Nigeria at 55…Modest thoughts from a fast growing market

The legal Industry is fast growing and with Nigeria marking its 55th with a new government, market makers and stakeholders have expressed hope for a favourable economy, leading to a more advantageous marketplace. Below are 15 hopes expressed by ‘Legal Business Owners’ in the new dispensation.

1. A legal sector that caters for a fast-changing market

2. Regulatory developments that would reshape the commercial legal sector

3. Changes to the current legal education and training to ensure a more robust legal training

4. improvements  to  the  physical  infrastructure  of  legal  institutions (e.g., court buildings, police structures, prisons)

5. A combination of infrastructural and technological developments that would enable industry-wide growth

6.    An enabling environment  for  a  functional legal market

7. A structural transformation of the legal sector.

8. A market well positioned for change.

9. An industry where law firm owners and practice managers – whether large or small, local or multi-national will be aware of global trends and the changing business, economic and political climate in which they operate.

10. A legal system that enables law firms take a multi-jurisdictional approach to client services.

11.  More formal rules for the market, to be systematically enforced by judicial institutions.

12. Laws that not only legitimise the existence and interventions of internal security forces, but also ensures that such interventions respect minimum standards of human dignity.

13. Measures to strengthen judicial  independence  and  other accountability and oversight agencies, including anti-corruption measures

A strengthened civil society and effective promotion of human rights.

15.  Legislative and constitutional reform of fully functional of institutions, such as the judiciary, the police service and a few others.