Experts suggest business strategies to grow law firms in Nigeria

Experts in various sectors of the economy have called on law firms to begin to look inward and develop business ideas and strategies that would enable them progress in the changing business world.

Speaking during a workshop put together by Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) Law Practice Management Committee (LPMC) in partnership with Association of Law Firm Administrator Nigeria, (ALAN), Anire Kanyi, chairman NBA-SBL LPMC said business strategy touches various aspects such as building businesses, turning around issues and trying to touch the very fundamental of any kind of business.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Realigning Business Strategies for Law Firms,’ Kanyi said the “We realised that for us, law firms lack certain fundamentals to enable them progress in this changing business world. In order for them to compete with what is happening across the world, we need to begin to get the fundamental issues right.

“You are seeing the kind of panel we have; people that understand the business and have turned their law firms around as a business. The basic thing is to understand what is expected from in-house counsel and also what is expected from the lawyers themselves doing the work. What they need is that structure.”

Toyosi Fatoki, 2nd Vice Chairman, NBA-SBL Law Practice Management Committee, (LPMC) said the committee is really focusing on how to get the law firms and law practice to where it should be and the committee knows that as far as the brains and intellectual capacity is concerned, Nigeria is covered but the law firms are not doing as well commercially as they are supposed to especially when compared to foreign law firms.

Fatoki said this obvious gap is not because Nigeria doesn’t have the capacity but because it is not doing something right and that is one of the reasons why the NBA-SBL LPMC have chosen the theme that it has for the work shop, so that they can all brain storm and think about how to make law practices more commercially viable and can become one of the wealthiest professions in Nigeria.

“Participants here are taking home a lot of things. First, we need to know that there is more to the law practice than just the regular litigation and agreements. There are other aspects of law that we haven’t harnessed in Nigeria. There are training and consultancy services and other areas that we can delve into and develop so we can begin to generate proper revenues from these areas of law.

“We should also take away the fact that succession is very important. We know a lot of law firms that have died because the owners passed away. That shouldn’t be the case. There is no reason why we shouldn’t have 2000 years old law firms in Nigeria, if we have the right succession plan in play. It doesn’t have to be a family thing. You just identify the good people in the firm and train them to a certain level and when the older ones retire, the younger ones can take over,” she explained.

Adeoye Adefulu, partner at the law firm, Odujinrin & Adefulu Barristers, Solicitors and Notaries Public who commended the LPMC for putting the event together said this is however, the first step in what should be a series of discussion between lawyers within the law profession and outside the law profession as well.

Adefulu hinted that one of the challenges lawyers have had is that lawyers have always talked to just themselves.

“For instance, in the university you are taught by law lecturers who are lawyers. In the law school, you are taught by a lawyer and you are responding to a lawyer. When you get into practice, you are responding to your senior who is a lawyer and that senior who is a lawyer is responding to the general counsel in the organisation who is a lawyer.

“So, we have this insular concept of our opinion being the end product. Your presentation and opinion in court is not the end product. There is a service you are delivering and you are delivering that service to someone who probably is not a lawyer and getting them engaged in that conversation is very key.

“When we compare the city law firms here with those abroad, typically in UK, lawyers in lawyers in law firms are paid much better than in-house counsel. They are able to afford it because the law firms themselves are getting very well paid by the clients. But we have a situation where even among ourselves, there is an unhealthy competition, which the companies have taken advantage of and the value of our services are now being commoditised,” he said.

He stressed on the need to get together and think about what value lawyers are providing, how they can provide that value and how they can work together to enhance the value.

Moyosore Onigbanjo, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State who was also present at the event said he was happy with what the NBA Section on Business Law was doing through its committee on legal practice.

He said he would ensure that the ministry of justice worked collaboratively with the Section on Business Law to support its vision and its activities, adding that a contingency from the ministry would be heavily present at all NBA-SBL programmes, in other to take full advantage of the benefits offered by the various committees of the Section.

Seni Adio, Chairman NBA-SBL said what the committee has done in the past and will continue to do is take their seminars across the country.

“We try to take the programme to certain parts of the country that has the same affinity with the subject matter of our discussions. For example, if we are going to have a seminar on agriculture, it is likely to be somewhere in the North. We are going to be having one on mining and we are going to have it either in Jos or in Bauchi State, for oil and gas conference, we will have it in the Niger Delta region.

“We have programmes being conducted in various parts of the country. We intend to compress the communiqué from this event and have it available on our website, disseminate it via social media and use it as a platform on which we can train in future,” Adio said.