The management of BusinessDay on Monday November 25th, 2019 held an inaugural meeting with newly appointed members of its ‘Legal Business Advisory Board’ to chart the path for its recently launched legal business project.
The Board, which is set to provide direction for this Project, is made up of very eminent members of the legal profession who were selected in recognition of their wealth of experience as legal professionals and business experts.
The Unit, headed by Theodora Kio-Lawson will collaborate with BusinessDay Research & Intelligence Unit (BRIU) to conduct in-depth research and analysis of Nigeria’s legal market, with the aim of providing authoritative and well researched data, commentary, market insight and various other value adds to the legal profession.
At the meeting which took place at the Radisson Blu, Victoria Island, Lagos, members of the board commended BusinessDay for the initiative, while conveying their commitment to the success of the project.
In his remarks, the immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL), Olumide Akpata stated that the current state of the legal profession was not reflective of a nation with one of the largest economies. According to him, there was need for lawyers in Nigeria to catch up with the rest of the world. He however expressed hope that the legal business project through its objectives would help address some of these critical issues.
Also speaking at the meeting, Ayuli Jemide, Lead Solicitor at Detail Solicitors, noted that it was important to stay the cause, focusing on the interest of Nigeria and the legal profession, whilst avoiding any self-serving topics and issues..
Founding partner of Banwo & Ighodalo, Asue Ighodalo identified various points of discussion for the board at its next meeting, noting that a proper work structure will be critical to its next steps.
Echoing the concerns of other board members, the current Chairman of the NBA-SBL Seni Adio, SAN noted the declining state of the profession which according to him, is not helped with the graduation of over 8, 000 lawyers annually from the Nigerian Law School.
He said, “Growth is still stunted in the industry. Yearly, these young lawyers join the profession with very little assurance of success in the market.” Nonetheless, the NBA-SBL chairman, expressed confidence that if any medium had the capacity to tackle some of these issues, it would be BusinessDay.
The BD Legal Business Project will amongst other things, provide thought leadership in areas such as the growth of legal businesses; continuing legal education and capacity building; remuneration for young lawyers, billing standards; gender-related issues in the workplace; economic trends and policies that affect the legal profession; Investments, partnerships; succession planning, amongst other things.
