Financial Education For Legal Professionals

“It is part of the irony of life that rats discover and utilize more escape routes in a home than the home owner” The key to financial liberation of a legal professional lies in the ability to earn income from different sources and avenues available in the legal industry. If all the eggs are not […]

“It is part of the irony of life that rats discover and utilize more escape routes in a home than the home owner”

The key to financial liberation of a legal professional lies in the ability to earn income from different sources and avenues available in the legal industry. If all the eggs are not safe in one basket, how then can an empty pocket be filled with only one source of income?

When discussing ‘Alternative source of income’ as a topic on its own, we said the financial independence of a legal professional is important for any lawyer who desires to remain in litigation. Because the availability of funds in the profession works in a funny way, one might have excess cash flowing into the firm or pocket, this week and next week nothing comes in. This inconsistency in the steady flow of cash makes it paramount and necessary for a lawyer to have an alternative source of income.

Sadly, and quite unfortunate considering the limitless opportunities being a legal professional avail, we have many lawyers whose livelihood is restricted to the monthly pay wage they receive as salary, and have survived the world’s economic challenges on a manageable level with a comfortable legal practice. Which begs the question, what growth is there in being comfortable with the comfort zone? The thing about comfort zones is that it can hold a person for a temporary period of time, but then as life transforms its value depreciates, and the comfort zone becomes uncomfortable for the occupant.

This writer likes to believe there are so many ways of making money as a lawyer apart from the monthly paychecks an employee gets from the firm. It takes careful study of the immediate environment to see where the opportunity lies; there must be something a lawyer can engage in his/her society that would fetch the legal professional more income than the current account statement, we have placed too much reliance on litigation practice that we do not see the opportunities lurking around the legal industry.

Research shows that the advent of internet and information communication technology {ICT}, has produced more billionaires in dollars than natural resources, from Bill Gates, to Mark Zuckerbeg, Google, Amazon, Snapchat, Occulux virtual reality and the likes. Likewise in the legal industry, the time has come for legal practitioners to be smart in thoughts and approach of the legal profession. We ought to encourage a ‘softlife’ kind of practice not the other way round, distancing ourselves from the illusion that to be successful in this business one must break sweat all the time, jumping from one place to another all the time solving clients issues with nothing to show for the effort. “The difference between the Bricklayer and the banker is that while the bricklayer works hard, the banker works smart”.

This writer cannot tell a lawyer which area of Law/Business/Investments to venture into for alternative income that is for the lawyer to discover on his/her own. The question to ask being “what is that thing I can do, that would bring extra cash for me apart from my monthly salary?’ And the answer you seek is within you.

The idea is to think outside the box of living a straight-jacket lawyer lifestyle and doing the same thing all year round from 8am – 5pm, Mondays to Fridays. The mind of a modern-day Nigerian lawyer should be thinking towards taking a pause, and observe if the current litigation inclined bandwagon can accommodate every lawyer on board, with the world changing at a fast pace beyond human comprehension.

In the hay days, a legal professional can wait 10 years for that life changing brief to arrive at his/her office desk, but with the speed of the jet generation, Innovation/Creativity/Smart-thinking/Entrepreneurial, goals/Personal development is the new money.

Gone are the days one has to break sweat under the sun and rain to make a living, with a brilliant idea and a comfortable work station, one could actually restructure the flow of income into the bank account.

In sum, become a millennial lawyer, working smart on a daily, constantly engaging the mind on creative ways of earning more income than the monthly salary.

Godspeed!

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