Assessing the nature of regulatory enforcement by the Council of Legal Education and its effect on corporate governance of law schools in Kenya

Abstract

There has been an uproar over the declining quality of legal professionals in Kenya that has got various stakeholders interrogating what the problem could be. The regulator of legal education and training in Kenya, the Council of Legal Education (CLE), has been steadily enforcing the regulatory framework in order to assure quality in Legal education and training, reckoning that legal education and training is the foundation of legal professionals. Regulatory intervention by the CLE has however been questioned in a myriad of cases. This study interrogates how the challenges faced by CLE in form of law suits and the gains made as a result of some of those suits have affected corporate governance in Law Schools and in the long run, the delivery of quality legal education in Kenya. Anchored on the stakeholder theory, the study reviews literature on corporate governance practices in universities and law schools in Kenya, and analyses statutes and regulations which prescribe the legal and institutional framework for legal education and training, while identifying the stipulated salient features of corporate governance. In doing so the study discusses the nature of regulatory intervention by CLE; interrogates some key cases that have influenced the type of corporate governance practices existent in law schools; and analyzes the challenges and achievements of regulatory implementation in legal education and training thus far. Based on the findings, the study proposes some recommendations for countering the challenges facing legal education and training in Kenya. Ultimately, it is anticipated that this study will contribute to the ongoing discourse on how to annul the criticism on the quality of legal professionals.