Every profession in the world has an element of mysticism which sets it apart. In its arcane nature strongly lies the respect, honour and prestige that is accorded that profession. The legal profession is not an exception. This is the reason it has been said in some quarters that the legal profession is a conspiracy against the laity.
In this sense, the legal profession shares a lot in common with the priestly vocation. Both are callings that require a deep commitment and dedication beyond just a job or career. Priests are called by God to serve the Church and humanity, while lawyers have a duty to uphold justice and the rule of law. A priest is a minister in the temple of God. A lawyer is a minister in the temple of justice. So, practitioners in both fields are expected to exhibit the highest standards of ethical conduct.
While the priesthood and legal profession have distinct roles, they share the common traits of upholding the highest ethical and moral standards.
During my pupilage, my principal, in preaching about the ethics of the legal profession, would always draw this analogy, and would believe that both professions/vocations are, in terms of ethics, very similar.
Just like the priestly vocation, the legal profession commands huge respect both from other practitioners and lay people. The reason for this huge respect is not only because we are social engineers, but because of the way lawyers have been trained to behave – carrying themselves with remarkable grace, infectious comportmemt, and royal nobility of conduct.
Unfortunately recently, the legal profession has fallen flat from that dizzying height of prestige. The legal practitioners themselves, much like the proverbial Lizard that ruined his own mother’s funeral, are culpable for this despicable decline.
I will resist the strong temptation of highlighting the culpability of the Nigerian judiciary in this slump. This is a gathering of lawyers, so I shall rather wait for the day of hunting, so I can hunt in the habitat of the Grasscutters, as Igbos would idiomatically say.
The relationship of a lawyer with the society/public, his relationship with the court, his relationship with his fellow lawyer, his conduct while he discharges his duties as a lawyer, his comportment, now leave much to be desired, and have contributed to the odium with which the legal profession is now viewed by the members of the public.
Lawyers have by themselves lifted the veil of sanctity of the profession to expose its glory to the members of the public. This is what I now refer to as the See-finish-ism: the members of the public have seen us finish.
Over familiarity they say, breeds contempt. An Igbo adage also has it that, when a man overly familiarises himself with his in-laws, they begin to entertain him with Beetles-infested yam on his visits.
How has the Nigerian Lawyer allowed the members of the public to see us finish?
In various ways, lawyers have, in their relationship with members of the public, conducted themselves in ways unbecoming of a lawyer, bringing the legal practice into scorn, disrepute and ridicule.
The following are worthy of note:
1. Dressing/appearance and comportment:
It is a popular saying that the way you dress is the way you will be addressed. Regrettably, many lawyers dress very shabbily.
The dress code for male lawyers appearing in superior courts is dark suits, white shirts (not wing-collar), bib, collar, black socks and black shoes.
But often, you find Lawyers dressed in weather-beaten, threadbare suits that are averse to washing. Some don black suits bleached by the sun that they have turned brown or purple.
Some dress in very dirty white shirts, which you can only identify as white if you had seen them few years ago; shirts that had seen better days.
Some lawyers find it very hard to polish their shoes, iron their trousers and their bib. Some lawyers don bibs that are ragged, stained and creased. Some lawyers’ bibs and white shirts have the capacity to trigger vomit. Such clumsy looks lower the respect members of the public accord lawyers.
In my years of pupillage, Mr. Akalonu taught juniors in his chambers that a Lawyer’s bib must be clean and crisp, standing elegantly on a well-ironed, immaculate white shirt, that is tucked inside another well-ironed, prim dark trousers that perch gracefully and perpendicularly atop a resplendent, well-polished black shoes.
One Learned silk in this jurisdiction, J.T.U Nnodum, SAN, comes to mind when I paint this picture. In an irrepressible admiration, I have had course to ask learned Silk sometime the equipment that polishes his shoes, as they would always glean like a piece of china in the tropical sun, suggestive they were not polished by human efforts. I am sure I am not the only lawyer in the jurisdiction who has observed that. Not any day have I seen any fleck of dust or stain on any of his black shoes, regardless time of the day and location.
It does not take affluence to maintain a clean appearance, it takes rather conscious discipline, efforts, vigilance and awareness. A lawyer who must not visit the dry cleaner should have the discipline of washing his white shirts and bib by himself every weekend, starching and ironing them.
A white shirt must not be repeated. A bib can, after use for the day, be tucked back into its leather. It is not like a piece of handkerchief that can be snapped out from the trouser pocket or suit pocket and be doned when needed.
Sadly, it has become fashionable for lawyers – mostly of my generation – to wear shoes without socks. Some prefer half-cut socks, which are meant for jeans and sneakers, meaning that their skin is exposed when they are walking or sitting in court.
When some would wear socks to court, it is a bizarre, garish pair. We can also observe some wearing what looks more like a blanket or towel than socks. Black socks are highly recommended for court, or at least a dark one. Some make a ridiculous choice of wearing red socks, looking like Catholic bishops.
Some lawyers also make the queer choice of doning trousers that appear to be in rift with their shoes, so that instead of the tip resting gorgeously on their shoes, it stands high above their ankles, cutting a Michael-Jackson-esque image. Others have the audacity to wear black chinos or black jeans under their gown to appear in the High Court.
Some (both young and very senior lawyers) make the inexplicable choice of wearing sandals to court without a doctor’s report, leaving one unsurprised that the baby goats [kids] learned how to chew cud from the Mother goat [Doe].
For female lawyers, it is black suits, black skirts, black closed-toe shoes, white collarette. The female lawyers are not insulated from this poor dressing. Some wear Mary-Kay-stained and creased colarette to court. Some wear opened-toe shoes, and some, sandals.
The comportment of some lawyers both within and without the court, is thuggish, coarse and savage. The comportment of a lawyer in court conduces to the magnitude of respect a litigant will pay to both the judex, his colleagues, and officers of court.
Before Hon. Justice A.C. Onyeukwu a couple of months ago, two very senior lawyers, in the full glare of both junior lawyers and litigants, nearly exchanged blows.
In another court few days ago, two lawyers were dragging a file and pouring vituperations and invectives on each other, while litigants watched on shamefacedly. Have they not seen us finish?
When a lawyer is discouteous or disrespectful to the court, or to a coleague in court, you would not expect any better from the litigant.
For some lawyers, being on the other side of a matter suggests they are at war with the coleague on the other side, or doing a matter against a coleague automatically makes them their enemies.
While conducting cases, lawyers should be quick to reprimand their clients who in attempt to answer counsel’s questions during cross examinations, insults counsel on the other side. Unfortunately, some lawyers derive pleasure from seeing their clients deride and ridicule the counsel on the other side. This is unethical and must not be encouraged. It conduces to see-finish-ism.
Some lawyers also forget that the lawyers’ bib and collar are to be worn only in the court premises. It makes a very ridiculous sight to see a lawyer wearing his collar and bib in a public transport, or while walking from his house to the road to catch a bus for court. Some also engage in this for showmanship, forgetting that they cut a ridiculous image.
Some walk into supermarkets, banks, eateries, markets and public places with their bib and collar after court. This is simply nauseating.
Just last week Monday, I cringed to watch a very senior member of the Bar lumbering out of a UBA in Mbari Street, with his bib and collar.
Same day, I saw another lawyer with his bib and collar, his court files on his left, his glory on his right, urinating along a busy road, just beside Dreamland Hotels, World Bank, Owerri.
During pupillage, we were taught that you could only wear your bib and collar from the office if only you are driving in your car, or driven by another in a private car.
We were taught that you must not enter an eatery with your bib and collar or eat or drink in a public place, wearing them. But you will see a lawyer eating in a sleazy restraunt with his bib and collar, oily crumbs of vegetables dropping on his creased bibs, making legal submissions raucously, in an attempt to impress the lay people or attract needless attention to himself.
Sometimes, you may find a lawyer in bib and collar, tightly packed inside Bus Imo like a sardine, making legal submissions at the top of his voice to impress other passengers. This is a see-finish situation. A lawyer who must take a commercial vehicle must not wear his bib and collar.
2. Another see-finish scenario is the preparation of processes and lawyers’ documents in public business centres.
Gardenpark is now the office of most lawyers (both young and old). When you walk into the computer section of GardenPark, you would hear one lawyer, sitting beside a typist, bellowing corrections, “D-o-n-e-e, D-o-n-e-e, D-o-n-e-e, not ‘done,’ tinye ofu ‘E’ (Put an ‘E’),” while the other lawyer is at the other end shouting, “Ngozi, it is the Claimant, not Clement. Remove ‘E’ and put ‘AI,’ then wepụ [remove] that other ‘E’ itinyere [that you put] after ‘m’ and put ‘A'” This situation is always laughable.
I have heard a computer operator tell a lawyer, “Barri, that woman dropụụrụ gị 10k for that Pawa of Atọni” [Barrister, that woman dropped N10,000.00 for that Power of Attorney]. Some lawyers have condescended to using some of the staff in GardenPark as their office secretaries.
Some lawyers maintain sensitive folders in the systems in public business centres, thus increasing the risk of proliferation and abuse of legal instruments and some sensitive precedents. There is no worse see-finish situation than this.
Part of the glory of a herbalist is not only the nzu that he smears around his eyes and his red, long skirt, but in the way he handles his client which is masked in esoterism and mysticism.
A Herbalist who wants to prepare charms and herbs for his client, enters into his private chambers to do so. He does not do that in the presence of his client, otherwise, he will see him finish.
But it is the opposite for lawyers. Some lawyers sit with their client before the public computers, while the computer operators prepare Power of Attorney. And this is why a client will price a lawyer ten thousand naira, saying, “The Bar, naranụ m 10k. Onwekwerenu ihe nọ na Pawa of Atọni. Ihe a umu aka na aprịpaa na Garden Park [Barrister, take N10,000.00 for this Power of Attorney. Those typists in Garden Park can simply prepare this]. That’s the level we are now.
Some, though they prepare it in the office, but do the franking, stapling, binding and packaging in the presence of the client. This is improper.
Let the client see only the finished product. Let there be some air of esoterism around it – documents you prepare for clients.
3. Engaging in agbata-ekee with police, milling around police vehicles in the Magistrate Court like a local dog who trails a toddler that has defecated without cleaning his anus, contributes to the lack of respect which lawyers suffer in the hands of police and other security agencies. This will not stop until our image before the police improves. Police have seen us finish, and that contributes to the reason for the spate of victimisation of lawyers in the hands of security agencies.
4. It was the training during my pupillage that appearance fee is collected a day before hearing date, and must be paid in the chambers. If a client fails to comply, the lawyer will not attend court for that matter. it is not pride. It is part of the dignity one accords to himself and to other colleagues, by extension.
But lawyers now choose to do this the other way round. In the high court premises last month, a fully-robed lawyer grabbed his client by the scruff of his neck because of non-payment of appearance fee. It was a very ridiculous sight, as other litigants watched on.
5. While I was the Secretary of NBA Owerri from 2020 – 2022, I was inundated with petitions against legal practitioners bordering on diversion of clients’ monies.
In those eventful two years, no day passed without the administrative secretary of the Bar handing me two to three letters on this subjectmatter. In most cases, the lawyers would challenge the clients to do their worse. This offends Rule 23(2) of the RPC, “Where a lawyer collects money for his client, or is in a position to deliver a property on behalf of his client, he shall promptly report and account for it, and shall not mix such money or property with, or use it as his own.”
For most clients, ndị lawyers wu ndị oshi [Lawyers are thieves].
6. While I was looking for accommodation in 2019, it was a difficult task for me, as many landlords are now very reluctant to lease their property to lawyers.
The reason is not far-fetched. In the property we occupy at both homes and offices, many lawyers do not pay their rents, as though Call to Bar Certificate is an exemption certificate from payment of rent. Other than pay their rent, some lawyers institute legal action against their landlords in a bid to frustrate them from ejecting them from their property. Lawyers who do this bring bad name to other law-abiding ones, because when one fingers oil, it diffuses to four other fingers, as igbo proverb says. This impugns the integrity of lawyers.
7. There is a growing trend of abuse of wig and bib. Wigs now adorn the dashboard of most lawyers’ cars, while bib hangs on the Rear-view mirrors of their cars. This is an abuse of the lawyers’ accoutrements. I shall dwell extensively on this another day.
8. We have seen cases of lawyers posing as conduit pipes for reticulation of bribes to the Judex, to the knowledge of their clients. Some lawyers would encourage their client to reach out to the judex in charge of their matters for the purpose of influencing its outcome. This does not bode well for the legal profession.
The legal profession is a noble one. It is such that has some flavour of esoterism. That arcane and recondite nature is fast evaporating due to the worrying spate of professional misconduct, and this does not bode well for the integrity of the profession and the professionals. This lecture is a clarion call for legal practitioners to recoil to their shell of inscrutability and integrity.
Thank you for your rapt attention.
[A Lecture delivered at the Monthly General Meeting of NBA Owerri on the 25th day of May 2024]
Chinedu Agu is a lawyer and can be reached via 08032568512 or ezeomeaku@gmail.com.
