THE LEGAL PROFESSION AND ITS CONCEPT OF NOBILITY
Aver Angweh,LLB, BL,LLM( in View)
Corporate Law and Governance
Benue Investment and Company Limited
The legal profession is by far the most respectable profession in the world; hence even other professionals from different walks of life refer to legal practitioners and lawyers in general as ‘learned gentlemen’. This term ‘learned gentlemen’ is more of a mandate than a fancy moniker; as to whom much is given much is also expected.
From time immemorial, the legal profession has been christened the noble profession and the jurisprudence behind this is not farfetched. In the early days of the profession, the practice of law was restricted to members of the royal families in the king’s court. This class of people were known to set the standards for societal enlightenment and civilization as a whole, therefore ordinary citizens were adjudged to be below the standard of nobility and thus lacking the know-how to properly appreciate the laws of the society in which he/she dwelled. This was ages before legal concepts and procedures were being thought in formal institutions. From this background, it is then evident that the legal profession itself was built on a solid foundation of nobility, prestige, integrity, elegance and pedigree, all these qualities which in turn collectively qualify royalty. Over the centuries, there has been dire need to maintain the status quo.
A lawyer is a master of society and counselor of all. Therefore, lawyers are held in the highest esteem by other members of the society regardless of social stratification. For the lawyer who desires to be a role model, the starting point is a frank realization that a disciplined and tenacious acquisition of broad-based knowledge is inevitable in building a successful career because whether a person is a doctor, pharmacist, artisan, or an academic, he still must consult a lawyer at the slightest sense of any threat to his/her rights both corporeal and incorporeal when the need arises, it is at this point that counsel’s true standard of nobility is put to test. This test however is a two-way test which encapsulates legal ethics on one hand and professional skills on the other.
The Oxford Advanced Learners dictionary describes professionalism as: The high standard that you expect from a person who is well trained in a particular job; great skill and ability etc. On ethics, the same dictionary variously described it as (a) the moral principles that control or influence a person’s behavior (b) A system of moral principles or rules of behavior.
In a strict legal sense, legal ethics simply refers to the overt and covert behavioural standards expected of a person who possesses reasonable knowledge of the law, being he a learned or learning person. Similarly, at the learning stage, students of the legal profession are expected to pass the ‘fit and proper’ test as a major requirement for admission into the profession, this phrase ’fit and proper’ connotes excellence both in learning and in character, i.e. proper dress code which adheres strictly to the acceptable standard, also necessary is the spirit of decorum which symbolizes civilization in today’s world, this decorum includes; the strict observance of table manners at dinners, engaging in civil conversations and arguments, advancing constructive criticisms and so on. The ethics instilled in learning students in the classrooms fully crystallize in the courtroom after their eventual adoption into the profession.
A legal practitioner on the other hand, distinguishes himself from random members of the society in many ways, one of which is the way he/she dresses, i.e. black suit and tie or dark blue suit while carrying on with his legal business, he adorns a full barrister’s robe with a wig when appearing before a court of law or a tribunal. These ethics are also showcased where a lawyer presides over company meetings as a secretary or any other secular meetings in which he may be required to conduct. Generally, the society judges an individual first from his physical appearance (mode of dressing) and then by the words of his mouth, it is therefore no wonder that lawyers stand out among the crop and are treated with utmost respect regardless of their financial standing in the society.
Professional skills on the other hand refer to the expertise a lawyer displays while handling any of his professional tasks, this includes, communication skills (i.e the mastery of the English language), advocacy skills, diplomacy skills, drafting skills, et al. A lawyer is expected to maintain a high level of composure as he is the mirror in which the society reflects. In carrying out his professional duties, reasonable diligence is expected instead of cutting corners and employing unorthodox techniques for expedient results.
A lawyer is also expected to be candid and incorruptible while dealing with a client’s brief because transparency they say is the hallmark of good faith. The legal profession is a delicate field as it involves the lives and properties of other people, without these required skills such lives and properties will be imperiled. The continuity of the society at large is guaranteed only by the rule of law, and who in turn engineers the rule of law in the society? Your guess is as good as mine. An old jurist once said to me “people presume that we know the law and every other thing, and so our burden is to make them believe same by the way we conduct ourselves”. Therefore, even at the learning level, lawyers in training are expected to earn the trust of their contemporaries in other fields by the way they conduct their academic endeavours i.e definition of their priorities, time consciousness, academic diligence etc. It is an age-old rule that the legal profession must be seen as a noble profession most especially by those who practice it and those who aspire to be graced with the privilege of doing so in their lifetime.
There are rewards for exemplary practice and excellence in the profession; these include the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, appointment to the Bench and also other prestigious recognitions like appointment to the Body of Benchers, the General Counsel of the the Bar, Notary public etc. This is the only occupation where such honours are conferred as a reward for excellence in both professional skills and ethics. In the past, the code of conduct was unwritten because the legal practitioners knew exactly the standards expected of them, but in the wake of a more contemporary society and the mainstream era which we live in today, there arose the need to codify certain rules and ethics for the present generation and beyond, and thus the birth of the Rules of Professional Conduct of Legal Practitioners, which serves as an auxiliary to the Legal Practitioners Act.
In conclusion, both Knowledge of the law and professional ethics are key ingredients in the practice of law and a deficiency in either of the two will inevitably prove fatal for the erring lawyer, it is needful to quote Section 1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal practitioners 2007 which reads thus “A legal practitioner shall uphold and observe the rule of law, promote and foster the cause of justice, maintain a high standard of professional conduct, and shall not engage in any conduct which is unbecoming of a legal practitioner.”. This general provision emphasizes the need to preserve the nobility of the legal profession. The Legal Practitioners Act also provides penalties for the contravention of same accordingly so as to save the lawyers of the new age from self-destruction. Since the inception of the legal profession, it has been the duty of every generation of lawyers to uphold the high standards of the noble profession and this has been the red-tape way for centuries. Hence it is our responsibility in this century to keep the flag flying as it will be at the peril of our rock-solid foundation if there is ever an abuse of the principle of nobility inherent in the legal profession.
