Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — There has been a 29 percent increased in the number of registered female legal practitioners in the Kingdom.

The total number of the licensed Saudi lawyers has reached 4,816, consisting of 4,607 men and 209 women in the fourth and final quarter of 2017, the Arabic daily Al-Watan reported quoting a quarterly report by the Authority of the Saudi Lawyers (ASL).

The authority said there are 8,766 law graduates currently under training. They include 6,835 men and 1,931 women.

It said the number of Saudi women lawyers has increased by 29 percent compared to 13 percent for men.

The authority said it received about 45 complaints during the past year of which six were settled by reconciliation, 17 reserved and 13 referred to the concerned authorities. "Nine complaints are still under study," it added.

It said as many as 23,000 visits were made to the authority's website, on which more than 2.6 million tweets were posted.

The authority said it received 5,626 telephone calls during the year and its electronic pages were browsed more than 35,000 times.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, it has initiated a legal scholarship program of which about 170 law students have benefitted, the authority said.

"We have also conducted a six-week training program to arm lawyers with skills needed for the labor market in which 25 women lawyers participated," it said.

The authority said it has launched a number of initiatives to promote the institutional work including a registry for the law firms and a referral number to the lawyers, which will enable the concerned government authorities to provide services to their offices.

"The referral number will enable the lawyer to open a file at the labor office, open a bank account and other various services," it said.

The authority said it had also provided on its electronic gate enough data about the reliable law offices in Arabic and English for general use by the public.