To demonstrate that the need for continuous education of practitioners of a profession in order to maintain standards and ensure survival shouldn’t just be a cliche, senior lawyers held a webinar for their younger colleagues. KEMISOLA OYE gives an account of what transpired at the event.
DETERMINED to maintain the primus inter pares
status of the legal profession, a group of senior legal practitioners, led by the first female Attorney-General of Lagos State and first Chairlady, Body of Benchers, Mrs. Hairat Aderinsola Balogun (SAN), recently held a webinar for young lawyers on maintaining the primacy of the legal profession.
The webinar, with the title” Building A Successful Career In Legal Profession: What Option?”, was organised by the Lawbreed Academy.
Aside from Mrs. Balogun, other eminent legal practitioners including the Chief Executive Officer of Lawbreed, the publisher of Supreme Court Judgments, Mr. Layi Babatunde (SAN), Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) Prof. Ernest Ojukwu (SAN), Mr. Oyetola Muyiwa Atoyebi (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), and many others, opined that the younger generation of lawyers must be prepared to take the profession to the greatest height, i.e law being the last hope of the ordinary man.
Sharing her experiences with the younger generation of lawyers during the annual seminar, Mrs. Balogun, who chaired the event, harped on the need for the new generation of lawyers to embrace integrity.
In her welcome remark, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, The Lawbreed, Mrs. Adejoke Layi-Babatunde, said Lawbreed Academy is the training arm of Lawbreed Limited, the authorised publishers of official law report of the Supreme Court Judgments (S.C Reports).
She urged participants to pay rapt attention, learn and gain from the leaders in the profession.
She further appreciated the dignitaries present at the event despite the short notice and agree to share their knowledge in the field of law with the younger generation.
According to her, Lawbreed Academy started a webinar seminar in 2019 during the COVID-19 pandemic. “COVID-19 pandemic pushed people to do things differently”, she reasoned.
“Lawbreed Academy is a training ground for lawyers, capacity building and continuous learning is at the utmost best. We are glad to call on Nigerian lawyers, not only lawyers in Nigeria, I can see lawyers from Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries. Basically, we are global”.
Also, the CEO Lawbreed Academy, Mr. Layi Babatunde, said, there are various opportunities in the legal profession. He urged the young lawyers to learn from the experience of leaders in the Bar.
According to him: “When we joined the legal profession about four decades ago, we focused on advocacy, dispute resolution or just as solicitors doing paperwork, preparing Deeds of Assignment and other contracts. But the opportunities were limited. Today, it is better for us to have avenues so that our colleagues can be better off tomorrow
“As the saying goes, “success and opportunity means preparation”. What to do is to prepare ourselves ahead of the opportunity that lies ahead of us in our profession. Today, the field has become so wide and unless we pay attention to this opportunity, we might miss out on it that may come our way. By the grace of God, we have done well in our profession and we believe that our people can learn from us.
“Some of our colleagues who are also senior members of the Bar will also help us share their experience, which you can profit from. So I believe we have a great time, we will have several take away, and at the end of the day, we can benefit from it.”
Babatunde stated further that though the opportunities might be limited in terms of promotion, salary, or benefit, one needs to always create an opportunity. He recounted how he used to buy law reports and how he started publishing.
“It is not too much to sacrifice and buy your law reports because sooner or later you will need them. I can assure you, you profit a lot from your sacrifice.”
For Professor Ernest Ojukwu (SAN), the programme was meant to empower lawyers for their future careers. He noted that what Mr. Layi Babatunde was doing through The Lawbreed was to empower lawyers, to help the younger generation guarantee their future.
He gave an insight into the history of the foundation of Continuous Legal Education, saying, “the brain behind the Continuous Legal Education programme in this country is Mama Airat Balogun. She floated an association for free education for lawyers.”
Recounting how the programme helped him in his professional odyssey, Professor Ojukwu said: “It was an impactful project. One of her programmes gave me an impetus to think, even though I was a young teacher in 1998 when I proposed to the Bar on the Continuous Legal Education programme.”
He also spoke about the challenges confronting youths, especially in Nigeria. He identified that there is a paucity of professional career counsellors pointing out that the trainers are not interested in their trainees. He also cited passion as the first key to decision-making.
According to him, “We don’t have a single experience about making a career and this is one of the greatest challenges in our professional life. This profession is one of the greatest training for those who are joining them and it will be a training by so many indices. Because we don’t have career counsellors, we don’t have teachers who are interested in the people they are training. Most young people came out of the LLB and law school programmes without having people to talk to about them (the programmes), about their experience in picking a subject.
“When Mama Balogun started the Continuous Legal Education programme, she and her colleagues went round the country and organised free education for Nigerian lawyers. People didn’t key into it because of our history, but she made an impact. I proposed a mandatory legal education programme. Unfortunately, we failed in that regard.
“The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) floated a Continuous Legal Education programme but unfortunately it didn’t work. We do not have a transition programme either between LLB and career or Law School and career for the Bar. If NBA could start a free career programme that prepares young lawyers to face future challenges, it will fill in the gap in our profession. The professionals are not interested in training those who are joining them.
“We can categorize the NBA as a failed institution over the years, hopefully with the little things done in the past few years by the past presidents, we hope that that will change the story of the profession soon.”
The law professor further said the greatest challenge young people have is making a decision. He narrated how Prof. Olu Adediran of the University of Ife, observed the potential of teaching in him and that made him what he is today.
“So, I started having teaching as a profession in mind. In the third year, I made up my mind. He counselled me on how to choose a career and I eventually became a teacher and still practice”.
He, therefore, urged the young lawyers to have at least some knowledge about the area they want to venture into so as to help them develop an attraction to it.
Mrs. Balogun, while buttressing the point earlier made by Professor Ojukwu, noted that the law profession can only be developed by training the young ones. She advised them to be determined about what they want, be bold and build confidence.
“You must develop a way of approaching seniors for mentorship as everybody needs a mentor. We have a joint interest in building the profession. We are not going to live forever. It was a question of opportunity.
“You must be mentored. You cannot do it on your own, you must not be proud and make yourself amenable. You must be determined to succeed”, she admonished.
On his part, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) gave a vivid narration of how he was posted to Lagos and served in Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) chambers and was trained to be hard working.
Atoyebi encouraged them to add value to themselves as lawyers.
They appealed to them to shun cravings for money and a weak mindset. “Work will not kill you, it will only make you grow and attain greater accomplishments. Be ready to learn under your master, don’t do as if you are a kingmaker. Don’t think you will make money a day like the big wigs, you don’t know what they went through before they got there, Rome was not built in a day.
“It is easier to get to the top than staying there, that is why many people get there but they couldn’t maintain it, they fell. Go for a big post, falling from the pinnacle after you get there, you must work to sustain it. It takes a lot of hard work and no shortcut to success.”