After five years of the rigorous baking process with all the hype, prestige and respect notwithstanding, Law graduates are not guaranteed a secure future unlike their medical counterparts. Passage to law school after university is always almost impossible for a good number of the erstwhile envied 'The Laws'. While a medical student on internship is on attractive monthly remuneration for the one year period, a law school-bound graduate is made to cough out a fortune. Inability to afford the ever-exorbitant law school fee has made some aspirants become lawyers later than they ought to.

If they are fortunate enough to afford Law School and its rigours and so bag their 'Call to Bar Certificate', their troubles still do not end. The literarily 'new wig' swaps his wig for the cap of a 'youth corper' in the year-long National Youth Service. He is employed into a State or Federal Ministry of Justice which is inadequately funded itself and so it goes without saying that he'll be paid 'peanuts'. If not, he is posted to a private firm where he is apportioned the most work load but when it comes to remuneration, someone always remembers he is a mere 'corper'.

The result of these many travails of the new wig, is an ineffective, shabby and corrupt justice delivery system. A system that does not put appropriate structures or modalities in place for the sustenance of the harbingers of the legal system to ensure that the generation coming behind is even better than the present one, a system that is riddled with inadequacies, inefficiencies and lowered standards, a system where lawyers are only concerned about remuneration as opposed to quality service delivery and proper career progression.

The fact remains that the governance system has failed us but the onus is largely on us not to fail ourselves. If we can rise above the stakes and the daunting challenges, it would only ensure we are made a better generation. If we turn our fortune around, we would largely be the generation of lawyers to beat in the world!

 Talent and belief in one's potential

Since all of us resolve to be successful, I must say that what guarantees your success in legal practice is just not your knowledge of the law or your finishing your graduating exams and even your law school exams with first class degree honours or second class honours upper degree.  Excellent results at the end of these examinations are important and may in fact demonstrate the depth of your knowledge and talent in law. But talent is never enough.

The first thing is that you must have belief in yourself in that such belief in yourself will lift your talent. This implies you must have self-confidence always. The first and greatest obstacle to success is lack of belief in yourself, lack of trust in yourself, which in itself is a self-limitation. This element of belief itself has several variables. It also includes belief in your potential. This is because your potential is a picture of what you will become.

Regrettably, many people fall short of their real potential because of lack of belief in their potential.

 Belief in one's mission

 The other variable of belief in yourself is belief in your mission in life. This will enlarge you and determines your expectations. The formula is simple.

"You will become on the outside what you believe on the inside."

You must never be afraid of making mistakes. Indeed there are two kinds of people in this world, those who want to get things done and those who don't want to make mistakes. I challenge you to make your choices without fear of making mistakes for not to decide is to decide.

Passion

Another important element that would guarantee success in your legal career is your passion for the job. Indeed what carries people to the top, what makes them take risks and go the extra mile to achieve their goals is not their talent but their passion.  You must love the legal profession and enjoy working as a lawyer or else you may miss it.  This is because your passion is the first step to achievement. It increases your will power. Please ask yourselves these questions:

"What do you sing about?;  What do you cry about?; What do you dream about?"

Take initiatives

The third ingredient of success apart from passion is initiative. I enjoin all of you not to 'siddon look' but to take initiatives. Chief Gani Fawehinmi took initiative when he started the Weekly Law Reports of Nigeria to fill a lacuna in legal practice. And this was one of the factors for his greatness.  Please note that initiative is the first step to anywhere you want to go and opens the door to opportunities.  Please ask yourself is there a decision you should be making? Is there a problem you should be solving? Is there a possibility you should be examining? Is there a project you should be starting? Is there a goal you should be reaching? Is there an opportunity you should be seizing or a dream you should be fulfilling?  Do not wait a minute longer seize the initiative today.

 Being focused

One other element of success that you need to have is focus, as this directs your talent. Let me illustrate this issue of focus with the reality of our profession.  When you are called to bar as a lawyer, there are several doors open to you for access. You can decide to stay back here and lecture, you may also decide to embrace private legal practice, some of you can also decide to go into corporate world and contribute to the economy.  There are also windows of opportunities available in non-governmental organisations. Others may choose to embrace consultancy, yet others may veer into politics and politicking while others may also choose to go to legislative houses of assemblies or render support services to the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary including the Civil Service etc.

Let me assure you that there is none of these windows of opportunities that cannot guarantee you success in the long run.  But you must make up your mind today which of the windows of opportunities you want to access and stay focused on that window if you want to achieve meaningful success in the long run.

Therefore, if you want to stay in private legal practice as your passion, stay focused in private legal practice if indeed you want to attain great success as a lawyer.

Preparation

The other ingredient of success in your legal career is the element of preparation. You cannot overcome great challenges if you are unprepared. This means constantly, you must read, research and consult authorities well ahead of proceedings, whether in court or elsewhere.  You must see the value of preparation before action.  Preparation allows you to tap into your talent and is also a key to success. The questions you must ask yourself always are:

What work is to be done?, How is it to be done?; When is it to be done?; Where is it to be done?; How fast can it be done? What do I need to get it done?.

 Your answers to these questions will prepare you for the task ahead.  The only thing that relieves pressure is preparation.

Practice as a vehicle to perfection

The next element of success is practice as practice makes perfect. As lawyers you must always oil your skills and be prepared to step up your game. It is practice that enables development and leads to discovery. Practice also shows and builds commitment and to be effective, practice demands discipline.  In the words of Andrew Carnegie: "There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves.  You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself."  Therefore I challenge all of you to embrace pupilage, learn the art of lawyering from the masters who are on the job ahead of you.

 These imply a little extra effort, a little extra time, a little extra help and a little extra change.

   Perseverance

To be successful you need the element of perseverance. In the words of John Maxwell, in his book "Beyond Talent",

I want to assure all of you that the road to success in legal practice is very rough indeed. Let no one deceive you that it can be easy. Therefore, if you are looking for a short cut to success in legal practice, you stand the risk of not succeeding or running foul of the rules of professional ethics or at worst, losing your wig and gown or ending up in jail. I do not wish for any of you any of this misfortune.

Courage

The other element of success that you must possess as a lawyer is courage. Let me mention some few examples of lawyers not lacking in courage to illustrate this. In the United States, Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are a lesson in courage and they are lawyers. In the UK Margret Thatcher was an example in courage and she was a lawyer. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela confronted the evil Apartheid regime with courage he is a lawyer. In Nigeria, Gani Fawehinmi, in my view, the greatest lawyer that has ever lived was a man of high courage and that is why we remember him with fondness every time.  There is no way you can defend the interest of your client decisively if you are lacking in courage. Courage is an everyday virtue that every decent professional must possess.

 Hunger for knowledge

The other element of success is the hunger to learn.  First of all rather than develop hunger for money at the onset, you must rather develop hunger for knowledge as a prerequisite for enduring success in legal practice.  Therefore the formula is not money first and knowledge later rather it is knowledge first and money later.  Tied to this element is the parable of the crown and the cross. Ironically today, many of the new wigs want the crown but they are not prepared to take the cross.  There is no way you can have the crown without the cross and this is the reality of human existence.

Core values

However, one crucial issue that you must have in addition to your degree no matter how impressive is character. Character protects your talent. If you ask me, I would say character, character and character.  There are a lot of fundamentals tied to this element of character in guaranteeing the success of the lawyer. One of such elements is integrity. One example of this factor is late Honourable Justice Kayode Eso who left the Bench as a distinguished jurist with his integrity intact.  Who amongst you does not want to be like late justice Kayode Eso who was an epitome of integrity of the highest order? He was also revered as extraordinarily brilliant, hardworking and honest.

There is also the element of principles and the best exemplar here is late Chief Gani Fawehinmi. This was a legal practitioner who stood on the side of principles throughout his life.  He was reputed to have said that 'you should always stand on the side of principles even when you are standing alone'. Gani anchored all his struggles on principles and no one can fault him on the side of principles. Who amongst you would like to be like Gani? He was also extremely knowledgeable and honest in his crusades.

Let me also mention the element of hard work and use our irrepressible Chief Afe Babalola SAN as an exemplar.  I recall a period when I had to work closely with Chief Afe Babalola SAN at his Emmanuel's Chambers in Ibadan in respect of a matter in which those of us who look up to him were eager to benefit from his wealth of professional expertise. I recall that we had worked up to 12 am midnight in company of the erudite Chief after which he made arrangements for us to be checked into our respective hotels to enable us rest and resume work the following day.  We were all shocked when upon arrival in the chambers by 7am in the following morning we had met Chief Afe Babalola SAN at his desk already working.  We had wondered aloud whether the old man went to bed at all.  Our investigation was to reveal that the erudite chief is obsessed with the theory of hard work. No wonder he became such a monumental and unprecedented success in the legal profession and in the realm of the larger society. PUNCH Newspaper.

An eye-opener...am a level 3 law student.wil like to meet any lawyer in the house

wasak: An eye-opener...am a level 3 law student.wil like to meet any lawyer in the house

I'm a level 2 law student.

jayjagz: I'm a level 2 law student.

which university bro?

@Jayjagz I presume u culled that from the punch papers and didn't write dt urself right?

Anyway, it was quite something to read and all true. I would like to add that in practice, it pays to be humble and curious. Sometimes some chambers are not so well organised and so you are stuck with the occasional strange file thrown at you the morning of the case. In these cases, these qualities hitherto mentioned by my humble self come to play. Go to court early and respectfully ask questions from senior colleagues. A parable says "he who asks questions never goes wrong". Back in the day, this always helped me when the case I had previously been assigned was swapped suddenly.

Humility also comes into play when u deal with court officials and police cases. These people have worked in the courts for so long and have a wealth of experience which is invaluable to the Rooky lawyer. Also, if u r known to be humble, sometimes other police officers would hasten ur success in ur cases with their colleagues and u go back smiling to the office. Many a time I achieved success and amazing feats at the court and police station where other office colleagues failed to the joy of my principal. Believe me, with these qualities, ur success is assured.

wasak:
which university bro?

UI