The new Omani Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law was promulgated two days ago, and it introduces major changes to the regulation of the legal profession in Oman. The new law requires advocates to pass written exams to qualify to appear before the different levels of Omani courts, and permits international law firms to open legal consultancy offices in Oman without a local Omani partner, among many other significant changes. This new law will enter into force after six months.
Long Due Reform
Oman’s first ever Advocacy Law was issued in 1996, and since then, this law had very few amendments made to it, with the most recent of these amendments being more than 16 years ago. The law badly was due for an overhaul with the main apparent drivers of the reform being the desire to improve the quality of Omani advocates.
The previous system for qualifying as a lawyer in Oman was an apprenticeship system where a law graduate was merely required to register in any law firm for a period of two years, and then submit evidence of court submission he worked on to the government to be registered as a primary court lawyer. This practice has been very problematic as it was not uncommon for a law graduate to register in a law office of one of his relatives, not do any work for two years, and then take submissions written by another person in the law office to submit to the government to obtain his licence. Even in cases that are not as extreme as this, the government had no proper system in place to evaluate the apprenticeship experience of the lawyer or determine if this person is capable of providing services at the required standard.
This issue is compounded as many young Omani lawyers would quit the law firm that they trained in immediately after they obtain their primary court licence to establish their own office with no meaningful practical experience in law or in running a business, and this resulted in the creation of hundreds of law firms scattered all over the country with questionable credentials that are, in turn, supposed to train and qualify the next generation of Omani lawyers.
Another issue that the new law attempts to address is the challenges relating to the operation of foreign law firms in Oman. Due to legal requirements in the old law that restrict the ability to establish law firms to licensed advocates, foreign law firms wishing to operate in Oman usually had to partner with a local law firm using contractual arrangements, and then would hire Omani and non-Omani staff who would provide legal advice, technically a regulated activity restricted to licensed advocates, without being registered with the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs. This was controversial for a variety of reasons, especially from a regulatory point of view as a significant segment of the legal industry—that was giving advice to the biggest companies in the country—was operating without any regulatory oversight by the government.
Two Types of Law Firms
The key fundamental change to the regulation of the legal profession under the new law is that law firms will now fall under two categories: advocacy offices and legal consultancy offices, with advocacy offices being licensed to perform litigation related matters, issue legal advice, draft contracts, and carry out company formation procedures, while legal consultancy offices being licensed to issue legal advice, draft contracts, and carry out company formation procedures, i.e. everything that an advocacy office does outside litigation. Technically speaking, representing a client in arbitration in Oman falls under the litigation provisions, but the law carved out arbitration for legal consultancy offices to allow them to represent their clients before arbitral tribunals.
Similarly, actual lawyers will now also fall under two categories: advocates and legal consultants, and both of these categories of lawyers have to register with the MJLA.
Advocacy Profession
The advocacy profession will be restricted to Omanis, and will now generally require passing a qualification exam to move up the rolls of advocates. This includes passing an exam to move from the roll of trainee advocates to the roll of primary court advocates, passing another exam to move to the roll of courts of appeal advocates, and passing a final exam to move to the roll of Supreme Court advocates. There are also now continuous professional development requirements to move up the ladder, but not to retain the licence. The qualification periods have been significantly reduced, with the time required to move from primary courts to courts of appeal reduced from five to three years, and the time required to move from courts of appeal to the Supreme Court reduced from seven to five years.
There are also a few exceptions to the exam requirements. For example, a new register will be created for government officials acting as advocates for their entities who will not be required to take the exam if they wish to become advocates after they leave the government as long as they provide evidence that they actually practised advocacy on behalf of the government during their service. Working in a legal function in the government or in any company can also qualify a person to become an advocate for different court levels, but this will require the candidate to take the exam required for the court level in question. However, the required period of experience for these two categories is different and both are longer than the period required for advocates.
There are also other controls on the operation of advocacy offices, including a legal requirement for all law firms to have professional indemnity, more specific restrictions on marketing their services, additional formalities for pro bono work, a new obligation to continuously have at least one advocate trainee appointed in the advocacy office, a requirement for those with a combined law degree (law and business, law and economics, etc.) to meet certain course requirements to qualify, provisions to limit revolving door practices by judges and public prosecutors who become advocates, and many more.
Legal Consultancy Profession
Under the new law, it will not be permitted for any person to provide legal consultancy services without registering with the MJLA. This means that all lawyers working in all law firms, whether Omani or not, and whether they are licensed as advocates or not, will now be required to register with the MJLA.
The new law also allows foreign law firms to establish legal consultancy offices on their own or jointly in partnership with other Omani legal consultation offices. However, the law does not appear to allow a foreign legal consultant to establish an office in his personal capacity with an Omani legal consultant.
The law does not provide any details on the requirements to register as a legal consultant or much information on the rights and obligations of legal consultants, but these are expected to be detailed in the executive regulation of the law. The law also stipulates that the MJLA will issue a code of conduct for legal consultants that is distinct from the code of conduct for advocates.
The Way Ahead
The new examination formalities for the qualification of advocates are definitely a step in the right direction and they have the potential to transform the advocacy industry if these exams are properly designed and executed. However, this will not be easy given that the Omani legal educational system as a whole is still not mature and the available educational resources for Omani legal education are extremely limited. Given that law colleges themselves struggle to find proper material to teach their students, the training materials for these exams will have to be developed from scratch.
The legal industry also needs more than legal knowledge to be able to develop, and Omani law firms would greatly benefit from more general skills on how to run and manage their offices as a business.
The fact that all lawyers, both advocates and legal consultants, will now be required to register with the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs is also a step in the right direction, but in the same way advocates, accountants, and doctors, are required to meet certain criteria before they are able to practice their profession, legal consultants should obviously also be required to meet their own criteria before they are allowed to give advice.
The new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law will enter into force after six months, and existing law firms have one year to comply with its provisions.
You can read the new law in full in English on the link below: