The legal profession is viewed with high esteem by the Nigerian society, though this respect is misplaced

than N50,000 (fifty thousand naira), sadly we still have Senior Advocates that give juniors in their offices a monthly pay of N30,000 (thirty thousand naira) with no added allowance of the sort in the legal profession.

With the beehive of activities that goes on in the office of a SAN, and the prestige fellow colleagues pay to the law office of a SAN, the Senior Advocate ordinarily ought to do better than their peers in payment of wages and welfare of employees.

Intellectual property is the pride and beacon of the profession but poorly encouraged in the Nigerian legal system - the true value of knowledge is performance. It is advisable that if you milk a cow, you feed the cow, or else expect a malnourished cow with little fat or muscle tissue. Likewise in the legal profession, a lawyer who is constantly engaged in reading, research, drafting etc and does not get commensurate reward, gradually the enthusiasm for the job begins to dwindle, frustration begins to creep in, and the lawyer begins to look shabby and unkempt.

The legal profession is viewed with high esteem by the Nigerian society, though this respect is misplaced, because many respect the lawyer for the knowledge he acquires, but laugh at the state of penury of the legal practitioner. It is sad that after many years of study at the university, many hours at the law office, sometimes weekends inclusive, a young lawyer has nothing to show for it. After five years post call, we still find lawyers in parents’ houses, with no ability to be financially independent.

Which begs the question, are the labours of young lawyers exploited by law firms in the legal industry?

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