The real challenges of junior lawyers in Africa.

I firmly believe that junior lawyers are definitely fighting the wrong battle in terms of the imposition of minimum wage or they simply are not aware which battle they should be taking forward to secure their future.

If you’ve opened up the African newspaper during the past few weeks, every single junior lawyer is putting forth their frustrations about not getting the right salary or the respect or trust they deserve in their specific workplace. Campaigns are being held to sustain them; the government is being pressured to impose minimum wages, various Bar associations are putting together efforts/ attempts to assist juniors with financial support during pupillage. I believe that junior barristers from Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa will certainly not deny that the legitimacy of a decent financial reward can explain itself from the high investment in education to get where they are today.

Even though, we are far ahead of the old traditional route to being qualified as a solicitor today, due to the constant evolution of the educational system. I firmly believe that the early days where the junior’s journey started as an ‘articled clerk,’ can still teach us a bunch of lessons about how a promising future should be handled in this dynamic profession and competitive industry. 

While keeping in mind that we had to wait for 1825 for the law society to exist, 1919 with the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 for a woman to be admitted to the bar. These historical facts and events teach us that along with personal and economic challenges, at that time, our fellow seniors had to go through the great battle of opinions to bring change to archaic laws and models, that we have inherited and are reaping today, whether it is as ex-colonies or independent republics. These changes didn’t happen overnight, it took years of efforts, sacrifice, failures, learning, and perseverance for our seniors and forefathers to win their battles. 

Another lesson we can derive from our forefathers’ journey could be the willingness and desire to bring change to a current situation with longterm impacts. I believe our young barrister should pursue a different avenue than that of what they are currently fighting for, which will probably not be valid in the next 3-4 years from now. I think they should ponder other the more pressing issues that are going to drastically affect their profession as a lawyer in the next 5-10 years to come. Barristers today have enormous challenges at the corner and on the plate. With the advent of Blockchain technology, the service of a lawyer to act as an intermediary for their clients will dramatically decrease, with the dawn of artificial intelligence, paralegals and legal admins will undoubtedly undergo a significant shift. Blockchain is remodeling the approach to information storage and sharing. The number of traditional lawyers will fall drastically, and only ELITE lawyers who stand out will be retained.

So, what are our fellow juniors doing to address this issue and what are they doing to leave a legacy for the generations to come? 

In his inaugural speech on the 20th January 1961, John F Kennedy said: “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,.” I believe this quote is very much valid today not only for America but intimately for Africa as a continent as well as any sovereign state where any aspirant lawyer aims to practice. 

According to Charles Hamilton Huston, a prominent African-American lawyer, a lawyer is either a social engineer or a social parasite. For those who aspire to become a social engineer, let us see how we can leverage on the essence and resilience of our ancestors and try to implement the same reasoning they did during their clerkships, that has enabled them to adapt to changes and ensure that our profession remains one of the most prestigious and respected ones. 

I believe that the starting point should be to focus on the right challenges of the legal profession in Africa currently. To do that, a clear vision and a definite purpose are primordial.

When you chose to study law, you surely had a vision in mind. The first question you need to ask yourself is why? Why did you decide to study law? The second question is what. What kind of lawyer do you want to become? ( a social engineer or a social parasite). Also, the third question is who? Who do you look up to, to inspire yourself? Who are the leading players in the industry? 

Once you have found out the answers to the above question, you will need to gather them all to define how can your profession of being litigation or corporate lawyer serve a purpose in the lives of your immediate community. Any business, any profession turns into success when it serves a purpose in the life of your surrounding. Your initial goal of becoming a lawyer cannot be money. If you chose the profession to earn good money, to are doing it the wrong way. The math is simple, give first, and then it will come to you. Serve first, as a result of that success will find you. 

Getting involved in pro-bono clinics can be an excellent way to serve your community while getting enough grasp and experience of practical issues. While entrepreneurship has naturally imposed itself to be the major engine that will fuel the African economy for the coming decades. It should be anticipated that small business at a given point will or must be facing some kind of legal setbacks, and they obviously won’t be able to provide for the resources of hiring a legal assistant without putting his fragile operation in jeopardy. As a newborn lawyer, engaging in such projects won’t only help better the lives or business of these people, but in the long run, these very same people can become your most prized assets. Imagine 5 years from now, as a self-made lawyer, your first clients who will walk through your firm will be these people and this time you won’t be working on pro-bono, but the fact that you have helped grow their business for free, they will commit to taking you on board on any significant business transaction they will engage.

Next step would be, Know your industry and find the right mentor. 

Knowing what kind of lawyer you want to be (The Alpha male or the beta male) will allow you to define whom you should surround yourself with. And to be able to do that, you need to master the industry, you need to know all the ins and outs of the industry. To play the big game and win you need to understand the rules, you need to identify your competitors and anticipate their movements. But most importantly you need to know who is the Alpha in the industry. If you aim to be the ultimate social engineer or the succeeding Alpha in line, you need to surround yourself with the one leading the pack, remember that “ you are the sum of the five people closest to you.” 

Now comes the moment of truth, how do you convince the Alpha to take you under his wings? Read my article about how to get a job without experience. 

Joining the tribe of like-minded people is one thing, now how do you go on to survive in this harsh dominant environment?

One common mistake that junior lawyers tend to make is believing that the successful completion of a law degree means they are ready to conquer the world. Great lawyers were not born at the doorstep of their graduation hall. It took them another 5-10 years of additional learning, supplementing, discipline and sacrifice to get where they are today. The winning attitude cannot be joining the firm of your choice and expecting to be welcomed at the table and playing the big game. To get a place at the table you need to make your way there, and you need to deserve to be there. 

When you were studying law you knew it was going to be tough, law school is draining, mentally; financially and physically. However, you chose that life right? Then you can’t expect it to be easier ahead, it will never get comfortable. 

That’s the hard truth of being a lawyer. If your deep engrained passion is to be a lawyer, then all the stressful aspects of law won’t make a difference to you, because you have that killer challenging attitude, the one that is willing and ready to go through all the rough situations of the career to become someone. 

Therefore, as a junior lawyer your role at the firm for the coming years is to learn, the word mentor means, he/ she instruct, and you follow. This will be the case for as long as your mentor feels it should be and it is not up to you to command what he/she says because they know better than you do. Understand that they’ve been down that lane too, they had mentors also. The only difference is that they were blatantly loyal and stubbornly compliant. They know what’s right for you and they’ll know when you are ready. 

While for many, it may take years to accomplish this learning process, there’s a way to bypass these long learning processes and win a place at the table more swiftly. Have you ever wondered why the less significant projects or cases are dumped onto the juniors during their pupillage? One of the main reason is, to the eyes of your seniors or mentors, you are still naive and inexperienced, which to given extent is right, you shouldn’t deny that. Just as in school you are made to start with the basics and gradually move to the more complex chapters, the same deal applies in law firms during pupillage. 

Now if you feel, you can do more than just small cases, it is not up to your seniors and mentors to understand that, it is up to you to convince them to upgrade you from the cubicle to the big table. Also, for this to happen you need to position yourself as your mentor’s most prized asset, his right arm. 

How do you break the glass ceiling and win your place at the table? You need to have a strong focus on building and supplementing your skills. 

Arbitration in recent years has been a specialized path chosen by many newcomers in the profession. It is evident that those who have undergone Arbitration has been motivated by the fact that international investment interest and economic growth across Africa continue to expand apace, arbitration is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of commercial dispute resolution in connection to investment and business affairs in Africa. Many governments are adjusting their legislation, more recently South Africa who passed the international Arbitration Act 15 in 2017, and Mauritius, who is positioning itself as an international Arbitration center with its enactment of 2008. Our fellow Nigerian practitioners have been taking advantage of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1988 (Laws of Federation of Nigeria 2004 Cap A18) (ACA) to structure many Oil & Gas contracts to name a few.

It is, however, crucial for the juniors to think smarter, to foresee the future potential and prepare themselves. It is a well-known fact that significant foreign investment in Africa will continue to flow from China, the United Arab Emirates and also from Russia. If we properly dissect the recent move of Russia during a meeting held on the 19th March in Moscow, the establishment through a presidential decree to hold a Russia-Africa summit in October 2019 in Sochi, is a clear sign that Russia wants to be a key investment player for the continent. What we learn from this is communication and foreign exchanges will increase during the coming years, and as a lawyer, managing to break the language barriers by being fluent in the native language of foreign investors, engaged in the development of Africa, ensures a promising future.

Having a good vision and a clear sense of purpose gives you access to define your specialization or orientation. What we learn from the books on "Felony", "Assault", "Torture", "Rape" or "False pretenses" don’t make us a virtuoso of the criminal practice, understanding the essence of Actus Reus and Mens Rea in the dynamic and vibrant society we live in, require the practitioners to supplement their skills in sociology, philosophy, anthropology, forensics, forensic technology, literature . If you are oriented towards the corporate world, you need to have a firm grasp of how business functions. You need to understand the services and products of your clients perfectly well, have in in-depth knowledge on the economic pillar of the jurisdiction you are practicing, mining, construction, agriculture are few of the additional skills that can give you the new aptitude you want to add to your bright future as Junior African lawyers.

Because being a lawyer means you need to have ears and eyes for every aspect and every detail governing your industry. And now more than ever, with the advance of blockchain technology, threatening to eliminate traditional lawyers and traditional models. This is the time to anticipate your next move and get a firm grasp of blockchain technology so that when the time has come to repel all the obsolete and traditional methods of work, you can leverage on your already established applied skills to secure your place

Inspire yourself from the mindset and discipline of an apprentice Kungfu Fighter

Have you ever watched those Chinese action movies, where a simple mediocre kungfu fighter seeks training of a veteran to become the best to accomplish a specific mission? The student fighter undergoes atrocious humanly impossible training but never quits. He argues, he feels like giving up, but his intense focus on his ultimate goal keeps him going, and after several years of training, the fighter is ready to fight, and he wins gloriously.

Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor,” - Joseph Pilates. 

Glorious victories don’t happen just in movies, they do happen in real life as well, and your time will come to shine or outshine, but this won’t happen unless you work tirelessly for it. My advice to you would be work relentlessly, keep sharp focus on your ultimate goal, this will always be the only thing that will make sure you remain on track. Look around yourself; you live in a country full of challenges yet full of possibilities. Moreover, challenges bring scope for impactful change. Think about how you can bring change in your country while leaving a strong footprint behind you. 

Remember that the only way to address your current challenges is to beat them with excellence and success. I will now close, with one of my favorite quotes of all time, and one that has always kept me on track, towards the journey of excellence and success;

“ You don’t try to build a wall. You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say I’m gonna build the biggest baddest wall that’s ever been built. You say; I’m gonna lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid, and you do that every single day. And soon, you have a wall. It’s difficult to take the first step when you look how big the task is. The task is never huge to me; it’s always one brick” - Will Smith.

_______________________________

I think one of the primary motivating factors that brought me to write this article is the love and passion for law. The mental and moral stability law brings out in an individual. The other motivating factor is definitely my fight towards bringing excellence and self-awareness of one’s potential and capabilities in the African market through Nexus Academis. 

Am therefore inviting all my readers to like, comment and share this article, had this been insightful to you. I’ve put so many efforts connecting the dot and am really looking forward to hearing the views of juniors as well as seniors on the above.