Being a lawyer does not disqualify you from getting to heaven
By ONUOHA OLIVER
Barrister Uponi, is a graduate of Law from the University of Benin also holds a Masters’ degree in Law from the University of Lagos.
Why Law?
I choose Law as a profession because I believe in fairness and equity, I believe that what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. That may have something to do with my moral and spiritual upbringing, but I believe in fairness and equity. I choose the legal profession because I feel that I will have the opportunity to contribute my quota towards a fair society.
Refusing cases
The rules of the profession actually make it difficult for you to refuse particular briefs, but because I said I believe in fairness and equity, I don’t see myself coming out in the open to defend somebody who I know has committed something or done something that is unfair to another person.
If you come to me and say you have a dispute with somebody and I find out that you are wrong, my advice to you will be that you go and do the proper thing. To me, it is not all about money, it’s a matter of what is fair in the circumstance.
Will lawyers make heaven?
Yes, I do think that some lawyers will make heaven, lawyers who try to conform to ethical and moral standards and religious standards. You can make heaven if you are a lawyer. Being a lawyer does not automatically disqualify you from heaven, but if you believe that because you are a lawyer you need to blatantly tell lies or encourage your client to tell lies because you want to win a matter in court at all cost, of course you have disqualified yourself from being branded a righteous person. To that extent, you are not expected to make heaven, because you know you are not doing the expectations of God.
Future of the legal profession
Well, I believe there’s a future in the profession in Nigeria because, of late, the courts have become vibrant and reliable.
This is judicial activism. For us lawyers, we are developing more hope and even interest in the Nigerian judiciary. Some of us have been a little bit shy to engage ourselves in litigation because some how we lacked confidence in the system but with the recent pronouncements in the Nigerian courts, hopes are rising that indeed this country has a future, the judiciary is bracing up to its responsibilities.
Cost of running a law firm
In terms of facilities, you need to have a good office accommodation sufficient for your level of practice. If you are, for instance, going to get involved in much of litigation, you need to have a space that can accommodate your clients. You may have 10 or more witnesses coming into your office at the same time. If you are going into solicitor’s job, you are going to invest more in books and in office equipment. You need to have fax, Internet, be able to communicate with your clients on a regular basis. You need good human resources, sufficient back up staff, good secretarial services. If you don’t have a good secretary, you may end up typing the job yourself. For you to maintain these human resources, you need to be prepared to pay them well. We have a problem in our profession where most senior lawyers find it difficult to pay their staff. If you pay your staff well, you’ll get good quality service.
Tutelage
I can not say I did much of tutelage as a young lawyer. I did my youth service in a law firm at Minna, Niger State from 1987 to 1988. After my youth service, I worked in another law firm in Abuja from 1988 to 1989 and at the end of that one year, I opted to go back to school to do a Master’s degree in Law. It was at the University of Lagos, which means I had to relocate to Lagos. Because my primary reason for coming to Lagos was to go back to school, I felt it would be unfair for me to take up an appointment with a law firm, I didn’t go back to any law firm.
By the time I rounded up my master’s degree programme, I was able to get one or two retainership from emerging financial institutions. That gave me the leverage to launch out in setting my own law firm, which I did almost immediately.
I believe, as a matter of principle, that it is proper for lawyers to go through some form of tutelage because it gives you as a lawyer the benefit of supervision. You need senior lawyers who will advice you and lead you on the right part during those formative years because certain values you have as a lawyer are formed in your early years.
Resolving unethical practices
Unethical practices are tackled through the procedures within the Bar association’s disciplinary committee. I believe the committee needs to be much more alert because a lot of these things are influenced by the policy of deterrents. If the legal practitioner’s disciplinary committee dispenses discipline fast and efficiently; lawyers will be more on their guard against these malpractice. As long as there’s this belief that you can do some of these things and nothing will happen because of the beaurocracy involved, then people will be tempted to continue to cut corners. If there’s this fear that there is almost instant punishment for even the slightest of malpractice, many lawyers will brace up, particularly when it comes to litigation.
First appearance
The first day I appeared in court, I was sent by my principal to get a matter adjourned, but somehow my nerves failed me because the judge noticed that I was nervous. Then when I stood up to announce my appearance and inform the court that I was asking for an adjournment, the judge scared me a little bit because he refused to grant the adjournment. Eventually, some other lawyers came to my assistance and the judge granted the adjournment and asked me to see him in chambers. I did see him and he just jokingly encouraged me that he was trying to firm me up. Really, it was worth the while; it was a good experience for me.
Lawyers as liars
When you say lawyers are liars, that statement cannot be true because you are trying to generalise. Some lawyers may tell lies, which means they are liars just like some doctors may tell lies, just like some journalist may tell lies, but it is not true to say that every lawyer is a liar. Indeed, some lawyers who are into litigation actually encourage their clients to tell lies, that now makes the client to believe that lawyers are liars. At times, lawyers are wrongly classified as liars because as a lawyer, you are exposed to one side of a story. For those who know the truth, they will classify you as a liar without considering the fact that it was what you were given that you worked on, it’s a simple case of garbage in garbage out.
Assessment of the judiciary
Like I said earlier, I am proud of the judiciary today. They are bracing up unlike the legislator who have sacrificed their conscience and allowed themselves to be pocketed by the executives. If you go round the country today, you’ll see that most Houses of Assembly are puppets of the respective governors, who buy them cars and send them abroad. The governors determine who be the speaker and all that. That is not happening in the judiciary at least now.
Specialisation
We specialise in corporate services, company services. We have retainership with quite a number of companies. We are registered by the security and exchange commission as capital market solicitors. We involve in capital market issues, public issues, mergers and acquisitions, private placements. We also render secretarial services to some companies. We attend their board meetings, grant them advises from time to time and occasionally, when litigation arises involving those our clients, we are compelled to take it up.
SANship
I believe that the requirement for appointing senior advocates of Nigeria, may need to be liberalised or rather may need to be reformed because as it is now, a lot of people aspiring to become SAN, go to ridiculous extents to meet those requirements. A requirement that says you need to make certain number of appearances at the Supreme Court for instance means that for you to be able to satisfy that requirement, you need to do some unethical things. Some go to prisons to instigate convicts to allow them file appeals on their behalf simply because you want to meet up with such requirement. So, even when they don’t have a genuine cause to file an appeal at the Supreme Court, such people induce litigants to allow them go and appeal simply because they want to meet up with these requirements. So that’s an area I am not comfortable with.
Client management
We manage our clients by being there for them. By giving them quality services. We make conscious efforts not to bite more than we can chew. We essentially service corporate organisations and we don’t have too many clients in terms of numbers. Because of this, we have enough time to attend to the issues that involves each client from time to time.
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