Traditional Legal Practice – a tired veteran

A scenario.

Imagine waking up to a field littered all over like debris, with 66 problems. Little, ugly things – breathing, shaking. There’s an army of labourers sweating profusely, yet hardly getting the work done. Your curiosity gets the better of you, and you take a step in the general directions of the said labourers, only to find your pockets stuffed with dangling items. You dip a hand, and after several efforts empty the pockets, and find that you woke up with a pocket full of 77 solutions.

You see, necessity is the mother of all invention. Aspirins act as antidotes for headaches, and therapy is channelled toward the restoration of health. In short, existent problems are the precursors to proffered solutions.

Problems. 

Thomas Edison, who invited the light-bulb, was afraid of the dark, and so laboured hard to: first, eliminate his personal apprehension, and second, impact the world.

If we took a 5-hour session in making a list of what’s wrong with the Legal industry, particular in Nigeria, we’d still be a long way off. Ridiculous wages. Disguised corporate slavery. Intimidation by superiors. Stereotype Legal Practice leaving little or no room for improvement, innovation and change. Copy/Paste approach to solving legal problems. Courtroom intellectual brawls and theatricals.

There’s a sheep mentality prevalent in our industry that’s disturbing. It is the ‘this is how it’s always been done, all these people cannot be wrong’ mentality. It is sickening to imagine how much detail we invest into status quo and nothing into change. It is sad to imagine the ‘things can be better’ sermon we preach about every other aspect of life, we mute with reference to our profession. Oh, c’mon, stop assuming you are smarter than all these people who have always done things this way. You honestly think nobody has tried to change things? Let it go.

What if they are all wrong and you are right?

Here’s where we stand.

A world where technology leads and we all follow, where technology speaks and the whole world listens.

Litigation style, legal representation (court or ADR), legal research, corporate law practice, legal drafting and communication, collaboration and teamwork, legal recruitment, legal education, access to justice. All can be impacted!

The veteran.

Let’s admit it, the current style served us when it mattered. Things worked, or did they? Regardless, millions of lawyers have frequented its gardens and plucked their pocketful, eaten mouthfuls and moved on. Its solutions and approaches worked when they did.

But to do things the way we’ve always done and expect a different result is foolhardy.

The veteran’s solutions worked when you still inserted a coin in a square box to make an international call. Worse, they worked when all we had for communication was paper letters and wooden safes. They worked when the words, Apple and Blackberry meant nothing more than fruits. When the most we had for storage were 3.4mb floppy disks.

Its steps wobble now. Its hairs are grey. Its approach is archaic. Its offerings are outdated. Time to let it retire in peace. Time to give it a befitting, world-renowned, remarkable farewell party.

The future is now. Profitability, efficiency and sustainability require that we move in the direction of innovation, proffer solutions that assure our continued essence in these interesting times.

The future is coming to Nigeria. Worldwide trends have no respect or sentiments for our traditional, tired, boring style. The snail pace must end.

A revolution starts with one person.

We founded this community exactly to champion the cause of this liberation. To seize the wheels of mediocrity, then redirect and advance the Nigerian legal profession to the next level of existence. There are concepts here that will have you amazed for days. We are the future arrived early.