The Department of Professional Legal Education has about 20 academic staff members who are responsible for the teaching of the PCLL, with assistance from members of the Department of Law and visiting practitioners and members of the Judiciary.
The PCLL at HKU was introduced in 1972 following the recommendations of a working party appointed by the Chief Justice and the Vice Chancellor. Previously, entry to the profession was based upon examinations in English law administered by the English Law Society. Initially the course was administered by the Department of Law (later the School of Law) under a Director of Professional Legal Education. In 1984 the School of Law became the Faculty of Law with two departments – the Department of Professional Legal Education which is responsible for the PCLL and the Department of Law which is responsible for the LLB and other postgraduate programmes.
In order to keep pace with developments in professional legal education the content and format of the PCLL has changed considerably over the years. As a result of the Review of Legal Education and Training which took place from 1999 to 2001, the PCLL is in the process of being reformed to increase the proportion of skills training. For more information about our full-time and part-time PCLL, please visit http://www.ple.hku.hk/pcll/