legal profession

ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD: IMPERATIVES FOR DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

Felicia Eimunjeze*

ABSTRACT

That the world has become a global village is a cliché. Today, as far as communication and dissemination of information is concerned, distance is no longer a barrier. It is therefore imperative that the training of lawyers in developing economies prepare them to be relevant and function efficiently and effectively in a borderless world. The increasing impacts of information technology and the internet have demystified knowledge and skills in all professions leaving the lawyer of today a person of business and ethics. The key argument in this paper is that the appropriate response to this is not in how much more of Law and Practice are crammed into Schools’ curricula; rather it is in training law students to become practitioners whose services will be valued in the internationalized market of today. The key to excellence in a globalized world is for lawyers to be prepared with the relevant skills, knowledge, and technological sophistication needed for them to meet complex expectations of clients in terms of high ethical standards, personal conduct and efficiency, knowledge and skill in that order.

Keywords: Legal education, excellence, globalization, technology


* Deputy Director (Academics) The Nigerian Law School. Email: feimunjeze@gmail.com.

THAT THIS PROFESSION MAY NOT DIE: THE NEED TO FLUSH OUT MISCREANTS FROM THE NIGERIAN LEGAL PROFESSION

Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad*

ABSTRACT

One of the key hindrances to sustainable development and economic growth in Nigeria is the problem of corruption. For many years, discussions on corruption inevitably focused on political abuse of powers and privileges and wanton disregard of the rule of law. Events of the last decade however sadly reveal that corruption, nepotism, and indiscipline have equally taken prominent places in the Nigerian legal profession, ranging from the bar, bench and the legal academia. Most alarming is the geometric rise in instances of corruption in our higher institutions of learning; ranging from prevalent sharp practices in admissions, examinations, research, teaching, tenure and academic promotions. This paper examines the challenges of endemic and systemic corruption in the Nigerian legal profession. The paper adopts a crosscutting approach to discuss how perennial instances of corruption threaten the nobility and growth of the Nigerian legal profession. It proposes a holistic purging of the bench, practicing bar, and the legal academia to name, shame and expel miscreants, in order to restore the age long discipline and dignity of the Nigerian legal profession.

Keywords: Corruption, legal profession, lawyers, universities, education


* Hon. Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Ph.D, JSC, CFR, FCIArb, FNIALS, FCLM. Paper presented at the 48th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT), held at the Afe Babalola University, Ado – Ekiti, Ekiti State (31st May – 5th June, 2015),