Breaking the norms
“No great man ever became great by doing ordinary things like ordinary people.” One of the beauties about law is the dynamic and evolving nature it takes through man’s existence on earth, changing from centuries to centuries regulating and determining how man should co-exist with another man, and the society he lives in. Due to […]
“No great man ever became great by doing ordinary things like ordinary people.”
One of the beauties about law is the dynamic and evolving nature it takes through man’s existence on earth, changing from centuries to centuries regulating and determining how man should co-exist with another man, and the society he lives in. Due to this dynamic nature of law, acts and omissions not considered as a crime in one country, can be a crime in another country, while an act considered moral in one place, can be immoral in another.
In all of these years of man’s existence, it takes the bravery, and courage of few individuals in a particular generation to bring about meaningful and essential change that last through time, like the invention of electricity, computer, telecommunications, electronics, auto and aero gadgets, the first African American President of U.S.A, etc. It follows there from that even though a society accepts a particular series of behaviors as normal, it can be improved upon for better.
The same applies in the legal profession. The fact that some particular area or modus of practice is considered as the norm, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the best for the modern-day lawyer. A sad incidence occurred recently in a law firm, the Central Processing Unit {CPU} of the computer being used to prepare a court process to file within time crashed with the only copy of that process in the system. Take a moment to imagine the psychological trauma of such incidence, and the mental exertion it would take a legal professional to start afresh.
It is my believe that the mishaps of today can be corrected for a better tomorrow. In an era of high technological advancement in the world, what stops a lawyer from preparing court processes on his/her laptop, send to colleagues and staff through intra/internet for vetting, or further action, thereby creating multiple copies of the documents as it passes from one individual to another, also storing same in the cloud for future reference.
Many junior lawyers in the profession find the legal terrain difficult, largely due to the wide gap of communication that exist between principal partners and associates. In more advanced law firms {most likely partnerships}, there exist open communication between colleagues, a junior can sit with a senior and have cordial open discussion about the legal profession, and many more, this way both parties learn from each other irrespective of status/position, unlike the strict stereotype relationship that exist between employer-employee in most of our everyday law firms.
Yahaya Audu of Teasy Mobile rightly said “God did not invent furniture, he created trees”. It was man that discovered that we can use trees for furniture. In my humble opinion, a modern day legal professional need not do surface or ordinary because ordinary is cheap. Recognize your threshold and challenge yourself to go beyond the present state of things as it is in the profession, aim to create an impact, and don’t believe it is impossible because no one has ever done it, you can be the first.
Which begs the question, how do the modern day legal professional break the norm? In a personal development career symposium organized by House of Justice, we were taught to assimilate a lot of information regarding an area of law of interest, it need not be a master’s degree, online courses like the use of cousera.com can enlighten a lot of legal professionals on how to develop in an area of interest.
Learn to embrace change, be innovative, consult with the right resource personality, be able to measure your current position and look for ways to make it better, be accountable to yourself and in relationship with others, keep moving forward ignoring any one with intent to bring you down, do things differently not necessarily the way of the bandwagon, follow your passion, define your relationships, be prepared to utilize any opportunity wisely, and for everything you do, excellence should be the watchword.
A wise man once said, we all have greatness within us; it takes self-discovery to realize what our talent is, so break away from the norm and do that which ought to, and not what is.
God speed!
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