PUTRAJAYA (June 11): The new Attorney-General Tommy Thomas was “very supportive” of a Bar Council suggestion to revamp the Legal Profession Act 1976 as a means to enhance the independence and autonomy of Malaysian legal practitioners.

Bar Council president George Varughese said Thomas was agreeable to the broad-based suggestion, which was raised in a meeting at the Attorney-General’s Chambers here today.

“In respect to our proposal on the Legal Profession Act, he [Thomas] was quite eager for us to submit to him as soon as possible.

“The Bar will now make sure that we work fast to come up with the proposal to have a holistic amendment and revamp the Act,” Varughese told the press after the meeting.

“The A-G also looks forward to have closer ties and cooperation both between the chambers and the Bar Council including sharing of knowledge and having a common set of etiquette rules both for the lawyers and also for the lawyers from the A-G’s chambers,” he added.

Other topics discussed in the meeting included the law reform agenda by the present government, said Varughese.

“The A-G was very particular that there should be consultation with all stakeholders in respect of these law reforms.

“He has asked the assistance of the Bar Council to play a leading role to move forward this reform agenda in light of the Bar Council experience in advocating both constitutional and law reforms,” he added.

Apart from that, the Bar has also forwarded the 55 proposals it had submitted to the Committee on Institutional Reforms, which involves proposals for not only institutional but also law reforms, said Varughese.