New Wigs: Much ado about ‘exploitative’ remuneration

PILOT JUDICIARY examines the much expressed concern and lamentation by younger lawyers of being exploited through poor remuneration by the senior ones or employers. Call it exploitative remuneration or pittance; young lawyers in Nigeria have always expressed their untold suffering in the hands of the senior lawyers while serving in the course of their pupillage. The challenge is as old as the law practice itself in this part of the world. Fresh from being called into Nigerian Bar or National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), young lawyers called 'new wigs' usually engaged in pupillage, a temporary legal mentoring and guardianship. The 'new wigs' are required to garner some experience while undergoing their pupillage before establishing their own law firm or venture into corporate practice. As a matter of fact, legal profession thrives on requisite and required experience. According to Pilot Judiciary's findings, these 'new wigs' are subjected to various degrees of paltry payment. Some senior lawyers pay as low as N5,000, N10,000, N15,000. Many young lawyers see this as exploitative. Speaking to Pilot Judiciary, Barr Kayode Taofik Olateju said: "It's a fact that some senior lawyers do exploit the younger ones. When you are in their law firms, you learn, but they would now be exploiting that situation without giving you necessary money or allowances. They will believe you are learning and during the process some even believe you have to contribute to the development of their law firm financially this time around. "I know as a junior counsel that you are expected to contribute your own quota to the development of the law firm by wooing clients to your law firm or by distinguishing your law firm out from others by way of human capital resources. But, some Senior Principal Partner will like to exploit the situation that you cannot be pursuing money and the skills of legal practice at the same time. To me, the two are the same and they work pari passu. If you are confined to the library from morning till evening time and at the end of the day, when you are going home, your Principal says you have to sacrifice without giving you any stipends; I think to my mind, it's a means of exploiting the situation that you ought to learn before you can get money." For another budding lawyer, Prince J.O Ijaodola argued: "The truth of the matter is that everybody is now after money. This is because there is nothing like sanity again. Even most of the senior ones are more after money than the interest of their clients. "We are no more in the era of morality; we are now doing things as they come. So, it is not the issue of junior ones being after money and not practice. The point is everybody is after money. The societal factors have caused that." However, the Head of Chambers, B.R Gold, Barr Zakariyah Lukman believed that no amount of money could commensurate with the service rendered by lawyer. Lukman said: "It depends. Why I say it depends is because the first day I met my boss, he said no lawyer can pay a lawyer, which I believe as well. What we are being paid is just a stipend and if you are calling it salary you are mistaken. Professionally, no amount of money can commensurate your service or knowledge." In his view, a senior lawyer, Kehinde Elegja believe young lawyers should be reasonably remunerated. Eleja remarked: "I have not conducted any survey to find out the amount junior lawyers are being paid. What I want to say is that by virtue of antecedents of the law practice itself, if a junior is employed in a firm, the belief is that much more than monetary consideration, the junior is there to acquire experience; it's like teaching somebody how to catch fish than to give him the fish. So, it's believed that such consideration at that point should not be monetary. Though, this is not to say I support those paying pittance. I believe they should be reasonably remunerated." Another senior lawyer, Magaji Oba Abdulkadir told Pilot Judiciary that he was a victim of N5,000 during his pupillage, but, however, stood against such practice. When he was asked whether he pays pittance to young lawyers in his law firm, Mogaji said: "Well, I won't come into that, but at least I know that even 'coppers' that come to my office, I don't pay them N5000. But the truth of the matter is that there is no amount you can adequately pay a lawyer because; a Lawyer knows quite well that if he's on his own, he can get more than that. But the essence of this pupillage is for you to learn one or two things. You can't just say because I am brilliant, I have first class from the University and the Law School, so, you want to go into practice immediately.”