A group of senior legal practitioners, led by the first female Attorney-General of Lagos State and first Chairlady, Body of Benchers, Mrs. Hairat Aderinsola Balogun (SAN), have called on younger lawyers to embrace hard work, integrity and also make themselves ‘amenable.’
The older generation of lawyers also admonished their younger colleagues on need to embrace the spirit of determination, to succeed in their chosen profession.
Speaking during the yearly seminar entitled: ‘Building a successful career in Legal profession: what option?’ organised through a webinar by the Lawbreed Academy, Mrs Balogun, who chaired the event, harped on the need for new generation of lawyers to embrace integrity.
She noted success in their chosen career would require young them to be bold and must be prepared to add value to themselves and the legal profession.
Aside from Balogun, other group of senior legal luminaries, who graced the event include the Chief Executive Officer of Lawbreed, the Publisher of Supreme Court Judgment, Mr. Layi Babatunde (SAN), Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), Prof. Ernest Ojukwu (SAN), Mr. Oyetola Muyiwa Atoyebi (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) and Chief Wale Taiwo, among others.
They urged the younger generation of lawyers to be prepared to take the profession to the greatest height being the last hope of the masses.
Also, the CEO Lawbreed Academy, Mr. Layi Babatunde, said there are various opportunities in legal profession. He urged the young lawyers to learn from the experience of the experience of leaders in the bar.
He said, “when we joined the legal team about four decades ago, we focused on advocacy, dispute resolution or just at solicitor doing paper work, prepare deed of assignment and other contract. But the opportunities are parts.
Today is better for us to have avenue so that our colleagues can be better of for future.
“Like the saying, success opportunity mean preparation, what to do is to prepare ourselves ahead of the opportunity that lies ahead of us in our profession. Today, the field has become so wide and unless we pay attention to this opportunity, we might miss out the opportunity that will come our way. By the grace of God, we have done well in our profession and we believe that our people can learn from them.
“Some of our colleagues who are senior members of the bar, will also help us share their experience, which you can profit from. So I believe we have a great time, we will have several take away, that at the end of the day, we can benefit from it.”
Babatunde said, whether the opportunity is limited in terms of promotion, salary, benefit, you need to always create an opportunity. He recounted how he used to buy law report and how he started publishing.
“It is not too much to sacrifice and buy your own law reports, because sooner or later you will need it. I can assure you, you profit a lot for your sacrifice.”
On his part, Ozekhome (SAN) gave vivid narration how he was posted to Lagos and served in Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) chambers and how he was mentored to work hard.
