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[With Ernest Ojukwu, Deputy Director General, Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus]

Secondly, like my brother and Lord referred to in the above passage, I am back to Nigeria where I was brought up. I actually stood up and opened a book. I may not be in court, as is my custom, but I am certain that this is a monastery where the officers in the Temple of Justice are trained. I can therefore swear, but not at Ogwugwu Okija, that all eyes are fixed on me.

I will attempt to give a glimpse of what legal practice looks like today in a global economy. Our duty is to fashion the best way and means to practice our time-honoured profession and bring it up to speed with modern times. However, in doing so, a Nnewi proverb comes readily to my mind, "The chameleon once told the other animals that he will not start scampering out of the forest in an undignified manner simply because the forest is on fire." Therefore, whatever I share with you today, the dignity and integrity of our noble profession, must be defended and preserved at all cost.

As I said earlier, legal practice has geographical limitations imposed by law. The good news I share with you today is that geography has been consigned to the dustbin of history by the power of information technology. The entire world is now your jurisdiction, but that license to play on the international stage has limitations imposed by the laws of both your local jurisdiction and any other jurisdiction with which your practice may come into contact.

Global Legal Practice - Making geography history

But why the sudden interest in trans-national practice? In the year 2000, the American Bar Association set up a Task Force called the TECH2000, under the direction of Maryland attorney Richard Granat. The Task Force, using the case study approach, gathered examples of lawyers who have already started practicing law in cyberspace. With several sites surveyed, the Task Force members concluded that a key issue, which will affect every lawyer, is how the digitization of information is giving rise to an unbundling of legal services in many of these websites. The Task Force also noticed the separation of the sale of legal information in product form, from the delivery of legal service itself. These discoveries raise ethical issues that go to the heart of the practice of law. How these issues are addressed will play a central role in the reengineering of the legal profession.

Let us take a few examples. Some websites sell legal form kits and on-line services designed to make the self-representation process "easy and manageable". Our Constitution grants us the power of self-representation or representation by an attorney of our own choice. You can buy a kit on an "as needed" basis, or pay for an annual subscription. By buying the kit, you can represent yourself without ever hiring a lawyer. From available evidence, these websites are very successful. The business premise is that there are many people who will buy legal information in product form over the Internet to educate themselves before they represent their own interests.

[With the Deputy Director General and other Lecturers]

Local Problems

Your first headache is admission to practice law. Section 2(1) of the Legal Practitioner's Act provides that subject to the provisions of the Act, a person shall be entitled to practise as a barrister and solicitor if, and only if, his name is on the roll. If you practice law without your name being on the roll, you have engaged in unauthorized practice of law. I worked with your Director in the revision of the current Legal Practitioner's Act. We recommended the definition of "the practice of law", what constitutes "unauthorised practice of law" and punishment for such conduct. We also recommended a stiffer penalty for lawyers who engage in unauthorised practice by failing to pay their practicing fees; after all, charity should begin at home.

This means that even before you start dreaming of setting up a virtual law office, you have to face the reality of the Bar exams. After passing the Bar, you will be enrolled as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. At that point, you become subject to local control of the Supreme Court, any Disciplinary Committee set up pursuant to the provisions of the Legal Practitioners Act, and of course, the Nigerian Bar Association. You may now heave a sigh of relief; you are ready to start "sneaking around", an apt characterization of inter-jurisdictional practice by a leading commentator on the subject.

I would at this point quickly draw your attention to the case of Birbrower, Montalbano, Condon & Frank, P.C. v. Superior Court, (1998)17 Cal.4th 119 in which the California Supreme Court held that a New York lawyer’s California activities in connection with arbitration of a commercial dispute were unauthorized practice for which the lawyer was thereby precluded from recovering compensation. This was followed by several other significant cases in various jurisdictions, reaching various results on the respective facts at issue. Therefore, as you prepare to sneak around internationally, make sure that your practice is authorized.

At local level, your practice is authorized if you have paid your practicing fees for the year you intend to practice or render legal services for remuneration. The Legal Practitioner's Act provides in Section 8 (2) that "No legal practitioner (other than such a person as is mentioned in subsection (3) of section 2 of this Act) shall be accorded the right of audience in any court in Nigeria in any year, unless he has paid to the registrar in respect of that year, a practising fee". If you have no authority to practice in Nigeria, you are incompetent to practice elsewhere. Nigeria is the foundation of your practice and you need to keep your status up to date by paying your fees as and when due. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand.

Another problem you may face in your desire to sneak around is the type of office law office you will work for, the nature of your practice, the available office equipment and available social infrastructure. On the type of office, the way to go in urban legal practice is partnership. You need to work out some form of partnership or association to save cost and enhance specialisation. If your practice will be in a village, solo practice is just okay.

On the nature of your practice, as long as you have admission to practice law in Nigeria and pay your practising fees, your clients are people all over the world that have business or other interest in Nigeria. Just name it and ask yourself if a Nigerian or a foreigner will ever need that legal service in Nigeria. If the answer is "Yes", then you need to show some interest in that area of practice. This also lends credence to my advice that you have to collaborate with other lawyers of like mind - you cannot do all these as a solo practitioner.

On infrastructure, you need state of the art communications equipment and computers with appropriate software. However, modern equipment or exquisite office does not  make a lawyer, just as the hood does not make the monk. This leads us to your next problem;

Your Personal Integrity - striking a balance

You may not know how much respect you command or ever appreciate the responsibilities that attach to your office as a lawyer until you practice law outside Nigeria. Lawyers are lords all over the world. For that reason, other professionals, from the beginning of the world, use all forms of jokes and urban legends to tarnish the image of the profession. So far, I am happy to report that no weapons they fashioned against us from time immemorial have prospered.

However, once you tarnish your own personal image, you are doomed. The primary cause for suspension or outright dismissal from the Bar is the love of money. With the power of the internet, your disciplinary record will be available 24/7 for the whole world to see. Of course, your Director, Prof. Ojukwu is an expert in Professional Ethics and you stand to learn a lot from him in that subject area. But allow me to share the story of Bob and Paul with you:

There was a job opening in the country's most prestigious law firm and it finally comes down to Bob and Paul.  Both graduated 'magna cum laude' from law school. Both came from good families. Both are equally attractive and well spoken.  It is up to the senior partner to choose one, so he takes each aside and asks, "Why did you become a lawyer?"  In seconds, he chooses Paul.

Baffled, Bob takes Paul aside. "I don't understand why I was rejected. When Mr. Armstrong asked me why I became a lawyer, I said that I had the greatest respect for the law, that I would lay down my life for the Constitution and that all I wanted was to do right by my clients.  What in the world did YOU tell him?"

"I said I became a lawyer because of my hands," Paul replies.  I told him I took a close look at them one day and discovered there wasn't any money in either one of them."

This is one of the urban legends our detractors use to represent us as lovers of money and not lovers of justice. I want to tell you that  a lawyer is that person who has the ability to strike a balance between Bob and Paul. You are a lawyer because you love the law and you make money from what you love. You are a good lawyer if your love for the law transcends your love for money. You are a successful lawyer if your integrity is legendary and your wealth envious.

The Integrity of your nation

Nigeria is number three in the Transparency International Scale for measuring corruption. I personally face embarrassing moments from time to time from co-workers, clients and other casual acquaintances because of the rotten image of Nigeria. Everyday we receive all kinds of 419 mails from Nigeria. Once you introduce yourself as a Nigerian, your credit in the bank of honesty depreciates by over 50%.  If you complain and profess your personal impeccable integrity, they will remind you that it is one bad apple that spoils the whole basket. I had told those who cared to listen that I wish Nigeria's case were those of apples. If it were just one rotten apple, we will pick it out and use it for compost.

But our case is that of oil; either the crude type, which some of our so-called leaders maliciously claims as the cause of the Biafran war in 1967, or the proverbial type that stains your five fingers when you stick just one finger in its container. However, letting by gone be by-gone and looking forward to a great nation where justice reigns supreme, I boldly say that the credibility of our nation inures to us even as we replenish or tarnish her credit by our conduct. The best way to explain vicarious liability is that we are all agents of our nation. This symbiotic relationship follows us wherever we go. The power of information technology has made it possible to hear in the streets of San Francisco, the sound of a legislative slap that was delivered in Abuja, about 10 minutes after its delivery. Therefore, to play on the international field, you must fight those who tarnish the image of our nation both at home and abroad. 

The integrity of your judicial system

I want to tell you that in Nigeria, we practice only one tenth of the law, both procedurally and substantively. One reason for the delay in the administration of justice is the limitations imposed by our fore bearers. The days of the military were the days of the locust. The first problem you will have is the perception that you lived in a lawless society. Our Judges lack the moral courage to punish anybody for perjury, something Ogwugwu Okija does routinely with impunity, according to those who patronize it. How can our judicial officers punish anyone for lying under oath when, at 65, they swear they are 55? Unfortunately, they fail to realize that the basis for administration of justice is the ability of the court to punish those who perjure.

 Substantively, our torts law is dead. All the accidents on our road are basis for actionable tort or breach of contract, but no one complains. People die everyday from defective products or drugs, but our product liability laws are dead.

With the coming into effect of the Lagos High Court  Civil Procedure Rules, maybe - and I say that maybe with trepidation - maybe legal procedure will move to one fifth of what is obtainable in the  United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and other advanced countries that share English Common law with us.

As your senior in this profession, I ask you today never take our word as gospel truth for any legal principle, even our written word. With the power of the internet, do your research and introduce innovations that will save us from further embarrassment. Never ever, accept mediocre performance from anybody, no matter the person's age at the Bar. Accord them your respect and put forward your good faith argument. Superior argument will always trump mediocrity, no matter how deeply the latter was entrenched.

This  takes me to the Story of a new young monk who arrived at the monastery. He was assigned to help the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

He noticed, however, that all of the monks were copying from copies, not from the original manuscripts. So, the new monk went to the Abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up. In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies. The Abbot replied, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son".

So, the Abbot went down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts were held in a locked vault that had not been opened for hundreds of years. Hours went by and the old Abbot did not come out.

Eventually the young monk got worried and went downstairs to look for him. He saw him banging his head against the wall. The young monk asked the old Abbot, "What's wrong, Father?"

In a choking voice, the old Abbot replied, "There's an 'R', there's an 'R'- "The word is celebrate, not celibate!"

It is therefore your duty to ask questions and refuse to accept mediocrity. It is your duty to restore this nation to good health, but you have to start by restoring yourself and the defending the integrity of the profession you have chosen.

I had previously noted that the globalization of business - a fascinating and multi-dimensional process - involves a host of substantive issues that go to the very heart of the way business lawyers practice in the trans-national context. As of today, it is fair to state that, despite certain efforts, the worldwide profession has not responded adequately to these challenges. Viewed from a trans-national perspective, the rules governing our profession remain a patchwork of varying requirements administered by locally based structures that may bear little relevance to the conduct of modern business. This process poses special challenges to the bodies that regulate our profession - challenges that have not been adequately met. At this point, I would ask the teachers and students here present to commit the following questions to memory. When you pass your bar exams or after a few years of practice, ask yourself whether these issues have been addressed:

On Adequacy of Education - Are our law schools, bar entrance and associated practical training requirements sufficient to prepare law students and practitioners for practice in the global environment?

Conclusion: The Future

Legal practice in the 21st Century is not your grandfather's legal practice; it is not even your father's. Your fore bearers would want to maintain the status quo because they are afraid of change. But technology waits for no man, not even the most brilliant lawyer. Connecting knowledge to users is the core of the information business in the Digital Age, but making this connection and staying in business means understanding that information is generally free on the Internet. Adding value to information, creating useable knowledge, and devising new ways to derive revenue for this effort, is what we all have to figure out.

It is therefore fair to conclude that paying attention to the Internet and what it has to offer is the key to practicing law in the years ahead. It is going to get increasingly difficult to describe what the digital practice of law is to lawyers who refuse to surf the web or let others do it for them. The Internet is the great equalizer between solo and small firms and the large firm practitioner. Just as prospective clients will have access to an infinite amount of information about the law on the Internet, so will all lawyers. And we are still the profession that has been trained to apply the rule of law in society, and have the attorney-client privilege to protect communication between lawyer and client. The only way that we will keep our unique role in society is to get on to the Internet and be where the clients are, and learn how to practice law in the Digital Age.