LAW PROFESSION: Past, Present and Future
Written by Okediya Peter O.
On Thursday, 8th of December, Ajayi Crowther
University received Prof. Wale Adesokan, a Senior Advocate of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria as he delivered a speech titled; The Law Profession: Past, Present, Future.
He started his topic with an excerpt from the famous novel ‘Merchant
of Venice’, as he relates the part where Antonio advises his friend, Bassiano
who is broke and needs money, to meet Shylock to borrow from him. Bassiano
walks up to Shylock and tables his request for a loan. Shylock agrees to lend
bot on one condition; that a pound of Antonio’s flesh will be used as guarantee.
Antonio agrees to the deal because he is devoted to him. Bassiano receives the
money successfully and it was used. When it was time to pay back, Shylock comes
to ask for Antonio’s pound of flesh which was a gurantee to the loan since
Bassiano couldn’t pay back. The case is taken to court as to whether a pound of
flesh from Antonio’s body should be cut because it is a guarantee to the loan.
The Court decided that for a pound of flesh to be cut, there must be no be drop
of blood.
With this backdrop, Prof. Wale Adesokan began his speech. He
started by explaining the eras of Law profession in Nigeria (Past, Present,
Future). He referred to the ‘past’ as period from 1862 to 1975; ‘present’ as
1975 to December 8, 2017 and the ‘future’ as tomorrow and beyond. He introduced
it by defining law and Legal practice.
First, he explained that in the past, Law wasn’t regarded as
a profession since what was used then were local customary laws made by the
rulers and enforced by the chiefs or village heads. While, law in the present
is regarded as a respectable profession capable of serving as a means of income
for an individual or group.
With respect to training, he stated that in the past, all lawyers
and judges were trained in abroad as the facilities were not in place to train
law students and lawyers. Even, the first university in Nigeria didn’t with the
faculty of Law. But presently, a student can be trained, educated and tutored
to be lawyer without travelling abroad, though some prefer to study abroad. In
regards of the future, he said that the method of studying law must be
improved. He also envisaged that Nigeria Law School could be abolished and
accredited universities could take over the training of law students about law
in practice.
Furthermore, on the issue of law offices and law practice in
Nigeria, he explained that in the past, law firms were few and dominated by
foreign law firms, developed into signing partnership and ended with
predominant one-principal law firm. As at present, partnership in law practice
is becoming common steadily. He also mentioned that partnerships in law
practice ameliorates relevancy and proficiency in the legal profession.
Also, the practice and procedure in the legal provision was
elucidated upon. In the past, law practice was a one-way practice i.e. there
was little or no specialization in its practice as we have now. Presently,
lawyers explore the various specializations of the legal profession such as
banking law, business law, constitutional law, maritime law and lots more. As
to the future, he hopes the legal profession will be ICT-driven and procedures
such as filing of cases would be done online as it saves time and reduces the
workload of a court.
These and many others he enumerated, comparing them to legal
profession in the past, as it is presently and how it would be in the future.
He conclude by expatiating the relevance of the excerpt from
the novel, ‘Merchant of Venice’ which he began with. He said the primary aim of
law is to allow justice. That Shylock’s request for a pound of flesh as a
guarantee for Brassiano’s loan is non-justifiable and pervades justice. So Shylock
was found guilty and faced commeupance as well. This is to teach us that the
legal mprofession shouldn’t be a profession of fraudsters, corrupt lawyers,
miscreants and destructive critics.
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