A total of 523 Taiwan residents will take the National Judicial Examination on the mainland scheduled on Sept. 16 and 17, a Ministry of Justice official said.

Sun Xiaoming, deputy head of the ministry examination division was addressing a seminar which closed on Wednesday in Shanghai.

The National Judicial Examination is the only professional exam for lawyers, judges, prosecutors and similar legal professions.

On April 16, 2008, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council permitted Taiwan residents to take the exam. Since then, 3,489 candidates from Taiwan have taken the test, 308 were awarded professional qualifications from the Ministry of Justice, Sun said.

A growing number of law graduates from Taiwan are pursuing careers on the mainland.

Lee Ning, who graduated from Soochow University this year became interested in working on the mainland during an exchange program at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

"The culture and language in the mainland and Taiwan have the same roots, so I don't notice too many differences," said Lee.

Taiwan's legal profession is saturated and offers little room of career advancement, Lee said. "Development of the mainland means the United States and Japan are no longer the top choices for young graduates in Taiwan."

Lee is interning in Shanghai and will start graduate studies at Taiwan University this fall. She plans to come back to the mainland for a job after graduation.

"I am optimistic about opportunities for Taiwan lawyers in the mainland," said Chan Shih-yi, director of a law firm in Taichung.

The Ministry of Justice has made it easier for Taiwan residents to practice law on the mainland, by allowing Taiwan law firms can set up representative offices Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang. After three years, representative offices can enter into joint-operations with mainland law firms in these regions.

Mainland law firms in the five regions can also employ Taiwan qualified lawyers as their legal concil in issues concerning Taiwan.