Legal profession under threat as Benchers crack down on substandard admissions

The Body of Benchers (BoB) has announced plans to introduce stricter controls over admission into Nigeria’s legal profession, warning that the growing number of lawyers is eroding professional standards and fuelling the emergence of so-called “charge-and-bail” practitioners.

The legal profession’s highest regulatory body said it was determined to preserve the integrity of the Bar by ensuring that only qualified candidates are admitted each year.

The position was made known during the three-day Call to Bar ceremony in Abuja, where 6,010 graduates of the Nigerian Law School were admitted into the profession. The ceremony, held from July 7 to July 10, further increased Nigeria’s lawyer population, estimated at about 250,000 before the latest induction.

Addressing the new lawyers, Chairman of the Body of Benchers and Life Bencher, HRM Albert Akpomuje, SAN, attributed many of the profession’s current challenges to the excessive admission of law students by some universities.

According to him, several accredited institutions routinely admit far more students than the quotas approved for their law faculties, creating a ripple effect that overwhelms the Nigerian Law School and the profession itself.

To address the problem, he disclosed that the Body of Benchers had established a committee to determine appropriate annual limits for candidates to be called to the Bar.

He said the shortage of employment opportunities for the ever-growing number of graduates had contributed to a decline in professionalism.

“The Body of Benchers cannot afford to produce lawyers when there are not enough jobs to accommodate them, hence the need to regulate and put a benchmark on those to be called in any given year.

“This will also take care of situations where members of the Bar, after call, tout for briefs with no office, at the Magistrate Courts, waiting at the police stations, and earn the embarrassing name popularly known as charge-and-bail lawyers.”

The chairman stressed that the legal profession must never become open to everyone without regard for quality.

“As a regulatory body, we owe a duty to the Government, the people of this country, and, in particular, the noble profession of law, to ensure that admission into this honourable profession does not become an all-comers affair, as this will inevitably have the propensity to reduce the standard expected from this noble profession.

“Apart from just calling persons to the Bar, the Body of Benchers is very concerned with the quality and standard of those admitted to the Bar to practise law in Nigeria.

“For those of us already privileged to practise law, and by extension those of you being accorded the rare honour today of being called, we are very much aware of the fact, with no iota of apology, that our noble profession is number one in the world.

“As such, it is expected that aspirants to the Bar must be the best of the best and further ensure that, after being called, that standard of being the best is maintained either in character or in learning.”

Akpomuje said investigations by the Body of Benchers showed that many universities were responsible for the growing backlog of law graduates awaiting admission into the Nigerian Law School.

“The Body of Benchers has observed, from the committee set up to address this issue of the astronomical increase in the numbers of those wishing to be admitted to the Bar as lawyers, and from information gathered particularly from the Nigerian Law School, that the greatest challenge stems from the deliberate act of the faculties of law of some of the universities accredited to graduate law students, exceeding the maximum quota of students allocated to the university that can be admitted to read law.

“With all due respect, this is an affront to the constituted authority that prescribed the quota for admission, but, worse still, it is an act of indiscipline on the part of those who are required to show good example to the students who aspire to be members of this noble profession of law.

“The backlash or consequence of some of the universities not keeping within the limit of their quota has resulted not only in lowering the standard expected of the students admitted but also in causing a backlog of students not getting into the Nigerian Law School after graduation.

“Some of them wait up to three years or more before gaining admission into the Nigerian Law School due to lack of space to accommodate them in the school, based on the quota of all the universities wherein provision is made by the law school to admit students.

“In sympathy with some of the students, the law school, in collaboration with the Body of Benchers, had to bend over backwards to have two streams of admission into the Nigerian Law School, with lecturers overstretched beyond limit, apart from the financial and logistical implications associated with it.”

He also dismissed suggestions that the Nigerian Law School deliberately denied qualified graduates admission.

“The distinguished body wishes to clarify a misconception and notify the general public and Nigerians that the Body of Benchers will not deliberately deny qualified students admission to the Law School.

“The problem, as highlighted earlier, is that some of the universities admit over the quota allocated to them, and some universities not yet accredited produce law graduates even before applying to be so accredited.

“Furthermore, every professional body is regulated with respect to the number of those to be admitted into the profession in any given year and time, based on the needs of society.

“For the legal profession, the Body of Benchers and the Council of Legal Education are guided by the needs for legal services in the country, which form the basis of the quota allocated to universities, including the facilities on ground and the ability of the faculty of law to produce law students of the highest standard to be called to the Bar by the Body of Benchers.”

Akpomuje added that the Body of Benchers would begin maintaining detailed records of law admissions in universities and monitor compliance with approved quotas to prevent institutions from exceeding their limits.