By Nwoye Chinonso Emmanuel
Right from childhood, it was my dream to be a legal
practitioner. I remember having a conversation with my uncle at age
10. He was very impressed by the fact that at such a tender age, I
had a sort of conviction as regards what I wanted to be in the
distant future, which happens to be my
‘today’.
Becoming a lawyer entails five years of intensive studies in a
university, one mandatory year at the Nigerian Law School, and one
year of compulsory service to the nation (that is of course if one
is privileged to find oneself below the belts of age 30). The
import of the above is that it takes not less than seven years for
a person to train and eventually qualify to be a lawyer.
I was called to the Nigerian Bar on the 20th day of
October 2015, with my enrollment number being above 96,000. This
means that as at my call to the Bar, there were more than 97,000
lawyers nationwide already. Since no fewer than 8,500 more lawyers
have since then been called over three different call to bar
ceremonies, it is safe to conclude that Nigeria presently have over
105,000 lawyers, scattered across various locations in the country
and indeed the globe. This figure creeps up on a yearly basis and
is somewhat conservative.
Of this population of lawyers, nearly 1,500 lawyers have since
risen to the highest distinction, to become Senior Advocates, a
statistics that is less than 1% of lawyers. Think about the number
of persons who require the services of a lawyer and also willing to
pay the requisite price for same, you would agree with me that only
a handful of persons are, out of the millions of persons there are,
in this country.
The above statistics is not where my interest lies, they would
only help to appreciate and analyse the issue on ground.
From my observation, many a Nigerian Lawyer is very broke. Being
broke simply means being in a state where one’s income is not
adequate enough to cater for basic daily needs. In my first year as
a practicing lawyer, I appeared in Magistrate Courts a little too
often. I saw men in their 40’s and 50’s, appearing in Magistrate
Courts, either for the plaintiffs or for the defendants, seeking to
recover premises on properties whose rental values are in paltry
sums. I wondered how these men feed their families and take good
care of their children. I also wondered what went wrong.
In Abuja where I currently reside, there are law firms that pay
lawyers N20,000,
N15,000 and even as low as
N10, 000 monthly. The reasons these
firms adduce is that new lawyers are required to pick up jobs to
gather experience and probably starve to death in the course of so
doing. I wonder if the above stated sums can cover the
transportation expenses of a person in a month, how much more
feeding and clothing. These are realities that no one seem to be
addressing. We pretend like everything is fine whereas the painful
claws of poverty have been on the rampage in the lives of lawyers
from time immemorial. Young lawyers are the worst hit by this. It
is the reason a young lawyer would take paltry sums for huge
services. Minute by minute, day by day, underpaying lawyers is
cresting itself as the new norm.
One thing I remember clearly in my six basic years of training
to become a lawyer, is the way it was drummed into our
subconscious, how much pride and ego a lawyer should carry himself
with, how much of a noble and dignified profession law is. Little
wonder, law students are often disliked by people in other
faculties in a typical university. This piece does not also seek to
puncture the assertions as regards the nobility of the legal
profession.
Sadly, no one explained to us that the pride and ego we carry
would be questioned by existing economic realities, especially like
the present day recession which Nigeria was thankfully able to
slide out from even though the real effects are still let loose. No
one also told us that being broke and unable to pay bills is a huge
threat to our nobility and that of the profession as a whole.
Can you still carry high shoulders when your take home cannot
secure a quarter of a bag of rice, with groundnut oil and tin
tomatoes that is assuming that one chooses to stick to rice alone?
How much more buying a new pair of shoe and appearing neat, then of
course payment of rent. These are economic realities no one taught
us to brace up for and handle. We were given the impression that
once we know substantive and procedural laws, everything would fall
into place on their own accord, no wonder lawyers fall for diverse
temptations just to keep body and soul together. It is at this
critical point that many lawyers slump into the hope that one day,
a single brief would guarantee repositioning. I could go on and on
but it is not in my character to highlight problems without hinting
at a solution.
No one can exactly blame a law firm for throwing change at their
lawyers, after all we operate a free market economy so firms
sometimes pay from the little they admit to earning. Moreover,
firms are not government controlled and as such, dictating how much
to pay lawyers may not be entirely feasible. We would therefore see
a solution in all or any of the following propositions and
nuggets:
- Lawyers should be taught financial education. In addition to
the much pride and ego lawyers are trained to have, it is important
to incorporate financial education into the basic training of a
lawyer both at University and law School level. Money answers to
set down rules and regulations and lawyers are not exempted from
this knowledge. One can know all the substantive and procedural
laws, filing and moving of motions in courts and even prosecuting a
case from start to finish, but without adequate financial
knowledge, one would spend a lifetime, hoping for that ‘one brief’.
If by the mercy of providence it shows up, it would be squandered.
This would be a topic for another publication. The Nigerian Bar
Association should also do well to incorporate it in their series
of seminars, since a man is a slave to what he does not know. - As Lawyers, we must learn to package our services and make it
attractive enough for someone to want to pay for. Bill of charges
should always be prepared and sent to clients in writing either by
post or by electronic mails. Receipts should also be given to
clients for transactions as well as adequate record keeping in neat
files and not torn ones. It would reduce greatly, the inhumanity of
seeing legal services as something not worth anyone’s payment. From
the little earned, it is also important to maintain a clean
wardrobe. The clothes do not have to be too many, the few have only
got to be extremely neat. The same goes for our shoes. Appearance
is an integral part of packaging. Our knowledge and pride must
match our income because at the end of the day, if what we know
does not put food on the table, it is a corporal punishment and
intellectual affliction. All lawyers know basically the same thing
still, finances vary greatly. - The Nigerian Bar Association can come up with a minimum
charging standard which a lawyer should be penalized for if he
falls below it. That way, charges can become standard. The era
where people buy properties for N100, 000, 000 (One Hundred Million
Naira) and would rather pay a lawyer N20,000 (Twenty Thousand
Naira) only to prepare relevant documents, should be far behind
us. - Lastly, as lawyers, we must learn to take more risks and be
more adventurous. We must stop limiting ourselves to only certain
areas. Many a lawyer is very stiff. If it is not going to court,
then the interest is minimal. There are household names in the
legal profession that are also business tycoons. Nothing precludes
a lawyer from having a sound business idea and developing same to
profitability without undermining the integrity of the
profession.
In summary, the reality is that there are no jobs on ground.
Recession is biting harder, law firms are not helping matters. One
cannot become more than what one dreams of. Perception is key. Our
perception to money and success must be good enough, so that the
pride and ego we have imbibed, would be fanned, not by the mere
fact of being a lawyer, but how much Joie de vivre and bliss our
pockets enjoy. If it is not making money, then it is certainly not
making sense.
Written By Nwoye Chinonso Emmanuel,
Nonniemmanuel@Gmail.Com, 08061298747
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