Re-creating the future of the profession
‘‘Out with the old, in with the new’
This writer is a respecter of the order of things as it applies in today’s legal environment. However, it is my belief that for a better and healthy competitive atmosphere in the legal environment, the lawyer of today - old, middle aged, or young - should practice law as it ought to be, and not as it is, for it is only by trying new things that we can re-create the future.
It is the practice today for lawyers once called into the Nigerian Bar, to hurriedly jump into the bandwagon of litigation crowded by majority of lawyers in the system, leading to establishment of ‘one man’ law firms, or working for five years for a law firm without effort at self-improvement and development through capacity building.
The law as it ought to be should be about partnerships, capacity building of lawyer, packaging, innovation, new ideas, digitalization of correspondences and a schooling that educates its law students based on the changing demand of the society, not just repetition of the same old laws.
The law as it is today is all about hardship, and difficulty, the system has made suffering a prerequisite to success in the legal profession. What happened to all the authorities law students crammed for Nigerian Land Law, Copyrights, International Law, Banking Law, Capital Market et al in the university? Like how many lawyers actually put into practice courses that were taught in the university? Take for instance, a lawyer opposes an application based on a principle on banking law taught in university, and the court says it is purely academic.
The law as it ought to be should be easy, simple and stressless. Abraham Sallau Esq., founding partner of Cradle of Law (Legal Professionals and consultants) while studying his masters in International Law in Dundee, says there is what is called a ‘seen examination’ over there, whereby students are sent questions one week before the day of the examination to prepare. In Nigeria, if the question is not hard and brain wracking, the teacher would not believe the students are smart.
The law as it is today, young legal professionals are moving with the crowd without discovering their purpose in the profession. Falz would have been in Chambers but the entertainment pays more. In today’s legal environment the senior colleague wants the junior to suffer because he/she suffered while under a principal. Most seniors of today do not see the essence of catering for the welfare of the employee; like why should I pay these young lawyers’ practicing fee, branch dues and conference fee, and still pay him/her thirty thousand Naira monthly as salary? It doesn’t make financial sense.
The law as it ought to be, emphasis must be on the protection of labour, lawyers should be employed with contract of employment. There should be better welfare packages including wardrobe allowances (the lawyer needs to look good to attract good clients), capacity building of employees on a steady pace ought to be a cardinal principle of all law firms.
The law as it is today, there are lawyers without electronic mail (email), while some lawyers have the email but don’t check their mails or only on quarterly basis. In some law firms the secretary still types the court process leading to all sorts of unnecessary mistakes in the court processes, bearing in mind that the secretary does not know the implication of the words and sentences of a court process when already filed at the court registry.
The law as it ought to be; every legal professional should be able to type his/her work on their laptop, send a draft copy to a senior colleague by mail for perusal and amendments, resent back to the junior by mail, then print, make necessary copies, append signatures, then the para-legal goes to the court registry to file.
Creating a better future for the legal profession is not as difficult as we make it look. Every lawyer ought to understand that his/her future is entirely theirs to develop, or limit. Spend time discovering how to make the best from being a gentleman per excellence, it is no small feat being a lawyer, then why go hungry with one of the best skills given to man by God?
The essence of discovering new frontiers is not solely for discovery alone, but the survival of human kind. The same applies in the legal community, the new generation lawyers ought to practice law as evolved by the invention of technology, and development of the human mind. We know not what tomorrow will be, but we certainly can contribute to creating a picture of how it should look like. Godspeed! Do send your comment(s), observation{s} and recommendation(s) to danielbulusson@gmail.com, follow on twitter @bulussdan, or like our page on www.facebook. com/younglawyerscolumn