SLP looking to re-tool legal practice in Nigeria
After several months of inactivity, the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Legal practice (SLP) is coming all out to change the face of legal practice in Nigeria with its forthcoming conference scheduled to hold in Port – Harcourt from Thursday April 12th to Friday the 15th, 2018.
The conference, which is themed, “Re-thinking and Re-tooling legal practice for the challenges of our time” is expected to bring together leaders and members of the bar from various branches across the country to deliberate and possibly chart a course for the development of the profession in Nigeria.
The Chair of the Section, Mia Essien, SAN who spoke about the conference and its chosen theme, disclosed that several areas of practice, needed rethinking and re-tooling.
“But let me take professional ethics,” she said. “The complaints against lawyers and allegations of sharp practices have increased and is reaching a crescendo. Lawyers are being suspended, disbarred etc. We need to address that. That is the starting point and as the Section on Legal Practice that is definitely the first place to start.”
She continued, “As Legal practitioners, we render a services. We must remember the duties we owe to the court, to our clients, our colleagues and the larger society. In the quest to make money many have forgotten what is ethical and what is not.
“Therefore, to retool ourselves to become relevant, we must now take a look back at where we are coming from, where we are right now and where we need to be, which is why for our first session we have put together a formidable panel led by Abubakar Balarabe Mahmoud, SAN, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Yemi Candide-Johnson, SAN, President of the Lagos Court of International Arbitration (LCIA); and Etigwe Uwa SAN, to take us through what the law is, what is the reality and what we expect in the future.”
Essien, who spoke further about the relationship between the bar (lawyers) and the bench (judges) announced that there would be a special session focused on this.
“The session has to do with managing our symbiotic relationship. Hopefully we will be able to talk about our relationship bearing in mind that to be on the bench you must come from the bar. Fortunately Hon. Justice Gumel the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, who is very passionate about the bar, will be speaking from the perspective of the bench while Y. Maikyau, SAN will be speaking from the Bar’s perspective. It will be very engaging and interactive. A lot of lawyers and invited guests are looking forward to that session,” she said.
Speaking of the involvement with the national executive of the NBA towards this feat, the learned senior advocate disclosed that the NBA ExCo was not only a worthy partner in this wheel of progress, but also a partner towards the success of the conference. “And if you go to our website, you will see it is listed as such. In fact, they are sponsoring 25 young lawyers to attend the conference. The President also has a session at our conference. So the National ExCo of the NBA is indeed playing a huge role at this conference” Essien said.
The SLP Chair, who also spoke about the choice of location, stated matter-of-factly that the city of Port Harcourt had played host to several conferences in the past and has the facilities to do so.
“It also has a very vibrant bar. It is therefore suited for the Section to have its Annual conference in Port Harcourt. The Branch is also going to host delegates at an evening get together on the first day where delegates can relax and enjoy the hospitality of the garden city,” she said.
Speaking further on concerns about security, she said, “Unfortunately, the reality is that the Nigeria we are in today is no longer the one I grew up in. I grew up in a Nigeria where stories of kidnapping were only tales told of “gbomo gbomo” in Lagos; stories which one never knew were true or not. Right now sadly, there are security challenges everywhere in the country. A daily read of the newspapers shows that. However, the government of Rivers State is making a concerted effort to tackle security challenges as stakeholders are aware of.”
The conference is expected to address crucial issues in the legal profession in Nigeria, and the organisers have said that they are working hard to ensure the conference is more than a talk show. They confirmed that the conference feedback and communiqué would be properly considered.
The Senior Advocate said, “It will not just be a talk show. The Section is here to make a difference and the response from lawyers from all over the country suggests that we will all make that difference.”
Theodora Kio-Lawson