The Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP), in plain terms: who has to sit it, what the exam looks like, and what you are actually up against. Compiled from the LPQB's own published documents.
Last updated 22 September 2026.
The Certificate in Legal Practice is the qualifying exam run by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB), the body that controls who enters the profession. Five papers, and you must pass all five. Then pupillage, the roughly nine-month "chambering" apprenticeship, before you are admitted as an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya.
Not every law graduate sits the CLP. It is a filter written into the Legal Profession Act 1976. Two routes skip it entirely. Everyone else qualifies only by passing the exam.
The standard LLB from the gazetted public universities: UM, UiTM, UKM, IIUM, USIM and UUM. UUM and Multimedia University (private) holders are exempt subject to the Bar Council pupillage training programme.
Holders of the English Bar.
Graduating from a gazetted public university is the alternate route to becoming an Advocate & Solicitor without ever sitting the CLP.
Recognised private and foreign LLB holders qualify only through the exam.
The 2026 LPQB recognised list covers 64 programmes: 5 Malaysian, 39 UK, 15 Australian and 5 New Zealand. The list grew in 2026, with 9 newly recognised institutions, mostly UK.
If your degree is on this list, you sit the CLP. 64 recognised programmes across four regions.
* Recognition withdrawn from 1 January 2027 · ** Recognised from 1 January 2026
Source: LPQB recognised-qualifications list, 2026. Not sure your degree is on the list? Ask us on WhatsApp.
You get four sittings within a five-year window. After that, you are barred from registering again. This is LPQB policy, set out in the Board's CLP entry-requirements circular under the Legal Profession Act 1976: administrative policy, not a numbered section of the Act. A failed single paper can be resat up to three times at the Supplementary Examination.
The cap is not a clock to panic over. It is a reason to get it right the first time, and that needs runway.
You cleared all five papers. You are on your way to becoming a lawyer.
You failed exactly one paper. You resit only that paper at the Supplementary Examination.
You failed two or more papers. You retake everything.
| Paper | What you answer | What's inside |
|---|---|---|
| General Paper | 2 questions, both compulsory, 3 parts each. No choice. | Two bodies: Contract and Tort. Both compulsory. |
| Evidence | Answer 4 of 7 questions | One body: the Evidence Act 1950. |
| Criminal Procedure | Answer 4 of 7 questions | One body: the Criminal Procedure Code & related statutes. |
| Civil Procedure | Answer 4 of 7 questions | One body: the Rules of Court 2012 & related statutes. |
| Professional Practice | Answer 5 of 9 questions | Four bodies of law in one paper. The bulkiest in the exam. |
Every paper: 15 minutes of reading time plus 3 hours of writing. Five papers across roughly 10 days.
Section A is Ethics & Advocacy: answer 2 of 4. Section B is Land (3 questions), Probate (1) and Bankruptcy & Winding Up (1): answer 3 of 5. Five answers in total, across four separate bodies of law, in one 3-hour sitting.
You never bring your own statutes. A fixed set is provided clean in the hall, and you may not annotate them. Everything else is closed book, from memory.
| Paper | Provided in the hall | The rest |
|---|---|---|
| General Paper | Contracts Act 1950 · Specific Relief Act 1950 · Civil Law Act 1956 | Closed book |
| Evidence | Evidence Act 1950 | Closed book * |
| Criminal Procedure | Criminal Procedure Code | Closed book |
| Civil Procedure | Rules of Court 2012 | Closed book |
| Professional Practice | Legal Profession Act 1976 · Insolvency Act 1967 (incl. Rules) · National Land Code | Closed book |
* Evidence can also examine the Evidence of Child Witnesses Act 2007 and the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017. Neither is provided, so you sit them from memory.
Across all five papers, only nine statutes are provided. You are examined on dozens more, every one of them closed book. These are the ones candidates underestimate:
The hall provides the Criminal Procedure Code. The paper then tests the entire Penal Code. None of it is in front of you.
Source: LPQB CLP Subject Outline (Ringkasan Matapelajaran), 2026.
94 chapters before you open the Evidence Act or the Contracts Act. Ethics & Advocacy and Land Law together make up the Professional Practice paper.
And the outcome data matches the size: fewer than one in five candidates passed all five papers outright in 2025. See the full 2025 breakdown -
Five papers, closed book, under extreme time pressure, with a full-pass rate under one in five. The method matters more than the hours. That is what Refresh Learning is built around.