Some senior lawyers have advocated the setting up of a body that will ensure that the ethics of the profession are respected by all legal practitioners.
The advocacy was loudly echoed by discussants at the Nigeria Bar Association, Section of Legal Practice (NBA/SLP) one-day symposium with the theme Legal Practice in Nigeria, Reinforcing Ethical Behaviours, which took place at the Lagos Cour5 of Arbitration in Lekki on Friday.
In his submission, Hon. Justice Joseph Olukayode Oyewole of the Court of Appeal stated the need for the enforcement of the law ethics on lawyers.
He said that “25 per cent of young lawyers don’t want to have anything to do with litigation and even some older lawyers are looking for ways out because lawyers are disrespecting the ethics of the profession.”
He called for the setting up of a body of independent professional regulators rather than the current situation of self-regeneration.
He said: “If what we have in place now is working, we will not be where we are today. We should take away enforcement of ethics from legal professional bodies and there will be changes. If people know that there will be sanctions and these sanctions don’t discriminate, they will sit up.”
A former Sokoto State attorney general and commissioner of Justice, Dr Suleiman Usman SAN, said that ethical rules were important to maintain the confidence of the client and the public in general.
While subscribing to the call to have a body that will enforce ethical discipline, he however suggested that all the various legal bodies should be able to do so effectively.
Mr Chukwuka Ikwuazom, SAN, on his part, said that the 2023 rules of legal conduct are obvious and precise in dealing with clients, courts, and lawyers.
He however pointed at the lack of enforcement as the missing link.
He suggested that the disciplinary committee of the NBA that sits in Abuja should be broken into regions down to the local level so that the profession’s ethics can be upheld.
In her remark, the Chairman of the NBA/SLP, Mrs Boma Alabi SAN, said that the ethics of law in Nigeria was the same as that of other commonwealth nations, and she wondered why it was not working in Nigeria.
She then urged lawyers to look deep down inside them for solutions, “which is about re-enforcing ethical behaviour.”
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