Enab Baladi – Bisan Khalaf
Sarah Al-Hourani (23 years old) had ambitions to take the legal oath in order to begin her professional training as a lawyer, before the Damascus Bar Association closed its doors to new graduates.
Sarah’s cohort in last March was considered “the worst,” as she put it, because they did not even receive academic training during their fourth year. The former Minister of Justice, Shadi Al-Waisi, had prevented law students from entering courts to receive academic training prior to graduation.
Sarah chose the Faculty of Law at a time when Syria was suffering from favoritism in employment.
Sarah told Enab Baladi, “To avoid facing unemployment after graduation, I chose this field because the work in it is guaranteed: you graduate, receive training, then work directly without resorting to favoritism.”
She added that she and her classmates have been facing an uncertain future for three months.
“We did not study complex books just to end up unemployed or looking for jobs far from our field. Professional training and joining the Bar Association is our constitutional right, and the Ministry of Justice must reopen membership,” Sarah said.
Sarah is waiting for the Bar Association in Damascus to reopen membership so she can find a lawyer to train under and practice the profession. She also cannot join the Bar Association in another governorate because she would have to train and work in the governorate of the association she joined.
No training without the legal oath
On the other hand, lawyers’ offices do not accept training applications from new graduates who are not members of the Bar Association, considering that they have not taken the legal oath. They also cannot add the names of non-members to their list of trainees, which is submitted regularly to the Ministry of Justice.
Ahmed Al-Hallaq, who lost hope in the Bar Association reopening membership, decided to work at his father’s grocery store.
Ahmed feels very embarrassed and becomes depressed when customers at the store find out he is a law graduate.
Ahmed told Enab Baladi, “I haven’t lost hope in vain, after I saw that the last batch who joined the association obtained membership and started their training.”
Ahmed and several of his fellow graduates contacted the Bar Association in late March, and were told that membership is closed due to the high number of applications the association is dealing with, but they were promised that membership would open soon.
However, Ahmed was surprised that his friend who applied for membership in mid-December 2024 received her membership in May.
Enab Baladi contacted the Damascus Bar Association last April. The head of the Damascus Bar, Khaled Omar, said then that the association would open soon, and that the delay was due to the accumulation of membership applications and requests to transfer membership between governorates.
Bar Associations in several governorates had been accepting membership applications but returned to closure in early June.
In a survey conducted by Enab Baladi among a number of 2025 law graduates, most said they cannot join Bar Associations in other governorates due to the financial burdens involved and because they would have to train and work in the governorate where they joined.
Expectations clash with a different reality
“We did not expect such great neglect of law graduates, especially at this stage when Syria needs legal expertise,” said Wafa Mohsen to Enab Baladi. She graduated from the Faculty of Law last March.
Most law graduates interviewed by Enab Baladi confirmed the neglect by the Ministry of Justice and said they have no idea how courts operate because they did not receive academic training during their graduation years.
Wafa added, “I envy the fourth-year students after the change of the Minister of Justice, because the current minister, Mazhar Al-Waisi, allowed them to receive academic training in courts after it had been stopped by the previous Minister Shadi Al-Waisi.”
Criminal law professor at Damascus University, Issa Makhoul, told Enab Baladi that the Ministry of Justice must pay attention to the conditions of law graduates and must establish a Higher Institute of Advocacy, similar to the Higher Institute of Judiciary, so that new graduates can receive fair professional training.
Makhoul confirmed that the number of membership applications to Bar Associations is constantly increasing with every graduating batch, and closing membership is not a solution but worsens the problem. A higher institute for lawyers should be established alongside the Bar Association to ease the burden on the associations and provide graduates with professional training opportunities.
He added that creating such an institute and announcing a limited-entry competition for studying there will reduce the pressure on Bar Associations and open up professional training opportunities for graduates.
Bar Association responds
Khaled Omar, head of the Damascus Bar Association, explained to Enab Baladi that the membership door remains closed due to the huge number of applications received before the closure, and because there are large numbers of trainees who have completed their training and are waiting for the exam to move to their mentors’ registers.
Omar clarified that this transfer is based on an oral exam for each trainee, which requires a long time and the backlog of applications cannot be accumulated further.
The purpose of training is for the trainee to gain practical experience either in the office of their mentor, attending trials, or in lectures held by the association. With such a huge number of trainees, achieving this purpose is impossible, according to Omar.
He confirmed that the Bar Association does not want members whose training goals cannot be fulfilled, meaning that the trainee lawyer works in the courts.
He said the decision to close the membership was made out of concern from the Damascus branch to achieve the professional and academic goals of the training, and therefore the membership door was temporarily closed.
The number of law graduates at Damascus University is estimated at around 1,000 students annually in general education and 500 students in open education.
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