{"id":2370,"date":"2021-11-11T17:05:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T17:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=2370"},"modified":"2021-11-11T17:05:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T17:05:08","slug":"new-legal-practitioners-bill-seeks-to-include-legislators-into-the-body-of-benchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/new-legal-practitioners-bill-seeks-to-include-legislators-into-the-body-of-benchers\/","title":{"rendered":"New Legal Practitioners Bill Seeks to Include Legislators into the Body of Benchers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A bill for an Act to repeal the Legal Practitioners Act 2004 and re-enact the Legal Practitioners Act 2021, to provide for Reforms and regulate the legal profession, passed second reading in the Senate on 6th<\/sup> October 2021 and slated for public hearing on 15th<\/sup> November 2021. The bill which is sponsored by Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti:APC) contains modified versions of some provisions of the extant law, as well as some new provisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clause 1 which\nestablishes the Body of Benchers and its functions, seeks to include in the\ncomposition of the Body of Benchers, the President of the Senate (where he is a\nlawyer), the Speaker of the House of Representatives (where he is a\nlawyer),  Chairman of the Senate\nCommittee on Judiciary (where he is a lawyer), Chairman of the House Committee\non Judiciary (where he is a lawyer), the President of the National Industrial\nCourt and life benchers. It also stipulates that 5 of the 30 members of the\nNigerian Bar Association (NBA) who are members of the Body of Benchers shall be\nLaw teachers. The bill specifically provides for the tenure of members of the\nBody of Benchers and seeks to change the quorum of the body for general\nbusiness to 30, from 10 members. Also, the Body of Benchers\u2019 function of call\nto bar contained in the current law is missing in this clause of the bill.\nHowever, clause 10 implies that the body still maintains this function since it\nshall be responsible for issuing a certificate to every person called to the\nBar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clause 8 of the bill\nmaterially alters the provision on Practice as a Legal Practitioner. In the current\nlaw, a person is entitled to practice as a barrister and solicitor if his or\nher name is on the Roll (of legal practitioners in Nigeria); if he or she is\nauthorised to practice by warrant or is exercising the functions of specified\nroles. However, the bill has categorised the meaning of legal practice into the\n\u2018practice of law\u2019 and the \u2018provision of legal services\u2019, each of which it\nfurther describes in detail. It also provides that a legal practitioner is\nentitled to practice if he or she has met all the conditions for practice set\nout in the Legal Practitioners Act and any rules made by the Body of Benchers,\nin addition to having their name on the Roll of Legal Practitioners kept at the\nSupreme Court of Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clause 9 specifies\nthat a candidate is eligible to be called to bar if he or she is issued a\nQualifying Certificate by the Council of Legal Education, is of good character\nand meets all conditions prescribed by the Body of Benchers for call to the\nNigerian Bar. Unlike the relevant provision in the current Act, this clause\ndoes not specifically stipulate a candidate\u2019s nationality as an eligibility\ncriterion. Therefore, these conditions may be taken to apply to Nigerians and\nnon-Nigerians seeking to be called to the Bar.  Clause 16 provides that foreign lawyers\n(authorised to practice the legal profession in another country) may be\nenrolled in Nigeria by regulations of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, upon the\nfulfillment of certain conditions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clause 12 of the bill\nprovides for a mandatory one-year pupilage for every person called to the\nNigerian Bar, which will be a pre-requisite to commence practice as a Legal\nPractitioner. It further states that the Body of Benchers shall develop a\nPupilage Handbook which will articulate the structure and duration of the\nprogramme, as well as other details including the remuneration of the pupil. To\nthis end, the Body of Benchers will have a division (Mentoring and Pupilage\nCommittee) responsible for the programme, with qualified legal practitioners to\nserve as pupil supervisors and such participation will be a criterion for\nconferment of legal practitioners\u2019 privileges. This will be a new introduction\nin the legal profession if passed into law. Depending on its structure and\nimplementation, it may have the potential of providing newly called to the Bar\nlawyers with relevant skills and knowledge in the diverse areas of law\npractice. This may equally address the festering issues of competence and\nwelfare of young lawyers seeking gainful employment in the legal profession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a new\nprovision in  clause 14 of the bill which\nrequires a legal practitioner to obtain a practicing licence from the Body of\nBenchers (Legal Practitioners Licensing Committee) certifying that he is\nentitled to practice. This licence is to be issued and renewed (at intervals) if\nthe Body of Benchers is satisfied that a legal practitioner has fulfilled\nprescribed conditions, including the payment of practising fees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clause 15 requires\nthat a stamp and seal be affixed on all documents signed by a legal\npractitioner. This requirement already exists in the Rules of Professional\nConduct (RPC) for legal practitioners and would now become mandatory if the\nLegal Practitioners Bill is passed into law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The First and Second\nSchedules to the bill contain the functions and composition of 12 committees of\nthe Body of Benchers, as well as other salient provisions such as eligibility\nfor the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), penalties for unprofessional\nconduct, disciplinary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and other salient\nprovisions contained in the extant law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to read\nthe bill: https:\/\/placbillstrack.org\/pub\/Legal-Practitioners-Act-Cap-L11-LFN-2004-(Repeal-and-Re-Enactment)-Bill-2021-(SB.815).pdf<\/a>  <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill for an Act to repeal the Legal Practitioners Act 2004 and re-enact the Legal Practitioners Act 2021, to provide for Reforms and regulate the legal profession, passed second reading in the Senate on 6th October 2021 and slated for public hearing on 15th November 2021. The bill which is sponsored by Senator Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2377,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2370\/revisions\/2377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}