Last week Thursday at Muson Centre, Lagos Island, octogenarian
lawyer and first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief ‘Folake
Solanke, led a pack of leading lights in the Nigerian legal circle
to brainstorm on the current state of the profession and its
future, particularly as it relates to the survival of the younger
generation.
The occasion was the 35th anniversary of the call to Bar of Mr.
Dele Adesina (SAN).
Besides publicly presenting a book titled, “New Developments in
Law and Practice in Nigeria,” Adesina was also celebrating the 25
years of the establishment of his law firm, Dele Adesina LP, and 10
years of his being conferred with the SAN rank.
The law firm used the occasion to inaugurate its annual public
lecture, the maiden edition of which was with the theme, “Building
a Successful Legal Career/Practice.”
85-year-old Solanke was the chairman on the occasion, while
Prof. Kayinsola Ajayi (SAN) delivered the lecture.
On the panel were Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Dr. Wale
Babalakin (SAN), Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), Mr. Osaro Eghobamien
(SAN), Mrs. Abimbola Akeredolu (SAN ) and Mrs. Christine Sijuwade
of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie law firm.
The audience was populated by a host of respected lawyers,
including Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and Prof. Ernest Ojukwu (SAN).
Solanke, in her opening remarks, set the tone of the discussion
by decrying the erosion of professional ethics, poor remuneration
of young lawyers, corruption and trial of judges and other malaise
plaguing the legal profession.
In a solemn voice, Solanke, who had spent 54 years practising as
a lawyer, 36 of which she has been a SAN, called on her junior
colleagues to let us “engage in soul-searching and
self-examination.”
She seized the occasion to further her long-running campaign for
pupillage of young lawyers, as a way of addressing falling
standards.
Recalling how after being called to the Bar, she undertook
pupillage with “my late brother-in-law — the brilliant Honourable
Justice M.A. Odesanya, for one year in Lagos and the iconic Chief
F.R.A. Williams (SAN), for one year in Ibadan,” Solanke said, “It
is my humble view that pupillage is imperative for a new wig, for
one or two years.”
She, however, stressed that senior lawyers should not take the
liberty of the pupillage to enslave the young lawyers by not paying
them well.
“Lawyers are paid by their clients, so, lawyers in pupillage
should be paid. New lawyers incur expenses during pupillage, to
wit: for rent, food, transportation, books, apparel, etc.
“In defence of lawyers in pupillage, I declare that lawyers are
not slaves. Only slaves work for no pay because a slave is the
legal property of the slaver. A lawyer is certainly not the
property of a learned senior or any other person,” she said.
She, however, pleaded with young lawyers “not to go to war with
your learned seniors, but to politely apply for remuneration for
your services.”
While expressing her regret about the allegations of corruption
flying around about judges and lawyers, Solanke said, it must be
understood that “there are judges and lawyers who are above board
and practise Law according to the tenets of the profession and
their oaths of office.”
In his lecture, Ajayi charged young lawyers to be bold rather
than succumb to fear of making mistakes or taking risks.
He said, “The road is rough, the nights are long, the pay may
not be competitive but the reward is great for all those who are
able to tarry and be faithful to the vision of success, casting
away dreams of ease.
“You must understand that success requires sacrifice. Thus, like
an ant, be bold and courageous, do not look back, cast that hook
and do not be afraid.
“Additionally, let me underscore this, ‘do not let anyone
disqualify you’ from a successful career, or building a successful
practice. Let no one despise your little beginnings but learn from
the ant the benefit of team work, by way of partnerships as a means
to institution building.”
He noted that dearth of mentorship was one of the major
challenges confronting young lawyers, but encouraged them to never
shy away from taking reasonable risks.
Ajayi added, “To fully embrace life as a lawyer, you have to be
willing to take risks; to be uncomfortable and to be bold.
“However, taking a risk means that you also have to be willing
to be wrong and make mistakes – for that is life. I understand that
most young lawyers are petrified at the thought of making mistakes.
It is important to know that mistakes are the portals of discovery,
as a person who does not make mistakes is unlikely to be great at
anything.
“On this journey, you will face mediocre moments and make some
outright blunders. You are going to be frustrated at your
performance at many points particularly when you operate in a
highly competitive environment, but embrace it. Give yourself the
space to accommodate it, own it and learn from it, for it is only
from doing so, you will be empowered.”
Asked by the moderator, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), the secret of
his success, Olanipekun, who opened the discussion after Ajayi’s
lecture, said the secret of his success were hard work, diligence
and consistency, stressing that he never combined anything with
legal practice.
“I see Law as a very jealous profession; God says I am a jealous
God. This is a jealous profession, I don’t combine anything with
Law — it is Law in the morning, Law at noon, Law at night. Don’t
allow the noise in the marketplace to distract you.”
Olanipekun said young lawyers must “know that Rome was not built
in a day.”
“You must learn how to steal from your colleagues. If I go to
court, I want to learn from my colleagues. If I have a matter with
Femi (Falana), unfortunately, I know it’s going to be a legal war,
but I will steal from him; tomorrow I will plagiarise him; this is
permissible plagiarism because I know that where my own Law ends,
that of Femi Falana begins,” Olanipekun said.
Taking the microphone, Eghobamien lamented that the Supreme
Court had lost focus of its role as a policy court, as it was being
bogged down with too many cases.
He said, “The Supreme Court is a policy court. And so when the
Supreme Court bogs itself down with considering whether or not we
sign our processes, the Supreme Court has stopped performing the
function for which it was created.
“I handled a case at the Supreme Court, on that day, in seven
cases, judgments were delivered. All seven but one succeeded, it
succeeded on account of the fact that the lawyer didn’t sign his
name.
“On one day, the Supreme Court handled nine cases; nowhere in
the world will that happen. There is no way the Supreme Court could
have appreciated any of the issues that they had attempted;
attempted, I say, because at the Supreme Court, they say adopt your
brief — at the Supreme Court, where you are supposed to be
discussing and developing the law! A policy court!
“Someone takes a case to a lawyer 25 years ago and his case is
decided not on the merit at the Supreme Court level; I think the
level of injustice is astonishing!
“My advocacy is, therefore, so that the Supreme Court should not
just simply be affirming what happens at the Court of Appeal, maybe
we should consider dropping the Supreme Court.”
Also speaking, Ajogwu made a case for the welfare of young
lawyers, saying any firm which neglected it was shooting itself in
the foot.
The don said, “I am not of the school of thought that beg people
to pay young lawyers very well because it’s self-corrective — if
you don’t pay them well, you will just become an unconscious
training ground where the better-paying people will poach them and
bring them into better ground. So, it’s in everyone’s interest
strategically to reward hard work and excellence in order to retain
the best brains.”
He said young lawyers, from the outset, must decide the kind of
lawyers they want to be and the area of Law where they want to
build strength and be known.
He said, “One thing is important to drive the profession
forward, one needs to determine what kind of lawyer are you. You
should not be everything to everybody. It is important that as
practitioners we define what type of lawyer we want to be, what
type of Law practice we want to have.”
He said the real yardstick for measuring success should be about
what contribution one has made to the profession, rather than how
much money an individual has made.
“There is something about measuring your success by what you
have produced, not just the income into your pocket. Earlier on, I
had congratulated Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN), you’ve become a maker
of SANs. It speaks volumes that you are not only successful but you
have helped to create successes. The same goes to the guest speaker
(Ajayi) who has produced a brilliant judge, a PhD holder.
“The point is you have to take a look to the left and say ‘what
has the profession done for me?’ It has merely given you fame,
glory, maybe, income, wealth but the bigger question is: what have
you done for the profession? What Bar centre did you empower, what
endowment did you put in place? How many times did you take time to
do pro bono work?”
Also speaking, Babalakin stressed the need for judges to be well
paid, adding that the judiciary must fix its own problems, rather
than blame others for its woes.
Babalakin said, “The legal profession must heal itself. We can’t
come here and continue to say that we are not happy with the
profession, when we have not actively participated in changing the
course of the profession.
“The profession today, sadly, is incongruous. I see senior
lawyers who are blessed but their audience is the court. It is very
anomalous to have criteria that make it more beautiful to become a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria than to be a high court judge. We,
senior advocates, go to the high court judges to make our cases. If
the audience is not better than you, you are wasting your
time.”
On her own part, Sijuwade said enduring law firms can only be
built on meritocracy and a fair system of rewarding hard work and
excellence.
“If you want to institutionalise a law firm, you must practise
meritocracy. You must reward diligence and hard work.
“When an employee stays up at 3am, the employee should have at
the back of their mind that they will be rewarded. That’s the best
way to retain great talents, and that’s the biggest thing to do to
institutionalise a law firm.”
She added that law firms must not be rigid but should be open to
new ideas.
“It’s also important to be open to new ideas. Even if your firm
starts as primarily an Oil and Gas firm or primarily
litigation-focused, you need to be open to new ideas. If you feel
that Nigeria is moving towards agriculture for example or
manufacturing is becoming of increasing interest to investors, you
need to be open to those new areas of law and develop your lawyers
and skill sets in those areas so you are able to compete,” Sijuwade
said.
Earlier in his remarks, the celebrant, Adesina, noted that the
legal profession “is strategic to our nation. Our profession is an
indispensable tool for nation building.”
Last week Thursday at Muson Centre, Lagos Island, octogenarian
lawyer and first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief ‘Folake
Solanke, led a pack of leading lights in the Nigerian legal circle
to brainstorm on the current state of the profession and its
future, particularly as it relates to the survival of the younger
generation.
The occasion was the 35th anniversary of the call to Bar of Mr.
Dele Adesina (SAN).
Besides publicly presenting a book titled, “New Developments in
Law and Practice in Nigeria,” Adesina was also celebrating the 25
years of the establishment of his law firm, Dele Adesina LP, and 10
years of his being conferred with the SAN rank.
The law firm used the occasion to inaugurate its annual public
lecture, the maiden edition of which was with the theme, “Building
a Successful Legal Career/Practice.”
85-year-old Solanke was the chairman on the occasion, while
Prof. Kayinsola Ajayi (SAN) delivered the lecture.
On the panel were Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Dr. Wale
Babalakin (SAN), Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), Mr. Osaro Eghobamien
(SAN), Mrs. Abimbola Akeredolu (SAN ) and Mrs. Christine Sijuwade
of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie law firm.
The audience was populated by a host of respected lawyers,
including Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and Prof. Ernest Ojukwu (SAN).
Solanke, in her opening remarks, set the tone of the discussion
by decrying the erosion of professional ethics, poor remuneration
of young lawyers, corruption and trial of judges and other malaise
plaguing the legal profession.
In a solemn voice, Solanke, who had spent 54 years practising as
a lawyer, 36 of which she has been a SAN, called on her junior
colleagues to let us “engage in soul-searching and
self-examination.”
She seized the occasion to further her long-running campaign for
pupillage of young lawyers, as a way of addressing falling
standards.
Recalling how after being called to the Bar, she undertook
pupillage with “my late brother-in-law — the brilliant Honourable
Justice M.A. Odesanya, for one year in Lagos and the iconic Chief
F.R.A. Williams (SAN), for one year in Ibadan,” Solanke said, “It
is my humble view that pupillage is imperative for a new wig, for
one or two years.”
She, however, stressed that senior lawyers should not take the
liberty of the pupillage to enslave the young lawyers by not paying
them well.
“Lawyers are paid by their clients, so, lawyers in pupillage
should be paid. New lawyers incur expenses during pupillage, to
wit: for rent, food, transportation, books, apparel, etc.
“In defence of lawyers in pupillage, I declare that lawyers are
not slaves. Only slaves work for no pay because a slave is the
legal property of the slaver. A lawyer is certainly not the
property of a learned senior or any other person,” she said.
She, however, pleaded with young lawyers “not to go to war with
your learned seniors, but to politely apply for remuneration for
your services.”
While expressing her regret about the allegations of corruption
flying around about judges and lawyers, Solanke said, it must be
understood that “there are judges and lawyers who are above board
and practise Law according to the tenets of the profession and
their oaths of office.”
In his lecture, Ajayi charged young lawyers to be bold rather
than succumb to fear of making mistakes or taking risks.
He said, “The road is rough, the nights are long, the pay may
not be competitive but the reward is great for all those who are
able to tarry and be faithful to the vision of success, casting
away dreams of ease.
“You must understand that success requires sacrifice. Thus, like
an ant, be bold and courageous, do not look back, cast that hook
and do not be afraid.
“Additionally, let me underscore this, ‘do not let anyone
disqualify you’ from a successful career, or building a successful
practice. Let no one despise your little beginnings but learn from
the ant the benefit of team work, by way of partnerships as a means
to institution building.”
He noted that dearth of mentorship was one of the major
challenges confronting young lawyers, but encouraged them to never
shy away from taking reasonable risks.
Ajayi added, “To fully embrace life as a lawyer, you have to be
willing to take risks; to be uncomfortable and to be bold.
“However, taking a risk means that you also have to be willing
to be wrong and make mistakes – for that is life. I understand that
most young lawyers are petrified at the thought of making mistakes.
It is important to know that mistakes are the portals of discovery,
as a person who does not make mistakes is unlikely to be great at
anything.
“On this journey, you will face mediocre moments and make some
outright blunders. You are going to be frustrated at your
performance at many points particularly when you operate in a
highly competitive environment, but embrace it. Give yourself the
space to accommodate it, own it and learn from it, for it is only
from doing so, you will be empowered.”
Asked by the moderator, Mr. Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), the secret of
his success, Olanipekun, who opened the discussion after Ajayi’s
lecture, said the secret of his success were hard work, diligence
and consistency, stressing that he never combined anything with
legal practice.
“I see Law as a very jealous profession; God says I am a jealous
God. This is a jealous profession, I don’t combine anything with
Law — it is Law in the morning, Law at noon, Law at night. Don’t
allow the noise in the marketplace to distract you.”
Olanipekun said young lawyers must “know that Rome was not built
in a day.”
“You must learn how to steal from your colleagues. If I go to
court, I want to learn from my colleagues. If I have a matter with
Femi (Falana), unfortunately, I know it’s going to be a legal war,
but I will steal from him; tomorrow I will plagiarise him; this is
permissible plagiarism because I know that where my own Law ends,
that of Femi Falana begins,” Olanipekun said.
Taking the microphone, Eghobamien lamented that the Supreme
Court had lost focus of its role as a policy court, as it was being
bogged down with too many cases.
He said, “The Supreme Court is a policy court. And so when the
Supreme Court bogs itself down with considering whether or not we
sign our processes, the Supreme Court has stopped performing the
function for which it was created.
“I handled a case at the Supreme Court, on that day, in seven
cases, judgments were delivered. All seven but one succeeded, it
succeeded on account of the fact that the lawyer didn’t sign his
name.
“On one day, the Supreme Court handled nine cases; nowhere in
the world will that happen. There is no way the Supreme Court could
have appreciated any of the issues that they had attempted;
attempted, I say, because at the Supreme Court, they say adopt your
brief — at the Supreme Court, where you are supposed to be
discussing and developing the law! A policy court!
“Someone takes a case to a lawyer 25 years ago and his case is
decided not on the merit at the Supreme Court level; I think the
level of injustice is astonishing!
“My advocacy is, therefore, so that the Supreme Court should not
just simply be affirming what happens at the Court of Appeal, maybe
we should consider dropping the Supreme Court.”
Also speaking, Ajogwu made a case for the welfare of young
lawyers, saying any firm which neglected it was shooting itself in
the foot.
The don said, “I am not of the school of thought that beg people
to pay young lawyers very well because it’s self-corrective — if
you don’t pay them well, you will just become an unconscious
training ground where the better-paying people will poach them and
bring them into better ground. So, it’s in everyone’s interest
strategically to reward hard work and excellence in order to retain
the best brains.”
He said young lawyers, from the outset, must decide the kind of
lawyers they want to be and the area of Law where they want to
build strength and be known.
He said, “One thing is important to drive the profession
forward, one needs to determine what kind of lawyer are you. You
should not be everything to everybody. It is important that as
practitioners we define what type of lawyer we want to be, what
type of Law practice we want to have.”
He said the real yardstick for measuring success should be about
what contribution one has made to the profession, rather than how
much money an individual has made.
“There is something about measuring your success by what you
have produced, not just the income into your pocket. Earlier on, I
had congratulated Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN), you’ve become a maker
of SANs. It speaks volumes that you are not only successful but you
have helped to create successes. The same goes to the guest speaker
(Ajayi) who has produced a brilliant judge, a PhD holder.
“The point is you have to take a look to the left and say ‘what
has the profession done for me?’ It has merely given you fame,
glory, maybe, income, wealth but the bigger question is: what have
you done for the profession? What Bar centre did you empower, what
endowment did you put in place? How many times did you take time to
do pro bono work?”
Also speaking, Babalakin stressed the need for judges to be well
paid, adding that the judiciary must fix its own problems, rather
than blame others for its woes.
Babalakin said, “The legal profession must heal itself. We can’t
come here and continue to say that we are not happy with the
profession, when we have not actively participated in changing the
course of the profession.
“The profession today, sadly, is incongruous. I see senior
lawyers who are blessed but their audience is the court. It is very
anomalous to have criteria that make it more beautiful to become a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria than to be a high court judge. We,
senior advocates, go to the high court judges to make our cases. If
the audience is not better than you, you are wasting your
time.”
On her own part, Sijuwade said enduring law firms can only be
built on meritocracy and a fair system of rewarding hard work and
excellence.
“If you want to institutionalise a law firm, you must practise
meritocracy. You must reward diligence and hard work.
“When an employee stays up at 3am, the employee should have at
the back of their mind that they will be rewarded. That’s the best
way to retain great talents, and that’s the biggest thing to do to
institutionalise a law firm.”
She added that law firms must not be rigid but should be open to
new ideas.
“It’s also important to be open to new ideas. Even if your firm
starts as primarily an Oil and Gas firm or primarily
litigation-focused, you need to be open to new ideas. If you feel
that Nigeria is moving towards agriculture for example or
manufacturing is becoming of increasing interest to investors, you
need to be open to those new areas of law and develop your lawyers
and skill sets in those areas so you are able to compete,” Sijuwade
said.
Earlier in his remarks, the celebrant, Adesina, noted that the
legal profession “is strategic to our nation. Our profession is an
indispensable tool for nation building.”
Read more https://nairalaw.com/solanke-olanipekun-ajayi-chart-success-path-for-young-lawyers/