Nigerian Law School and improvement new wigs’ quality

Introduction
Changing times at home and abroad has necessitated a reconsideration of the quality of legal education in Nigeria. This is exemplified by international practice globalization of legal services, thinning of the division between common law and civil law jurisdictions under the umbrella of the European Union, specialization and transcendental character of modern legal practice; have individually and collectively pushed for a reevaluation of the nature of skills, competencies, attributes, and values that must be inculcated in aspirants to the Bar in Nigeria.

Another facet of the problem is that the Bar, the Bench, and legal academics have raised concern about the declining quality of new wigs in Nigeria. The skills of a lawyer require proper education and experience as noted in J.M. Aina and Co. Ltd v. Commissioner for Lands and Housing, Oyo State where the court denigrated the practice whereby young or new wigs are assigned “difficult cases beyond their capacity and experience”. The fact remains that upon call to the Bar, a new wig is legally presumed to be competent# to appear in any court in Nigeria, including the Supreme Court.

However, senior members of the Bar and the Bench now increasingly come into contact with some new wigs who are unable to draft even an application letter for employment, announce appearances, move motions, or undertake mundane aspects of legal practice. In short, some new wigs have been found to lack the basic skills and attributes of a good lawyer.

Another disturbing trend is the increasing cases of violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct as manifested by recent proceedings of Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Committee. The cases of Okike v. L.P.D.C#and N.B.A. v. Kunle Kalejaiye#, are stark reminders of the imperative of reinforcing the teaching of professional ethics at the Nigerian Law School. This is now being done with requisite emphasis.

Every legal practitioner who performs admirably either in character advocacy or general practice is a product of the Nigerian Law School. Sadly, those that fell short of expectation among, the new wigs or those who are unable to deploy the skills to which they were exposed at the Nigerian Law School, and those who fail to demonstrate keen sense of professional responsibility and values, had also at one time or the other passed through the Nigerian Law School. This is in no way self indictment. It is simply the truth.

Against above background, the Nigerian Law School as a responsive and responsible institution has continued to introduce significant reforms to enhance the skills, professional responsibility and values of aspirants to the Bar. This paper briefly outlines the response of the Nigerian Law School towards sustaining the standards expected of new wigs. It is captured in five parts consisting of: (i) introduction; (ii) statutory role of the Nigerian Law School; (iii) the curriculum of the Nigeria Law School; (iv) the way forward; and (v) conclusion. The key feature of this response is a shift in the mode of instructions from the lecture pedagogy to a curriculum that focuses on the inculcation of requisite lawyering skills, values and attributes to equip aspirants to the Bar through practical applications. The shift is consistent with global best practices and it is aimed at ensuring that law graduates are “equipped with a broad range of lawyering skills when they enter the profession,”# to meet local and international challenges.

2. Statutory Role of the Nigerian Law School
Section 1(2) of the Legal Education (Consolidation, etc) Act provides that the CLE “shall have responsibility for the legal education of persons seeking to become members of the legal profession.” The Nigerian Law School# is the vehicle by which the Council of Legal Education executes her statutory mandate.# The School has been training lawyers for 52 years, starting with one Campus in Lagos and now with other Campuses in Enugu, Kano, Yenagoa, Yola and Abuja. The headquarters is in Bwari, Abuja.

3. Curriculum of the Nigerian Law School
The courses taught under the now tagged old curriculum of the Nigerian Law School, were: Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Company Law and Practice, Legal Drafting and Conveyancing, Law of Evidence, and General Paper (Professional Ethics and Allied Subjects). The courses were taught via the lecture pedagogy. Current global best practices are, however, decidedly in favour of clinical or practical and not pedagogical legal education. In the United Kingdom and the United States of America, The Cramton Report of 1979, The MacCrate Report of 1992, The Best Practice Report of 2007 and The Carnegie Report of 2007 all stress the importance of inculcating fundamental values and professionalism in aspirants to the Bar. These reports identified the benchmark of “professionalism to include honesty, integrity, civility, ethics, reliability, judgment, diligence, respect for the rule of law, courts, lawyers, clients, witnesses and unrepresented parties.”# The Law Society of England and Wales also prescribes that the core values and skills that should be taught to and imbibed by aspirants to the legal profession include the following:
Onadeko is the Director-General, Nigerian Law School