KUNLE Olasanmi unravels why male lawyers dominate
the cadre of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, while their female
counterparts continue hold the shorter end of the
stick.
For every lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar upon his/her
graduation from the Nigerian Law School, the dream is to get to the
peak of the career, which include earning the position of Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.
Remarkable is that since the conferment of the position of SAN
on lawyers who have distinguished themselves in the legal
profession began in 1975, male lawyers have earned the honour, far
more than the women.
There indeed worries among both male and female lawyers over the
highly disproportionate ratio of male lawyer SANs to that of
women.
The first woman in the Nigerian legal profession to be conferred
with the title was Mrs. Folake Solanke, decorated in 1981. Since
them, only very few women have been conferred with the title.
Every year, while more than 20 male lawyers are awarded the
rank, only about one or two female lawyers make the mark.
According to one of the member of the Legal Practitioners
Privileges Committee LPPC, which awards the honour, more male
lawyers apply for the title than their female counterparts.
“The women folk need to step up their game. They should apply
more. And if I may add, it is just not enough to apply, they must
step up their game in order to meet up with the criteria,” he
said.
In this year’s selection by the LPPC, only one woman made the
list of 30 lawyers awarded the title.
Mrs. Oluwatoyin Bashorun, emerged as the only female lawyer,
approved for the legal honour among just only four female lawyers
that applied.
According to the chief registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria
and the secretary of the LPPC, Hadizatu Uwani Mustapha, only four
women applied for the rank this year. She further revealed that156
candidates applied for the prestigious honour this year, out of
which 123 qualified for the first round of interview. According to
her, 72 candidates proceeded to the final stage and 26 were
admitted from the inner bar, while four were from the academic
community.
She said those from the academic community included Prof.
Adedeji Adekunle, the director general of the National Institute
for Advanced and Legal Studies.
Barrister Wuma Abdullah, a women’s rights advocate, said the
LPPC should consider more women for the award of SAN.
Abdullah notes that, “Very few women have been conferred with
the rank since inception. I am also challenging the women to do
more in their legal practice so that they can be qualified whenever
they apply for the title.
”I may want to agree that women in the legal profession need to
do more, if they are to be reckoned with. If I may also say, they
should not also hide their good works. They should showcase it so
that people will know that they can also compete favourably with
their male counterparts.”
While there are concerns that female lawyers in the country may
not be doing enough to be reckoned with for the award of SAN, it is
observed that they have numerical preeminence in the magistrate
positions of the bench. This presupposes that Nigerian female
lawyers obviously have more liking to work for government than
sweating it out in the field against their male professional
colleagues.
The SAN elevation is annually conferred on Nigerian lawyers, who
have distinguished themselves in the legal profession and have been
practising actively for not less than 10 years and must have argued
cases at the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
It is an honour conferred by the Legal Practitioners Privileges
Committee (LPPC), headed by the chief justice of Nigeria, CJN.
Other members of the committee are the attorney general of the
federation, AGF, president of the Court of Appeal, chief judge of
the Federal High Court, five SANs among other people) in line with
Section 5(1) of the Legal Practitioners Act of 2004.
According to Section 5(2) of the Legal Practitioners Act, for a
lawyer get the award, he must have achieved distinction in the
legal profession in such a manner as the committee may from time to
time determine.
The award started in 1975, modeled after the Queen of England’s
Counsel rank, with its first conferment on Chief Frederick Rotimi
Alade Williams (popularly known as F.R.A. Williams) and Dr. Nabo
Graham Douglas.
According to record, there are more than 70 000 lawyers in
Nigeria as at last year. Out of this number, only 450 are Senior
Advocates of Nigeria, including the 30 that was appointed this
year. About 70 of the 450 SANs are, however, dead.
The number of the entire lawyers in the country and the 450
lawyers that have been conferred with the rank shows how coveted
and prestigious the award is.
The criteria for meriting it are too strict for a vast majority
of lawyers to meet, no doubt, the privileges that come with the
position are enormous and appealing.
Some of the benefits a lawyer gets after becoming a senior
advocate are more respectable and juicer briefs which lawyers in
the lower rung of the ladder get. Senior Advocates of Nigeria earn
much more respect among fellow lawyers in the bar and the bench and
get to always present their case first in court when the opposing
counsel is a junior lawyer.
It is worthy of note that the award can also be conferred on
academics in law who have distinguished themselves and have made
meaningful contributions to jurisprudence through research,
teaching and published works in any reputable Nigerian university,
research institute, Nigerian Law School and other recognized
institutions.
Further considerations by the LPPC for the award of SAN are that
the applicant must be a citizen of Nigeria; he must have a
post-call standing of at least 10 years or if not a lawyer yet,
read: ‘How to Become a Lawyer in Nigeria;’ must be of good
character and of impeccable integrity; an applicant must register
for the award with a non-refundable fee of N300 000 (Three hundred
thousand naira).
Others are that he must submit to the Legal Practitioners
Privileges Committee a list of 10 judges of superior courts of
record before whom he has appeared and argued important cases. (The
committee will select any three of those judges to give testimonial
statements about the applicant.); he must also submit a list of
colleagues with whom he has handled cases, (three of whom will be
selected to give testimonial statements about him.); an applicant
must submit the particulars of contested cases in which he
personally handled: eight judgments of the High Court, six
judgments of the Court of Appeal and three judgments of the Supreme
Court; where he appeared only before the Supreme Court, he will be
required to submit six judgments of the Supreme Court.
Others include that an applicant must show evidence of payment
of practice fee and membership dues to his local branch of Nigerian
Bar Association (NBA) for at least 10 years preceding the year of
applying for the award of SAN; he must also show evidence of the
payment of income tax for at least three years preceding his
application; an applicant must show evidence of having rendered pro
bono cases to indigent clients as a form of community service; for
academics in law, at least 20 copies of outstanding published legal
works must be presented to the committee; academics must also show
that their works are published by reputable publishers whose
reputation shall be assessed and determined by the academic
sub-committee of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee
(LPPC).
Also the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) has a
duty to inspect the applicant’s firm to assess: the size and
quality of his library, the number and competence of staff and the
space and quality of other facilities in the firm. From all the
criteria, it is obvious that without hard work and discipline, it
is difficult to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Every year,
hundreds of ambitious lawyers apply but only a handful gets the
honour.
It is obvious that the LPPC aims to preserve the prestige of the
SAN honour and the profession at large by imposing stern
restrictions.
After becoming an SAN, a lawyer can still be stripped of the
title for misconducts pending the determination of any disciplinary
action.
One of such cases is that of Chief Ajibola Aribisala SAN, who
was suspended in 2013 from using his title for 20 months on
allegations of flagrant breach of professional ethics and
acceptable conduct. Former attorney-general of the federation,
Chief Mike Aondoakaa and a few others have also been suspended from
using the title for a period of time.
KUNLE Olasanmi unravels why male lawyers dominate
the cadre of Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN, while their female
counterparts continue hold the shorter end of the
stick.
For every lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar upon his/her
graduation from the Nigerian Law School, the dream is to get to the
peak of the career, which include earning the position of Senior
Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.
Remarkable is that since the conferment of the position of SAN
on lawyers who have distinguished themselves in the legal
profession began in 1975, male lawyers have earned the honour, far
more than the women.
There indeed worries among both male and female lawyers over the
highly disproportionate ratio of male lawyer SANs to that of
women.
The first woman in the Nigerian legal profession to be conferred
with the title was Mrs. Folake Solanke, decorated in 1981. Since
them, only very few women have been conferred with the title.
Every year, while more than 20 male lawyers are awarded the
rank, only about one or two female lawyers make the mark.
According to one of the member of the Legal Practitioners
Privileges Committee LPPC, which awards the honour, more male
lawyers apply for the title than their female counterparts.
“The women folk need to step up their game. They should apply
more. And if I may add, it is just not enough to apply, they must
step up their game in order to meet up with the criteria,” he
said.
In this year’s selection by the LPPC, only one woman made the
list of 30 lawyers awarded the title.
Mrs. Oluwatoyin Bashorun, emerged as the only female lawyer,
approved for the legal honour among just only four female lawyers
that applied.
According to the chief registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria
and the secretary of the LPPC, Hadizatu Uwani Mustapha, only four
women applied for the rank this year. She further revealed that156
candidates applied for the prestigious honour this year, out of
which 123 qualified for the first round of interview. According to
her, 72 candidates proceeded to the final stage and 26 were
admitted from the inner bar, while four were from the academic
community.
She said those from the academic community included Prof.
Adedeji Adekunle, the director general of the National Institute
for Advanced and Legal Studies.
Barrister Wuma Abdullah, a women’s rights advocate, said the
LPPC should consider more women for the award of SAN.
Abdullah notes that, “Very few women have been conferred with
the rank since inception. I am also challenging the women to do
more in their legal practice so that they can be qualified whenever
they apply for the title.
”I may want to agree that women in the legal profession need to
do more, if they are to be reckoned with. If I may also say, they
should not also hide their good works. They should showcase it so
that people will know that they can also compete favourably with
their male counterparts.”
While there are concerns that female lawyers in the country may
not be doing enough to be reckoned with for the award of SAN, it is
observed that they have numerical preeminence in the magistrate
positions of the bench. This presupposes that Nigerian female
lawyers obviously have more liking to work for government than
sweating it out in the field against their male professional
colleagues.
The SAN elevation is annually conferred on Nigerian lawyers, who
have distinguished themselves in the legal profession and have been
practising actively for not less than 10 years and must have argued
cases at the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
It is an honour conferred by the Legal Practitioners Privileges
Committee (LPPC), headed by the chief justice of Nigeria, CJN.
Other members of the committee are the attorney general of the
federation, AGF, president of the Court of Appeal, chief judge of
the Federal High Court, five SANs among other people) in line with
Section 5(1) of the Legal Practitioners Act of 2004.
According to Section 5(2) of the Legal Practitioners Act, for a
lawyer get the award, he must have achieved distinction in the
legal profession in such a manner as the committee may from time to
time determine.
The award started in 1975, modeled after the Queen of England’s
Counsel rank, with its first conferment on Chief Frederick Rotimi
Alade Williams (popularly known as F.R.A. Williams) and Dr. Nabo
Graham Douglas.
According to record, there are more than 70 000 lawyers in
Nigeria as at last year. Out of this number, only 450 are Senior
Advocates of Nigeria, including the 30 that was appointed this
year. About 70 of the 450 SANs are, however, dead.
The number of the entire lawyers in the country and the 450
lawyers that have been conferred with the rank shows how coveted
and prestigious the award is.
The criteria for meriting it are too strict for a vast majority
of lawyers to meet, no doubt, the privileges that come with the
position are enormous and appealing.
Some of the benefits a lawyer gets after becoming a senior
advocate are more respectable and juicer briefs which lawyers in
the lower rung of the ladder get. Senior Advocates of Nigeria earn
much more respect among fellow lawyers in the bar and the bench and
get to always present their case first in court when the opposing
counsel is a junior lawyer.
It is worthy of note that the award can also be conferred on
academics in law who have distinguished themselves and have made
meaningful contributions to jurisprudence through research,
teaching and published works in any reputable Nigerian university,
research institute, Nigerian Law School and other recognized
institutions.
Further considerations by the LPPC for the award of SAN are that
the applicant must be a citizen of Nigeria; he must have a
post-call standing of at least 10 years or if not a lawyer yet,
read: ‘How to Become a Lawyer in Nigeria;’ must be of good
character and of impeccable integrity; an applicant must register
for the award with a non-refundable fee of N300 000 (Three hundred
thousand naira).
Others are that he must submit to the Legal Practitioners
Privileges Committee a list of 10 judges of superior courts of
record before whom he has appeared and argued important cases. (The
committee will select any three of those judges to give testimonial
statements about the applicant.); he must also submit a list of
colleagues with whom he has handled cases, (three of whom will be
selected to give testimonial statements about him.); an applicant
must submit the particulars of contested cases in which he
personally handled: eight judgments of the High Court, six
judgments of the Court of Appeal and three judgments of the Supreme
Court; where he appeared only before the Supreme Court, he will be
required to submit six judgments of the Supreme Court.
Others include that an applicant must show evidence of payment
of practice fee and membership dues to his local branch of Nigerian
Bar Association (NBA) for at least 10 years preceding the year of
applying for the award of SAN; he must also show evidence of the
payment of income tax for at least three years preceding his
application; an applicant must show evidence of having rendered pro
bono cases to indigent clients as a form of community service; for
academics in law, at least 20 copies of outstanding published legal
works must be presented to the committee; academics must also show
that their works are published by reputable publishers whose
reputation shall be assessed and determined by the academic
sub-committee of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee
(LPPC).
Also the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) has a
duty to inspect the applicant’s firm to assess: the size and
quality of his library, the number and competence of staff and the
space and quality of other facilities in the firm. From all the
criteria, it is obvious that without hard work and discipline, it
is difficult to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Every year,
hundreds of ambitious lawyers apply but only a handful gets the
honour.
It is obvious that the LPPC aims to preserve the prestige of the
SAN honour and the profession at large by imposing stern
restrictions.
After becoming an SAN, a lawyer can still be stripped of the
title for misconducts pending the determination of any disciplinary
action.
One of such cases is that of Chief Ajibola Aribisala SAN, who
was suspended in 2013 from using his title for 20 months on
allegations of flagrant breach of professional ethics and
acceptable conduct. Former attorney-general of the federation,
Chief Mike Aondoakaa and a few others have also been suspended from
using the title for a period of time.
Read more https://nairalaw.com/san-bridge-only-few-female-lawyers-cross/
