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Stakeholders in Judiciary Admonishes Young Lawyers to Shun Fame And Work Hard


 A group of senior legal practitioners, led by the first female Attorney-General of Lagos State and first Chairlady, Body of Benchers, Mrs. Hairat Aderinsola Balogun (SAN), have called on younger lawyers to embrace hard work, integrity and also make themselves 'amenable.'

The older generation of lawyers also admonished their younger colleagues on need to embrace the spirit of determination to succeed in their chosen profession, which they said would required them to be bold and must be prepared to add value to themselves and the legal profession.

Aside Balogun, other group of senior legal luminaries include the Chief Executive Officer of Lawbreed, the Publisher of Supreme Court Judgement, Mr. Layi Babatunde (SAN), Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) Prof. Ernest Ojukwu (SAN), Mr. Oyetola Muyiwa Atoyebi (SAN), Mr Femi Falana (SAN) among others said the younger generation of lawyers must be prepared to take the profession to the greatest height being the last hope of the masses.

Sharing their experiences with the younger colleagues during the annual seminar entitled: ‘Building a successful career in Legal profession: what option?’ organised through webinar by the Lawbreed Academy, Mrs Balogun, who chaired the event harped on the need for new generation of lawyers to embrace integrity.

In her welcome remark, Deputy Chief Executive Officer The Lawbreed, Mrs Adejoke Layi-Babatunde, said Lawbreed Academy is the training  arm of Lawbreed Limited, the authorised Publishers of official law report of the Supreme Court Reports (S.C Reports).

 She urged the participant to pay rapt attention, learn and gain from the leaders in the profession.

 Layi-Babatunde appreciates the dignitaries present at the webinar for the short period they were inform about the programm and agree to share their knowledge in the field of law to the young ones.

She said, Lawbreed Academy started webinar seminar in 2019 during COVID 19 pandemic. She said, COVID 19 pandemic pushed people to do things differently.

According to her, "Lawbreed Academy is a training ground for lawyers, capacity building and continuous learning is at the outmost best. We are glad to call on Nigerians lawyers, not only lawyers in Nigeria, I can see  lawyers from Australia, United Kingdom and other countries. Basically, we are global.

 Also, the CEO Lawbreed Academy, Mr Layi Babatunde, said, there are various opportunities in legal profession. He urged the young lawyers to learn from the experience of the experience of leaders in the bar.

 He said, “When we joined the legal team about four decades ago, we focused on advocacy, dispute resolution or just at solicitor doing paper work, prepare deed of assignment and other contract. But the opportunities are parts. Today, is better for us to have avenue so that our colleagues can be better of for future.

"Like the saying, success opportunity mean preparation, what to do is to prepare ourselves ahead of the opportunity that lies ahead of  us in our profession. Today, the field has become so wide and unless we pay attention to this opportunity, we might miss out the opportunity that will come our way. By the grace of God, we have done well in our profession and we believe that our people can learn from them.

“Some of our colleague who are also senior members of the bar will also help us share their experience, you can profit from. So I believe we have a great time, we will have several take away, that at the end of the day, we can benefit from it.”

Babatunde said, whether the opportunity is limited in terms of promotion, salary, benefit, you need to always create an opportunity. He recounted how he used to buy law report and how he started publishing.

"It is not too much to sacrifice and buy your own law reports because sooner or later you will need it. I can assure you, you profit a lot for your sacrifice."

For Professor Ojukwu (SAN), he said the program was meant to empower lawyers for their future career. He noted that what Mr. Layi Babatunde is doing through the Lawbreed is to empower lawyers, to help the young one mainly for their future.

He gave an insight to the history of foundation of continuous legal education, saying,  “The brain behind the continuous legal education program in this country is Mama Airat Balogun. She floated an association for free education for lawyers.”

He recounted how the program helped him. "It is an impactful project , one of her program gave me an impetus to think , even though then I was a young teacher in 1998 when I made proposal to the Bar, on the legal continuous program.”

He also spoke about the challenges confronting younger people especially in Nigeria. He identified that there are no career chancellor, noted that people are not interested in people they are training. He also explained passion as the first key to decision making among others.

 According to him, "We don't have single experience about making a career and this is one of the greatest in our challenge in our professional life. This profession is one of the greatest training for those who are joining them and it will be a training by so many indices. Because we don't have career chancellor, we don't have teachers, who are interested in people they are training. Most young people came out of the LLB program and law school program without having people to talk about them, about their experience in picking subject.

 "When Mama Balogun started legal continuous education program, they went round the country, organised free education for Nigerian lawyers. People don't vie into it because of our history but she made impact. I made proposal  for a mandatory legal education program, unfortunately, we fail in that regard.

 " The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) floated Continuing Legal Education program but unfortunately it didn't work. We do not have transition program either between LLB and Career or Law school and Career for the Bar. If NBA can start free career program that prepare young lawyers to face future challenges, it will fill in the gap in our profession. The professionals are not interested in training those who are joining them.

"We can categories NBA as a failed institution over the years, hopefully with the little things done in the past few years by the past president, we hope that it will change the history of the profession soon."

The professor further said the greatest challenge young people have is making a decision. He narrated how Prof. Olu Adediran of University of Ife, then saw potential of teaching in him and that made him today." So I started having teaching in mind. As at the third year, I made up my mind. He counsel me how to choose a career and I eventually became teacher and we'll practicing."

He therefore urged the young lawyers  to have little knowledge about the area they want to venture into so as to help them develop attraction to it.

 Balogun buttressed the point earlier discussed by Ojukwu, she noted that law profession can only be develop by training the young ones. He advised them to be determined on what they want and bold and build confidence.

 " You must develop a way of approaching seniors for mentorship as everybody needs mentor. We have a joint interest in building the profession. We are not going to live forever. It was a question of opportunity.

 " You must be mentored. You cannot do it on your own, you must not be proud and make yourself amenable. You must be determine to succeed."

 On his part, Ozekhome (SAN) gave vivid narration of how he was posted to Lagos and served at Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) chambers and trained to be hard working.

 Atoyebi encouraged them to add value to themselves as lawyer. They appealed to them to shun money and weak mind set. " Work will not kill you, it will only make you grow and germinate you. Be ready to learn under your master, don't do as if you are king maker. Don't think you want to make money a day like the big wigs, you don't know that they went through before they get there,  Rome was not built in a day.

"It is easier to get to top than staying there, that is why many people get there  but they can't maintain it, they fall. Go for big post, falling from pinnacle after you get there , you must work to sustain it . It takes a lot hard work  and no short cut to success."

 

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