Bachelors in Law and Management. Students may afterwards enroll in the ‘Bar’ course in three main stream namely barrister, attorney or notary. At the end of the Bar course, the students have to go through an exam and if successful are eligible to go fo a pupilage of one year. After completion of the Vocational Course, students obtain a Certificate of Attendance of the University of Mauritius and take part in the vocational examinations conducted by the Council for Vocational Legal Education in order to be qualified as a professional attorney, barrister or notary.The examination at the end of the Bar course, is known to be particularly challenging for students. Students not opting to go for bar have other career paths in the finance and offshore sector mainly.

Legal advice in Mauritius

The market for legal services is quite competitive in Mauritius. Even if the number of students passing each year the Council for Vocational Legal Education examinations is limited, many students having the means to do so complete their studies abroad and come to practice in Mauritius.  Choosing the right legal adviser can be very difficult. Those with the best reputation charge very high fees so the new ones generally have to join a chamber to be able to build a name. Recently there seemed to be a glut in the number of barristers at law while the number of notaries remains quite limited. It is important to note that the roles and functions of a notary, a barrister and an attorney are clearly distinct. While the barrister can be seen as the one to represent his customer in court, the attorney may be seen as someone who will look for all the information to help the barrister in his job but also to issue legal memos. The notary on the other hand is not really involved in court cases. He basically draws up  Acts and Contracts.

Good to know:

1)      A Law Day is celebrated in Mauritius during the month of March since 2012.

2)      There exists a code of ethics for barristers in Mauritius  The code highlights the Do’s and Don’ts of a barrister for instance ‘A barrister shall not advertise or seek personal publicity.’ Therefore building a name in the field is extremely important.