THAT FIRST JOB INTERVIEW

A new wig has just been called to the bar.  CVs are sent out and phone calls made.  Suddenly, one morning an unknown number rings persistently.  It is a call from a very sexy city law firm they are wondering if you can attend an interview at their office the next day.  However, the euphoria of being called for an interview by this A-list soon fizzles out as questions flood your mind.  What to wear?  How do you get to their office early in the morning?  What kind of test you will write?  You are now quite apprehensive because you are not ready for that all important interview.  The essence of this write up is to help new and not so new wigs to face that all important interview with gusto.

In truth, the butterflies generally have a field day when it comes to attending that first job interview.  However some useful tips for a successful outing at the first interview or any other one for that matter have been developed and the diligent interviewee only needs to acquaint himself with them in order to increase the chances of coming out of an interview successfully.

• Preparation: One of the most important of tips in my view is preparation.  Preparation is the foundation for any successful interview.  Preparation entails a number of things;
• Dress Appropriately:  An interviewee must take his appearance at the interview seriously, whilst your appearance alone is most unlikely to get you the job it would do you well to note that putting off the interviewer[s] even slightly must cost you the job.  Generally, the dress code at interviews must be smart, coordinated, tidy and understated.  Keep in mind that the objective of attending the interview is to get the job and not make a fashion statement.  Avoid too much make up or jewelry.
• Punctuality: Make sure you know where the location of the office is.  It is quite important to know how long it will take to travel down to the venue of the interview, take into consideration unexpected delays.  It is most unimpressive to arrive late.  Arrive the venue of the interview at least 15 minutes before the scheduled commencement time.  Arriving early give you time to take in your surroundings and calm your nerves.
• Rehearse and be prepared to answer questions form the interviewer[s].  Remember what you have stated in your CV and be prepared to answer questions about what you have stated therein.
• Prepare to answer questions that would be put to you by the interviewers.
• Research the firm, doing good relevant research cannot be overemphasized because it is regarded as the single most important thing you can do to improve your chances of getting the job.  Yes it is important.  Your research should ideally start from the website of the firm [if any], their newsletters, publications and press cuttings.  A good quality research covering the firm's history; recent transactions; challenges, competitors; opportunities; etc would help in convincing the interviewers[s] that you are the candidate more than anyone else who wants and deserves the job.  However where there is no website, talk to people who work or have worked in the firm or who simply know the firm;
• Be prepared to also ask the interviewers questions.  Take full advantage of opportunities to ask questions.  Asking good well prepared and researched questions is the candidate's chance to demonstrate that he is better than other candidates.  Ask questions that will make the interviewer[s] think to themselves, "wow what a good question - this is the sort of thoughtful candidate we need."
• Be aware of your environment.  This means no more than being abreast of current affairs, it would be a disaster if a candidate is not aware and cannot discuss current affairs.  So, read newspapers and listen to the news.  If a topic that has dominated the headlines is brought up, it looks a lot better if you can contribute to the discussions.
• During the Interview: When you meet the interviewer[s], shake hands firmly and directly, maintain eye contact throughout the duration of the interview, remember names of the interviewer[s].  Endeavor to be confident, believing in your abilities.  Nothing puts the mind of any employer to rest as much as a confident employee.  Confidence entails self assurance and a can-do ambiance, virtues relished by every employer.  Sit in an appropriate posture and relax.  Do not slouch or cross your arms as this looks defensive.  Listen to questions well before answering.  You may politely request for a question to be repeated if you did not hear it properly when it was asked.  Do not be afraid to ask for clarification on any question you do not understand.  Speak clearly when answering questions and sound enthusiastic and confident all through.  Keep answers positive but do not guess answers to questions you do not know or are unsure of, simply admit that you do not know it.  You can however where appropriate, state how you would go about finding the answer.  Maintain a positive attitude, expressing yourself clearly and with exactitude while also ensuring you do not deviate from the point.  Curb all urges or tendencies to fidget or gesticulate when answering questions.  Talk about yourself to the interviewer with the best examples you have.  Have spare copies of your CV and credentials at hand.
• Discuss yourself Positively: Be prepared to tell the interviewer about yourself for about five minutes.  Discuss only issues of interest and those that my bear a positive impact on the job.  Examples include any achievement, award, charitable work, involvement in any academic or developmental projects, membership of any reputable association, personal skills, experience [if any], aspirations, targets and goals.  At the end of the interview, close with a positive statement and thank the interviewer[s] for their time.
• After the Interview: It is essential that after the interview you conduct a review of your performance, note what you did well and what you think could be improved.  Congratulations to you if you get the job.  In your excitement however do not forget that the best time to negotiate your salary is after receiving the job offer, and importantly before you accept the offer.  The chances of renegotiating your salary after you accept the offer are virtually nil.

BEING A NEW WIG

The fondest memories of being called to the Nigerian Bar are the food, newly learned friends across the table, not so learned man-oeuvres with cutlery, standing and bowing remain forever etched in your mind, legs and neck.  It becomes increasingly difficult to airbrush reservations sticking to a profession whose obvious trappings are medieval and so unsuited to a tropical climate.  Do not be assuming about those who do not appear on NBA's who's who; the tests and interviews you will get will provide free client consultation and advocacy classes.

While good grades are important and cushion your way, it is not always that vital.  It is always fantastic to have been first in your class and almost third in law school but your prospective employers want to see how you can convert your legal theory in practice.  Still, if you have made it to the interview stage, their minds are half made up to taking you in.  You should safely ignore studying the egg shell principle in tort - any interviewer who goes into that is probably not worth your time.  You will most likely be asked for your opinion on Nigeria's Bakassi Peninsular handover.

Dress well.  You cannot go wrong with the proper law school dress code.  A little subtle variation of colors may not be out of place though.  You can always go conservative or upscale in line with your new office's culture once you get your boot in.

Confidence.  You cannot go wrong with a little mint breath and ego.  You made the interview regardless of your novice standing at the Bar.  You do not need to be class valedictorian to be an excellent lawyer.  Many of our very learned seniors who have made SAN status and IBA decorations did not receive prizes for being top academic Einsteins.

Keep to the basic interview guidelines you already know - clean shoes, defy traffic with good sense and get there on time; look into the eyes of the interviewers, remember it is not the end of the world.  When you get in, realize that like all good things, it takes a lot of hard work.  Take time to learn and sponge off on everything you can.  Enjoy the cocktails you will attend, keep away from tough protein and use a little balm for the shoulders.

Soon, you will trace out your path and actually enjoy the little nuances that make us assume we are distinguished.

DELIVERY MODE [PART THREE]

Traditionally, legal education has been formalistic and expository as well as formative and practical. Traditional method of teaching and classroom approach hold sway. Until comparatively recent times, legal education could be obtained by oversea correspondence, part or full time oversea university education. Later the same facilities became locally available in dual mode institutions. The population and the demand for legal education grow at a faster rate than the essential infrastructure and other resources to support it. Qualified teachers are scarcer, national economic fortunes are dwindling. These coupled with the backlog of potential university undergraduates and of law graduates awaiting Call seem to justify alternative delivery modes for training the legal practitioners

The legal profession and the legal education probably did not envisage the present day increase in legal professional activities, prospects of regular continuing education or continuing demand for higher studies and the degree of expansion in nature and extent. It could not envisage and could not be structured to develop the practice of self learning, and computer based training via CD or outsourcing training to external vendors where justified. Furthermore, the reality of new material world, which was made possible by the law itself compels the legal profession, to decentralize and regroup according to fields of specialization with the view of merging into truly global law firms, operating on the global arena and offering integrated legal service. ‘Clients don’t want all the time delays and inefficiencies of dealing with half a dozen legal firms around the world. What they want is one firm which has the capacity to be a one -stop shop for all the corporate needs.’ This orientation requires legal education and training to reinforce it.

Legal Education through the Open and Distance learning (ODL) Mode

Considering the astronomical numbers of potential undergraduate excluded from their choice programmes of study in the university education system, the constraint of resources, the need for flexible tailor – made delivery of instruction with little disruption in the national , family and individual circumstances and taking advantages of the emerging information communication technologies (ICTs) in relation to Nigeria’s peculiar situation, Nigeria took the logical pathway – distance education method. In 1983 the Nigerian government enacted the National Open University Act, which set up the National Open University, a foremost university anchored by social justice, equity and equality and national cohesion through a comprehensive reach that transcends all barriers. The efficacy of the Open and Distance Learning as a viable alternative for teaching or learning law has become a commonplace while the revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs) allows global access to materials by law students and practitioners in different parts of the world anytime, anywhere by the most appropriate means. The process eliminates the problems associated with the conventional mode of teaching and learning. It answers the yearnings for access to legal education that defies any environmental, social or cultural or other circumstantial barriers. It also answers the problem of the decline in the number of quality of Law teachers. 

Legal education has also grown transnational and confronts the legal practitioner with a variety of challenges, given the emergent rapid globalization and changes in world economic, political, technological and legal order. This necessitates increased flexibility and continuous learning. There is an upward trend of a cooperative relationship between home universities and several world class universities and institutions in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States of America in areas of Law degree programmes as well as non-degree programmes.  Trans-nationalization legal education is inspired by economic possibilities of economic and growth of a global higher education market. As a mutually but an uneven advantageous partnership and alliance, there is a movement towards socio- cultural harmony. While English language has remained the language of the law, it is interesting to note that French, German and Chinese languages are increasingly spoken and taught. Because of the superior capital, resources, knowledge, information and skills, the more developed world countries are the active participants as well as the major beneficiaries of transnational legal education. It can be said that International legal education is a welcome development. It opens new opportunities for international collaboration, offers expertise which may not be locally available, provides an alternative route and opportunity to acquire legal education, enhances competition and contributes to individual and social transformation.

The international legal education also has areas of great concern. It lacks mutuality or reciprocity. For example there is London, Oxford and Cambridge Universities in Nigeria to name a few but there is no known Nigerian University in the United Kingdom, Asia or the Americas. The contents of lecture materials in those universities and their degree certificates are foreign based, with little local content, if at all. For example the foreign universities in Nigeria teach foreign Land law, Family law, Criminal law and law of Evidence rather than the laws of the recipient country. Back home they offer no aspect of Nigeria law in exchange. Although the English and the Nigerian laws were branches of the same tree in the colonial era, they are now different. Foreign based legal education is not socially but economically inspired; it is exorbitant and therefore restrictive and does not promise social justice. Any institution that charges exorbitant fees discriminates against the poor by reason of his or her being poor and in breaches of his her fundamental right.  The recipient country derives little or no economic benefit. The proceeds are not invested locally but are repatriated. There is little transfer of professionalism, overwhelming unbalanced knowledge sharing, and doubtful university quality and standards. The absence of any vigorous monitoring system is conspicuous. With this system it is obvious that there are three legal education processes producing two parallel columns of legal professionals: foreign based legal education offered locally, Legal education abroad and Indigenous legal education. All the processes yield valid and recognized certificates. All, except the graduate of a foreign based legal education offered locally may qualify for a license to practice as a legal practitioner in Nigeria. All, except the indigenous legal education are channels of international brain drain. 

Evidently, the transnational legal education in the fast globalizing world has not impacted equitably for want of commitment towards liberality, and mutual collaboration and cooperation. The debilitating strictures need to be removed so that the beneficiaries from any of the legal education processes can enjoy the privilege of equal access to the Nigerian Law School as well as to the Inns of Courts and hence practice in the collaborating countries. This demands articulation and restructuring of the existing legal education system 

Assessing legal education

Assessment is seen as crucial in any learning situation as a means of judging performance or ensuring that the outcomes of learning have been met. Assessment may be summative or formative and viewed from different phases and perspectives, ranging from out of school experiences, school based learning, outcome based performance in School, certification or the extent to which it serves as an Instrument for gaining entry into further education or career or community events. Feed forward and feedback on performance are additional factors for measuring the level of learning and training impact, or fulfillment of individual or corporate dreams. It is hardly possible to assert with any certainty the proportion, if any of the added values of improvement is attributable to the learning acquired; a number of factors, including past and present performances could have contributed to the measured improvement. 

In the early times the practice was education first, followed later by work. Education was seen as leading to improvement and employment ability of the workforce and social and economic condition. Learning can no longer be separated into compartments of a place and time to acquire knowledge and a place and time to apply knowledge and skills, particularly with the advent of self directed and virtual learning. Ideally, learning and teaching occur and ought to be assessed in different settings but, there has been no special laid down principle of good practices for assessing competences and accrediting learning outcomes in legal education. 

Examinations and certificates receive pre-eminence in assessing educational attainment, but they provide no full, true and realistic information about the learner. It makes little difference that the medium is proficiency Test or Aptitude test. Work place learning and the daily experience, which are the basis for taking decisions for the future, cannot be ascribed to ones course of legal education but the world at large for their learning. It cannot be denied that legal education encompasses some elements of conceptual understanding, critical thinking, reflective action, practical application of knowledge, informal learning systems, professional training. These are worthwhile. Nonetheless, it is impracticable to dissect ones total experience into different components and evaluate the contribution of each to the total assessment. 

It cannot be denied that in many respects the legal profession has been effective, particularly in bringing down dictatorship and enthroning the democracy and the rule of law. It also has a reasonably effective disciplinary mechanism and complaints system. Even in these areas, there is still need to chart a path of improvement both in the nature and extent of what it offered to the society. Public access to legal and advice services and provision and organization of the legal aid services have not effectively solved the problem of providing legal services to the poor, marginalized and insecure people, nor the problem of bringing social justice to the socially excluded by reason of the frustration, worries and hardships arising from a combination of lack of access to basic essentials of life (e.g. education, housing, health, food and gainful employment), family conflict and relationship difficulties, chores of everyday life, crimes and criminality. The rights of the physically challenged and the vulnerable are yet to be fully and satisfactorily internalized.

Conclusion

An attempt has been made in this paper to assess the legal education, method and practice in Nigeria. The Legal education is a colonial heritage and post independence governments enacted laws regulating the legal education and training of legal practitioners. 

The objective of the legal education is to provide a legal profession that is appropriate and relevant to the Nigerian society, to produce competent manpower for the legislative and executive and manage the institutions of justice and to buttress government efforts in maintenance of law and order. Autochthony of legal education received little or no consideration. Rather, the existing alien legal education system was adapted as far as practicable to local needs. It faced new crimes of industrialized world and of international and transnational dimension, complex problems of accelerated political, social, economic, cultural, intellectual and technological development in a fast growing economy, which it did not anticipate. Furthermore, globalization has created the need for a continuous training in order to promote and sustain inter and intra-national socio-economic and legal order. 

Legal education, in response, focused on academic excellence, rigid university admission criteria. A Law degree is the single entry qualification to the legal profession. Appointments to the Bench or as Senior Advocates require no specific course of legal education or training but there are laid down criteria, the application of which is not justifiable.  There is frustration among the new law graduates, who do not find places in the Law School by reason of inadequate infrastructures. Legal education delivery system is formalistic and expository. Currently, there is no differentiation in the curriculum of persons who desire to be solicitors, solicitors and advocates, or pursue a career at the Bar or in the Bench or other calling. 

Recommendation 

Legal education system needs to be reformed in order to meet with the challenges of global competitiveness, the demands of contemporary legal environment, continuing innovative professional orientation and re-orientation.  An organized system of pupilage, staggered post- call training courses especially for lawyers who aspire to positions in the Bench or the honor of the Silk and a mutual legal education and exchange of programmes and students should be encouraged. The Legal education should be a lifelong activity and should be designed to accommodate new and modern developments to avoid becoming sterile and divorced from its milieu. There should be a full and unfettered legal educational opportunity devoid of all manner of exclusion. This can be achieved where there is a synergy between the flexibility and intensive use of information and communication technology offered by OD-el and the traditional or conventional system.

ACCESS TO LEGAL EDUCATION AND PROFESSION [PART TWO]

The number of universities in Nigeria increased from one at independence in 1960 to 122 in February, 2012 and from one to 44 Faculties of Law. There was a corresponding growth in the number of legal practitioners as well as expansion in the legal profession. Access to a Faculty of Law in a University is either by direct entry without sitting an entrance examination or by sitting the University Matriculation Examination (UME). There is a Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) set up by an Act in 1978 to administer examinations for admission into tertiary institutions . Lately universities have imposed a post JAMB-examinations as a pre-condition. A legal practitioner must successfully undergo a five-year under- graduate programme at a recognised university in Nigeria and one or two-year programme (as the case may be) at the Nigerian Law School. To qualify for admission into the Nigerian Law School, a person must obtain a law degree from an approved university or a pass in the English, Irish or Scottish Bar Examination or a pass in the Solicitors’ Final Examination of Great Britain and Ireland Selection has ceased to be based of patronage but on egalitarian consideration, merit, catchment area, quota system and educationally less developed states. However, the cut-off point and pattern of distribution among the criteria for selection are not universally defined. They may well depend on whether the particular university adopts a maximalist or minimalist approach and what it considers as the trend of contemporary development and state of information and telecommunications.

Meanwhile, over 1.4million prospective candidates who, prima facie, qualify to enter the University each year, have to write a highly competitive Joint Matriculation Examination to gain admission and an average of 250,000 (or 25.0 per cent) of them eventually do so. Cumulatively, Jegede estimated that Nigeria with 98 universities had 1,196,312 (or 16.62 per cent) undergraduate enrolment while 6million (or 83.38 per cent) had no access. Even the mere fact of crossing this restrictive hurdle would not guarantee an admission into a Law Faculty but subject to the number allowed by governing authorities. Nigeria, according to the 1999 Constitution is a state based on the principles of democracy and social justice and the primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people. She strives not only to eradicate illiteracy and when practicable, provide free primary, secondary and university education but also to uphold and safeguard the citizen’s fundamental human rights. Furthermore, UNESCO (1993) prescribes a “full and unfettered educational opportunity, devoid of all manners of exclusion.”

Generally, the demand for the massification of higher education grows intensely and is compounded by the advent of free market economy, rapid development of ICT and increasing internationalisation. There is pressure on Law Institutions and the legal profession recognizing that it is a powerful force for global integration, mutual understanding and stability and a primary means or instrument of professionalism and of world peace. Inevitably, the urge for a university legal education anywhere anyhow was pervading. Instances abound where men whose ages are sixty or seventy years or more have enrolled in a law programme or writing GCE/SSC examination to obtain the pre-requisite entry qualification. This is suggestive that legal education and training, like any other learning is now to be regarded as a part of living, a natural consequence of living and also a lifelong process. 

CURRICULUM

The legal system and the institutions and doctrine that comprise them are deeply imbedded in the national and local cultures and these vary according from country to country but the curricula menu and the methodology of teaching law remained as were crafted by the British colonial administration. The Law programmes are designed to equip the beneficiary with knowledge of general legal principles, practice and procedure, an ability to argue, undertake legal research, hack through cases, dissecting the obiter to reach the actual decisions, and put up with alien French or Latin dogmas and maxims. Some of these may be terms of art, for which there are no ordinary or native equivalent but others have no special legal meaning and serve no purpose except to give a false sense of erudition. These, among others, however, make legal education and the legal profession tick. The names and contents of the Law programmes have been localized but individual subjects are not related to one another; their concepts, issues, philosophy and policies underlying the subject areas receive inadequate or no consideration. What the students acquire has been likened to a ‘trade school mentality with endless attention to trees at the expense of the forest’.  

In the twenty first century, transformation in our society is expected, hopefully for the better. People are bound to ask different sets of questions acquire and exhibit different sets of values, face problems that are not too similar to the past. The sphere of the functions of law has grown beyond the maintenance of the established social order. Now, law has the major task of making possible the achievement of new goals, establishing and sustaining new paths of social actions and in some cases changing the basic structure of the society in order to catch up with new and modern development. Radical changes have also taken place (and still are taking place) in law but at a much slower rate than the demographic, social and technological changes in the society. The gap is even wider with globalisation, which has brought in its tray, knowledge-based and knowledge-intensive competition in the field of legal education. It has also exposed the legal system to an awareness of the need for new varieties of programmes and to an emergent necessity to develop such international components as can meet legal world realities of both internal and external needs and demands. 

CONTINUED LEGAL EDUCATION

In theory, the Council is not only responsible for the legal education of persons seeking to become members of the profession but also for continuing legal education. There is little of an organised regular continuing post graduate legal education after graduating from the Nigerian Law School. There are no provisions for Pupilage or a term of trainee- apprentice after call. The Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies and qualified universities and high institutions have postgraduate programmes and run short courses workshops, symposia seminars and conferences – both national and international and it is a matter of individual choice to attend or not. Beneficiaries bear their full cost and it can be inhibitive. The Judiciary organizes the Judges and Magistrate conferences as well as induction courses for its newly appointed members, which appear mandatory not by statute but by executive order. Lately, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has begun to organise brief uncoordinated adhoc Certificate Courses to coincide with or as part of its annual conference. It would appear that the terminal objective of the Courses is to encourage a movement away from one-man practice to the modern trend of partnership and specialisation in legal practice. The Association holds public lectures in line with international best practices.

PURPOSE OF LEGAL EDUCATION

Legal education is the process by which members of the profession acquire the skills and resources necessary for its survival and transmit this through formal and informal means to the next generation . Its aims at inculcating the skills and attributes of the modern legal practitioner – character and integrity, technical competence and excellence, communication skills, theoretically critical and developmental mind or attitude, among others. Legal education is glued to the functions of lawyers in the society. These include: 

SELF DEVELOPMENT

People have different purposes for choosing the legal profession and the legal education exists to serve each of such purposes. Legal education disposes the beneficiary to a quicker and cheaper route to employment. It enables one to assess at an early stage whether the law is a discipline to which one wishes to subject oneself. It qualifies one to practice law later Subsequent training improves ones skills acquisition, e.g. brief writing, logical reasoning, speed and accuracy, best practices and talents which may lead to promotion or advancement and self development and fulfillment. There are lawyers who are legal practitioners and those in employment that are non-legal.

Duty to Government and people

In Nigerian, legal practitioners occupy important positions in the legislative, executive and judicial arms of government. They buttress the government, help not only to create, develop, change, or even abrogate the law but also to organise and develop the society.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING

Lawyers are products of the legal education, and are social engineers, protective, supportive and sometimes revolutionary, facilitating the transfer of law from country to country among different families from different forms of political, socio-economic and legal Order. Before independence, the major concern of government was maintenance of law and order in a system that was based primarily on patronage and rampart with corruption. After independence, there were added more complex problems of the development of economic infrastructure, production and distribution of essential goods and services like staple foods, post and telecommunication services, power and energy, transportation, education and health. Today, globalisation has shrunk the world borders; interactions have further expanded to social issues of human rights and the environmental concerns, higher expectations of need satisfaction, productivity improvement in both the public and private sectors of economy and general improvement in line with international specifications and standards.

The focus of the legal order and legal education has, in the main, been on the institution and its object of study has emphasised substantive and procedural law and rules and how to use them to solve what were perceived as the legal problems with little or no reference to the prevailing social order. This distinctiveness and separateness of the legal system is no longer sustainable, but it is there, unaddressed by the legal education process and emitting consequences that are at variance with other critical or analytical thoughts, and assessment and the values which the legal profession reflects and supports. Legal education has remained what it has been whereas the functions of the lawyer have shifted posts and issues have arisen which the existing curriculum could not have anticipated or addressed. There is a need for a broader view of an authentic and stable ideology for development, political, economic and social disaffection; secularism and legal order, autochthony of legal education and impact of globalisation. Legal education and training must respond to the varied socio-economic needs, the impact of technological advancement, automation, computerisation and storage of information coupled with the high rate of improvement and sophistication and their implications for human rights, gainful employment, and the environment, among others. 

The delivery of legal services at the outset of the 21st century looks different from the way things were and individuals, small scale businesses and organisations now resort to legal practitioners as a matter of course. It is arguable whether such an increasing demand of legal and advice services is an index of an unhealthy conflictual society or a healthy rights-conscious society. However it is obvious that there is a quest for Social order, change, and development through law and the legal education curriculum should advance the society’s economic and political life that reflects people’s wishes and desires. An appropriate legal education curriculum therefore should be capable of serving the ends of social justice and the needs of the lawyer in the face of the problems of modern techno-structure and the future.

Both the National Universities Commission and the Council of Legal Education have imposed on the legal education system certain prescribed Minimum Academic Standards, a group of compulsory core law and non-law courses. This outcome oriented approach tends to provide some measure of harmony. Apart from ensuring that the prescribed courses are offered, there is no assurance that the outcomes of teaching those courses as conceived by the regulating authorities are being achieved. 

LATEST NEWS FROM THE DEAN SCHOOL OF LAW [PART ONE]

CURRENT TREND ON ASSESSING LEGAL EDUCATION

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE LAW, METHODOLOGY AND PRACTICE

Ifidon Oyakhiromen
National Open University of Nigeria
ioyakhiromen@gmail.com
Abstract

The legal profession, in its present form, came into being in 1861, when English law and English type of courts were introduced into the Colony of Lagos. In order to qualify as a legal practitioner in Nigeria, a person had to be an advocate or a solicitor in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Eire. On enrollment in Nigeria, they practiced as Barristers and Solicitors even though they did not also study Nigerian Law. Some had no legal education of any kind but were granted the license to practice. To correct this inefficiency (anomaly), the Legal Education Act, 1962 was enacted establishing the Council of Legal Education (the Council). The Council is charged with responsibility for legal education of persons seeking to be members of the legal profession in Nigeria. The Council established the Nigerian Law School, a specialized institution, which offers professional courses for prospective legal practitioners upon graduation from tertiary institutions. This helped to maintain a body of legal practitioners with sound traditions and a legal culture suited to the conditions, aspirations and particular needs of a fast developing federation of Nigeria. 

This paper seeks to showcase the methodology and practice of legal education in Nigeria in the face of globalization and trans-nationalisation of legal education. It considers the objectives of enacting the Legal Education Act, basic course content, methodology, practice, admission criteria and other components of legal education in Nigeria. It also outlines the benefits and burden of legal education in its present closed or open systems of education, and how globalisation and the revolution in information and communications technology affect legal education in Nigeria. It also examines the benefits of inter and intra-university partnership and alliances between home universities and universities in other jurisdictions; and how far this has resulted in capacity building and skills transfer in legal education. Another issue it addresses is the limited capacity of the six Nigerian Law School Campuses across the Federation with inadequate ICT and network systems, libraries and requisite training facilities, which has resulted in a backlog of prospective students.

HISTORY OF LEGAL PROFESSION IN NIGERIA

The history of the legal profession in Nigeria dates back to the period before the arrival of the British in any part of what now constitutes Nigeria. But the profession in its present form comprising practitioner of the English type of law came into being in 1861, when English law and English type of courts were imposed on the Colony of Lagos by virtue of Ordinance No 3 of 1863 . The Supreme Court Ordinance, 1876 is the first significant regulatory statute relating to the practice profession and it provided that “The Chief justice shall have power to approve, admit and enroll to practice as barristers and solicitors in the court such persons as shall have been admitted as solicitors… in any of the courts of London, Dublin and Edinburgh” 

The Chief Judge could, in his discretion approve, admit and enroll to practice as a barrister and a solicitor in the court any person, who was entitled to practice as a barrister in England or Ireland, or as an advocate in Scotland and who produced testimonials sufficient to satisfy the Chief Judge that he was a man of good character . Following the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates to form the present day Nigeria, the Supreme Court Ordinance of 1914 was promulgated to unify the existing legal systems. The common law, doctrines of equity and statutes of general application which were in force in England as at July 1874 (later varied to January 1, 1900) were made applicable to the Federation of Nigeria. 

In order to qualify as a legal practitioner in Nigeria, therefore, a person had to be called to the English, Scottish, or Irish Bar or be a solicitor in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or Eire. On enrollment in Nigeria, he was entitled to practice as a Barristers and a Solicitor. The only thing common to these countries is that they belong to the home of the Common Law. They differed in their social, cultural, economic, circumstances; their legal systems as well as their training, practice, and regulatory authorities are not uniform. For example, the Scottish legal system is in detail different from the English. Both were different from the customary legal order operative in Nigeria. The foreign legal practitioners were doing in Nigeria what they were forbidden to do in their home country. In Nigeria, unlike the United Kingdom, legal practitioners are barristers and solicitors. In the United Kingdom they are either barristers or solicitors but could not be both. Some of them lacked the formal basic legal education but were granted license to practice; they were not required to study Nigerian Law before or after enrollment. The colonial legal structure provided legal framework for the needs of the colonial administration such as providing lawyers to serve as administrators and legislators as well as manage the institutions of justice.

The legal profession is noble. It demands competence in most, if not in all areas of law practice, and a wide range of fundamental skills including the ability, not only to analyse legal problems but also to perform legal researches. The earliest legal practitioners trained in England and only children of royal birth –the direct descendants of the Obas, Emirs, Ezes or Obi’s and other aristocrats and few bright and intellectually sound children qualified for selection into universities overseas in pursuit of legal education.

POST INDEPENDENCE DEVELOPMENT 

At independence in 1960, there was immediate need for a better system of legal education, being the engine of development and the most important instrument of meaningful change generally and a fundamental change in the intellectual and social outlook in particular. The Nigerian society needed an appropriate and relevant legal education capable of raising competent legal practitioners for her legislative and executive arms of government and more particularly in the institutions of justice. This informed the Government in enacting the Legal Education Act, 1962 . The Act established the Council of Legal Education (the Council) and charged it with responsibility for legal education of Africans seeking to become members of the legal profession . It expressly empowered the Council to do such things as it considers expedient for the purpose of performing its functions. The Council set up the Nigerian Law School, a specialized institution, that offers professional courses, practice of law and court attachments, law office management, Solicitors Account management, Advocacy, legal drafting, among other things capable of sharpening the skills of young lawyers from different legal families ranging from Anglo-Saxon, Roman-Germanic, socialist, traditional or Sharia families of law – all mixed together. The School, at present, operates in six campuses. The duration of training was first three months but now one academic year for law graduates from indigenous tertiary institutions or for two academic years for their oversea counterparts. There was also the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962, which also regulated the practice of Law in Nigeria. Both legislation separated academic from vocational aspects of legal education.

There is a large pool of law graduates waiting for admission into the Nigerian Law School which now operates in six campuses because of the limited capacity and other infrastructure and inadequate ICT, networked systems and virtual and complementary accommodation and physical libraries .The objective of the School is to create and maintain a body of legal institutions and legal practitioners with a fine tradition and a sound legal culture suited to the conditions, aspirations and particular needs of a fasting developing federation of Nigeria, commonly referred to as the giant of Africa.  The National Universities Commission Act, 1974 set up the National Universities Commission [NUC] as a quality assurance agency with a responsibility of advising the Federal Government and State Governments of all aspects of university education and general development of universities in Nigeria. The NUC determines the maximum number of law undergraduates each recognized Law Faculty must admit based on the strength of the staff and the quality of its library, moot court facilities, and other basic essentials. After the compulsory legal training by the Council, qualified candidates are called to the Nigerian Bar by the Body of Bench as Barristers and Solicitors and enrolled in the Supreme Court of Nigeria. There are about 70,000 legal practitioners in Nigeria with a population of 120 million. In essence Nigeria has exceeded the global lawyer population rate of 1:2,370 by 38.25 per cent .