THE TRAVAILS OF A NEW WIG IN NIGERIA AND THE WAY FORWARD FOR A ROOKIE LAWYER

INTRODUCTION To qualify as a lawyer in Nigeria, you must have spent a minimum of five years (four years for direct entry students) at a university in Nigeria and one year at the Nigerian law school for a practical training course, which culminates in the Bar Final Examinations. Apart from the aforesaid, there are other ways of qualifying as a lawyer in Nigeria. However, it is the most common method of becoming a lawyer in Nigeria, and a majority of lawyers in the country passed through this process. There is no gainsaying that to become a lawyer in Nigeria is no mean feat. The length of the process coupled with the high fees of the Nigerian law school, the high price of textbooks and other materials, the poor living conditions in most campuses of the Nigerian Law School, a not-student-friendly curriculum of the Nigerian Law School and the relative difficulty of the bar final examinations , all contribute to make qualifying to practice law a task not for the weak minded. Only the strong and financially buoyant survives. Despite these challenges, people; whether old or young, rich or poor, gainfully employed or still under the care of parents, married or still single, etc., still clamour to study law and become lawyers. The number of candidates that apply for law in most Nigerian universities are estimated to be more than 6000 (though less than 200 of that number are usually admitted), making law the most sought after course for that year, in the university. Some prospective students even see it as a do-or-die affair. If they do not study law, then no other course will suffice for them. Some parents even insist that their wards must study law and become lawyers, despite the ward’s preference for another course of study. A majority of the prospective law students do not even have the requisite intellectual capacity to study the course, but they still force themselves on it, sometimes using untoward measures to gain admission to study the course, which usually culminates in them ending up as struggling students. This profound attraction to law as a course of study is caused by the firmly held belief of the prospective lawyer that the profession is a noble one; it makes you respected and admired by all and sundry (the profession has “effizy”); it gives you the opportunity to fight for the rights of other people; it has more employment opportunities than other fields and; most importantly for some, it is financially lucrative. Prospective lawyers spend their youth hearing tales of the exploits of great lawyers; the likes of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Chief F.R.A. Williams, Graham Douglas, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, to mention a few. They are impressed by the feats which these icons of the legal profession have achieved and their heads swoon with dreams and visions of emulating or even besting their legacy in the future. Thus, the prospective lawyer lives in an idealized world filled with vivid imaginations and fantasies of the beauty of the legal profession. This is evident in the manner many law students carry themselves in our Universities and at the Nigerian Law School – with a certain pride and an over-inflated self assurance.
CHALLENGES FACED BY NEW WIGS1.INADEQUATE LEGAL SKILLS:A new wig, on his first incursion into legal practice, realises that he has been inadequately inundated with skills during his training to become a lawyer. Despite the five years spent at the university and the one year at the Nigerian law school, the new wig still finds legal practice to be a very strange terrain. He realises that he has not been adequately prepared to practice law. He goes about making mistakes in all his endeavours; his advocacy skills are not developed; the court room becomes a place of terror for him, because of the embarrassment most judges and magistrates mete out to him as a result of the mistakes he will inadvertently make; he finds it intimidating negotiating with the police on a client’s behalf and; oftentimes does not know how to bill clients, amongst several other instances. His practice is an error strewn one. These culminate in his clients losing confidence in him and his ability to properly represent them. The new wig, at this point, usually, is left with no choice but to seek employment in the law firm of a more senior lawyer to garner the requisite experience before setting out on his own, a process known as pupilage, with its own myriad of challenges and disadvantages.
2.INABILITY TO ATTRACT CLIENTS:As can be easily garnered from above, clients are generally reluctant to retain new wigs, especially retainerships involving large interests or a huge amount of capital. These phenomenon results in the new wig finding it very difficult to get clients, and consequently legal briefs. A newly called lawyer who immediately ventures into practice may stay up to some months before he gets his first brief and even when it comes, it may not be too big or lucrative. This might culminate in the new wig becoming involved in untoward practices, such as advertising, touting and soliciting in other to get clients earning him the term “charge and bail lawyer”.
3.TOO MANY LAWYERS:The Nigerian law school, since its inception in 1962, has produced more than 70, 000 lawyers . This figure is not inclusive of those lawyers who were called in the English Bar before the law school was established. It is noteworthy that a very high majority of this figure are very much alive. This high population of lawyers in the country results in the legal space being overcrowded and extremely competitive. It is not a strange occurrence to hear of lawyers jostling among themselves for briefs, sometimes employing untoward tactics in the process. The new wig is more at a disadvantage because of his inexperience and he oftentimes finds himself pitted against more senior lawyers in the context for briefs.