About CLPS
A legal institute built for the questions Pakistani practice actually faces.
The Centre for Legal and Professional Studies develops professional capability across three pillars: training and CPD, legal-technology advisory, and economic and competition intelligence through CECI.
Mission
CLPS exists to raise the standard of professional legal practice in Pakistan at the points where it is changing fastest:
the deployment and governance of legal technology, the continuing education of practising lawyers, and the intelligence that cross-border transactional and regulatory work now demands. The institute is independent, non-partisan, and practice-oriented. Its programmes are designed by and for people who work the issues, not merely write about them.
Founding
CLPS was founded by Murtaza Mustansir, whose practice background in international arbitration (across ICSID, ICC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL proceedings) and doctoral research in law and economics shaped the institute's founding premise: that Pakistani legal practice lacks the specialist, implementation-level institutions that peer jurisdictions take for granted. The institute's first initiatives were a practice-oriented training programme for legal teams, and CECI, the Centre for Economic & Competition Intelligence, as its flagship research and convening platform.
Governance
CLPS is directed by its founder with an advisory structure under constitution. CECI, the institute's research arm, operates under its own published independence safeguards:
- editorial independence from sponsors
- merit-based speaking allocation
- the Chatham House Rule as structural default
- an advisory board with non-commercially-affiliated members
- audited annual accounts
The full safeguards are set out on the CECI governance page.