Mandatory continuing legal education in Nigeria
“All Nigerian lawyers in legal practice or employment must comply with the Nigerian Bar Association’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) programme. Lawyers are required to take the MCLE courses in order to qualify to practice law within our jurisdiction. The Nigerian Bar Association Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) serves as the CLE regulatory authority […]
“All Nigerian lawyers in legal practice or employment must comply with the Nigerian Bar Association’s Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) programme. Lawyers are required to take the MCLE courses in order to qualify to practice law within our jurisdiction.
The Nigerian Bar Association Institute of Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) serves as the CLE regulatory authority for the NBA and the profession by providing standards and scope for the MCLE programme…” www.nba-icle.org
The NBA’s forthcoming Annual General Conference is scheduled to hold from the 21st – 28th August, 2015 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja with the theme ‘Lawyers and National Development’. This year’s annual conference provides lawyers the avenue of relating issues of leadership and nation building.
The opening ceremony slated for 23rd August has President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, as the special guest of honour with PSquare expected to perform at the event by 7.00 p.m.
Paraphrasing Okey Wali (SAN), continuing legal education is a lifelong learning process that is indispensable to professional growth and the individual competence of lawyers. Entry into practice of law is not the end to legal education but rather, the beginning of it and the NBA-AGC provides lawyers the opportunity to acquire more knowledge of law from the various intellectual guest speakers of the conference.
Knowing the benefits of constant improvement in law is important enough for government agencies, financial institutions, Multi-nationals et al to sponsor lawyers under their employ to the NBA-AGC, if not they face the reality of losing touch with the evolving nature of law as practiced in Nigeria.
Makkau Maimuna Esq, Legal Officer, Compliance Department of the Corporate Affairs Commission, said, “The commission sponsors its staff on rotational basis to the NBA-AGC for training of the sort.” This should be encouraged, agencies which don’t send their lawyers should start; knowledge gained at symposiums like this is first applied in the firm. A young lawyer under the employment of the Securities and Exchange Commission {SEC} who pleaded anonymity said he is not aware if SEC sponsored lawyers to the conference.
Because of a legal practitioner’s appreciation of the conference, various branches and senior colleagues support their members and employees to be participants. It is however unfair to continue to demand from these seniors and not ask institutions with more financial strength to do the same for their lawyers, an in-house lawyer who is not actively involved in continuing legal education would lack the competence to keep up with his peers who engage in capacity building.
The benefits are not that of the legal practitioner alone, government agencies, banks, multinationals that hire the services of lawyers need to sponsor them for training of the sort to ensure better performance on the job, which in turn adds value to the company. It is understood if non-professionals think that all there is to the legal profession stops at being a lawyer, but then, how is one expected to get updated without participating in conferences like this?
The NBA -AGC has different sections and fora that fit into the practice of every lawyer – be it lawyers in the media, women lawyers, Young Lawyers Forum, et al
“God forbid that any lawyer should know all the law”, it is for this purpose that a lawyer cannot remain secluded from enlightening experiences that the conference offers and expect to grow in the profession, practice goes beyond desk work; it involves communication with clients, advocating a cause, legal drafting, packaging etc. A lawyer who is restricted to learning only from the four walls of his office is definitely missing a lot.
To safeguard the sanctity of justice, lawyers must remain professionally competent throughout their career; they must network amongst learned friends from different parts of the country to learning new things.
Government agencies, banks and multi-nationals that don’t sponsor lawyers under their employ for continuing legal education should endeavour to do so, it is for the benefit of both the lawyer and the employer.
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