NBA President receives report on scale of fees for Nigerian lawyers

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Olumide Akpata, on Tuesday in Lagos, said he would submit a recommendation on the remuneration scale for lawyers to the National Executive Committee within the next two weeks.

Akpata made the disclosure in a statement following the submission of a 126-page report by the Remuneration Committee of the NBA.

The said report was submitted on Monday night by the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Anthony Nwaochei, alongside other members of the committee.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NBA President, had in March 2021, set up the remuneration committee with a mandate to devise feasible ways of improving the poor remuneration of Nigerian lawyers.

The committee was tasked among others, with the responsibility of designing an enforceable framework, under which lawyers will charge the right fees for their legal services using acceptable metrics.

Some of the recommendations contained in the report included fees chargeable by lawyers for different categories of legal services, a proposed new scale of charges for the legal profession, and how law firms should pay their colleagues in different parts of the country.

Other recommendations were alternative engagement models for law firms to ease challenges around poor remuneration, the manner of enforcement of the proposed recommendations, among others.

In his statement, Akpata said: “I am grateful to the Co-chairmen of the Remuneration Committee and all the other members for the hard work that they put into producing this comprehensive report.

“Standardisation of fees and poor remuneration of legal practitioners in Nigeria are probably two of the most controversial issues that successive administrations of the NBA have faced, but not necessarily addressed holistically.

“It is, therefore, heart-warming that we are making progress on them now.

“ I recognise that our members have been waiting for the NBA to act on these issues, but as you all know, they are complex matters that require thorough consideration.

“Knowing how important this is to us as a profession, I will be presenting the report to the NBA National Executive Committee at the next meeting scheduled to hold in about two weeks.

“The NEC will deliberate on it and give us directions on how to proceed with the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report,” Akpata said.