The purpose of this
interview session is aimed at drawing from his wealth of experience and
knowledge. Our inspiration is from the words of EUGENE
C.BLACKARD:
‘’Never
be afraid to ask for direction on how to practice law more effectively.
Everyone is afraid to look foolish but the practice of law is a collaborative
endeavor. You don’t get to practice law by yourself’’
AND CYNDEE
TODGHAM CHERNIAK:
‘’Embrace the fact that in your first year
of practice that you are still learning. Law school does not teach you
everything that you need to know to practice law-far from it’’
ABOUT
PROFESSOR ERNEST OJUKWU SAN
The Learned Silk is also known as ‘THE TEACHER’, a man who represents the
finest virtue of hard work and a deep sense of integrity. He was born without
any silver spoon to parents who were teachers, but he has grown to become precious
silver everyone wants to associate with, a true leader and a mentor to every
young lawyer.
Ernest Ojukwu hails from Ahaba Imenyi in
Isuikwuato Local Government of Abia State in South East Nigeria. He attended
the Methodist College Uzuakoli and Government College Umuahia. Professor Ojukwu
is a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife where he received the
Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws Degrees in 1983 and 1987 respectively.
Ernest Ojukwu began his career in 1985 when
he simultaneously joined the services of Abia State University as an Assistant
Lecturer and began to practice Law in the chambers of Chief G. N. Atulomah.[2]
In 1988, he left to establish with his friends, a Law firm named Eleuthera
Chambers. He rose to the position of Dean of the Faculty of Law in Abia State
University where he served from 1995-2001
Ernest Ojukwu was conferred with the rank of
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the highest title available for legal practitioners
in Nigeria in 2014. He was sworn in on Monday 22 September 2014, by the Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar
Prof. Ojukwu is married to Hon Justice Ijeoma
Ojukwu of the Federal High Court and the marriage is blessed with five children
SIR, CAN YOU SHARE WITH US YOUR FAMILY BACKGROUND, AND
DOES IT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOUR CHOICE OF LAW?
My
mother was a primary school teacher. My dad was a civil servant. My dream
career was journalism but I didn’t pass entrance examination for mass
communication. Law was not in my mind because my mother never spoke well of
some lawyers I knew at Umuahia where we lived. By the time I was ready to take
JAMB in 1979, I found out that my community (Ahaba Imenyi in Isuikwuato Abia
State) did not have a lawyer. So I told my dad while completing the JAMB form
that I was going to be the first lawyer in my community.
SIR, WHO WAS YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCE WHILE GROWING UP?
My
mother Helen.
SIR, WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME THIS KIND OF PERSON;
A LAWYER, A PROFESSOR AND SAN ?
I became
interested in becoming a lawyer only when I had become a law student at Ife. My roommate at the
University at Ife Emeka Nwagwu,(former
Chairman NBA Owerri Branch) treated me like a younger brother and fired my
potential to make one of the best results in my class. I was also influenced,
as a student by my one level seniors at school like Chief Tony Idigbe, SAN, and Obidi Umeh, esq. They were quite
intelligent and yet very social, outgoing and took part in many
extra-curricular activities at Ife. They were very active in mock trials and
the Students Court. Tony Idigbe became the Secretary and later the Chairman
(Chief Judge) of the Student Court - the University of Ife Judicial Council. I
followed Idigbe’s footsteps and became the Secretary and later Chairman (Chief
Judge) of the Students Court.
Two other persons influenced my career path. My teacher, Prof. Olu Adediran who
managed the mock trials. From my third year at school, he continued to tell me
that I should consider returning to Ife after graduation to teach. And Chief Awa Kalu, SAN, with whom I did my
externship programme (law office attachment) at Aba. He was in Private Legal
Practice at J.S, Nwala and Co and teaching at Abia (then Imo) State University
at Aba.
At the end of my NYSC period, I had three options to
take up teaching appointments at the Nigerian Law School, Obafemi Awolowo
University Ife, and Abia (then Imo) State University (Aba Campus). I took Awa
Kalu, SAN’s counsel to accept the appointment at Abia (then Imo) State
University so I could teach and practice like him since I loved both.
SIR, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT ANY EXPERIENCE YOU HAD AS A
YOUNG LAWYER?
I conducted my first criminal case during my NYSC with
the Legal Aid Council at Yola without any assistance from any person. Remembering winning that case at a
Preliminary Inquiry by a no case submission excites me till today.
Before 3 years at the Bar I was a very active
member of NBA Aba Branch. I started private legal practice with Chief GNA Atulomah and Co at Aba. We
had Justice Nsofor (who later retired from the Court of Appeal and is now
Nigeria’s ambassador to the USA) in one of the courts at Aba. Many senior
lawyers avoided Justice Nsofor’s court. The seniors complained that he usually
embarrassed them especially if they showed signs of untidiness or not prepared
with their cases. So, some of us young lawyers were usually sent to Nsofor’s
court to face the bullets. Appearing in Nsofor’s court gave me 10 years
advanced experience as a young lawyer. Justice Nsofor has remained a very close
elder friend to me to this day.
I started law teaching and mentoring at the
University (Abia State University then Imo State University) at age 25 years in
1985. I presented my first paper at the NBA Annual General conference at Owerri
at a full plenary session in 1991 at 7 years at the Bar. That paper was titled-
Executive Lawlessness and Judicial
Helplessness in the Administration of Justice- the Need to plug up the holes.
I became Secretary Nigerian Bar Association NBA Aba Branch at 8 years at the
Bar.
SIR, WHAT THE MAJOR CHALLENGE YOUNG LAWYERS FACE IN
THE LEGAL PROFESSION?
Many. Low resource capacity due to poor legal
education at both the LLB and Law School levels and even the professional level
continuing legal education . Unemployment and under employment. Poor wages,
harsh, abusive and undignified treatment by many older lawyers. Lack of career
counselling and mentoring. Lack of help and responsiveness to the problems of
the young lawyers generally by the professional association, the Nigerian Bar
Association..
SIR, WHAT ARE THE DETERMINANT FACTORS WE NEED TO
CONSIDER IN CHOOSING A MENTOR AS A YOUNG LAWYER IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION?
First
be sure why you want a mentor and think of one who would best complement you. A
mentor is a powerful role model. Find someone who shows off the kind of life
you aspire to have and a person you really respect.
SIR, IN OTHER COUNTRIES THEY ENCOURAGE TUTELAGE AND
MENTORSHIP AS A REQUIREMENT FOR EVERY YOUNG LAWYER. WILL YOU SUPPORT A
LEGISLATION MAKING IT COMPULSORY FOR EVERY YOUNG LAWYER TO UNDERGO TUTELAGE?
In our
case the closest would be a mandatory pupilage. No I do not support a mandatory
pupilage in Nigeria. As
an experiential learning tool it has enormous benefits for the training of a
lawyer-conduct and etiquette, trial advocacy, conference and negotiation
skills, drafting and research, etc. But these achievements will have chances
only if we also deal with the foundational problems of legal education.
The problem
with our current low professional standards is our Legal education especially
at the LLB level. Until we re-tune training at this level, forcing a mandatory
pupilage at this time will be putting something on nothing. And which law firms
and lawyers are you going to force pupils on to learn? The standard of legal
education did not fall today or one day.
Majority of our practicing lawyers are products of
our challenged legal education. I would prefer we re-focus on the LLB and Law
School levels. Too many opportunities to prepare would-be-lawyers are being
wasted. If we set a goal for legal education (which is non-existent at this
time generally), radically change our teaching methodology so that law is
taught both as a liberal art and as a vocation, with heavy doses of
experimental learning at the LLB and law school levels, we may not need
pupilage.
SIR, DO YOU THINK THE PUPILAGE PROGRAM CAN BE ENFORCED
REALISTICALLY, TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION THE BILL PROPOSED TO BE PASSED MAKING
IT COMPULSORY FOR ALL YOUNG LAWYERS?
If
we must have pupilage, then it is better we take out time to conduct studies on
it and properly plan. We need to identify the law firms that can take in
pupils. If you ask me, there cannot be more than 10-20 such law firms in most
capital cities (except places like Lagos and Abuja). We need to train the first
set of Supervisors. We need to write the rules and discuss the rules before
implementation. We need to agree on a minimum wage for the pupils, etc. We need
to find out why in England many new lawyers are unable to do their pupils for
as many as 5 years and what we will do when we are faced with the challenge of
finding pupilage spaces for over 5,000 new lawyers every year. I have a strong
believe based on my experience as a practicing lawyer, law teacher at the LLB
and Law School levels, Project Director of the NBA Institute of confining Legal
education, and Pioneer of clinical legal education in Nigeria that the call for
a mandatory pupilage is a recognition of the fallen standard of our legal
training programmes but a misunderstanding of the reasons for the challenge,
and a wrong solution to the problem.
SIR, HOW DO YOU BALANCE YOUR FAMILY WITH YOUR CAREER
AND LIFE GOALS?
One
must prioritise everything in life. While chasing your career goals, you must
know other important goals and balance your actions and activities. My family
is very important to me and so I devote a good part of my time and attention to
them.
SIR, THERE IS A PROVERB THAT; ‘’ALL LAWYERS ARE
LIARS”. WHAT WILL BE YOUR ADVICE TO A YOUNG LAWYER WHO IS AT DILEMMA TO
REPRESENT A CLIENT BUT HAS TO BEND THE LAW?
No
lawyer should ever “bend the law”. If you want to remain a competent lawyer you
must be conscious of justice and ethics and remain an honest and descent
person. No person can ever be a competent but dishonest lawyer.
SIR, WHAT DO YOU THINK A YOUNG LAWYER NEED TO DO TO
SURVIVE IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION?
A
young lawyer must have skills and competencies and must continue to aspire to
acquire more skills and competencies. He or she must be focused and
hardworking. He or she must be honest. He or she must be driven by passion to
be a lawyer or at least strong interest in the profession. He or she should
robustly research to be creative or find a niche even if not employed by
another person. With these the young lawyer must seek the assistance of a
mentor, an experienced person and a network.
SIR, CAN YOU SAY THE LEGAL EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY
AND LAW SCHOOL ADEQUATELY PREPARES A YOUNG LAWYER FOR LEGAL PRACTICE IN
REALITY?
No.
You can see what I said when we talked about pupilage.
SIR, IF YOU OWN A LAW FIRM, WHAT ARE THE THINGS YOU
WILL REQUIRE FROM A YOUNG LAWYER BEFORE YOU EMPLOY HIM?
The young lawyer should show
that he or she is trainable and has the capacity to learn fast.
SIR, AS AN ACADEMIA, WHAT YOUR VIEW ABOUT THE CALL TO
ABOLISH LAW SCHOOL?
The
important thing to focus on should be on how lawyers are trained at the LLB
level and how to prepare the aspirant for the vocation and the profession. The
law School vocational and professional training now is below average. The LLB
education in Nigeria is poor. The existence or non existence of the Law School
is not my worry. I worry on only how the students are trained. The Law School is
yet to justify its existence.
SIR, DO YOU BELIEVE THAT NIGERIA STILL NEEDS MORE
LAWYERS?
Yes.
SIR, WHEN DO YOU THINK IS THE APPROPRIATE TIME FOR A
YOUNG LAWYER TO CONSIDER STARTING HIS OWN LAW FIRM?
At
any time after qualification but I prefer partnerships, associate-ships as
against sole-practice . Experience is the best teacher. The advantage of
learning while working under an experienced person is surely greater and
experience comes with more time. If we alter our lesson contents and teaching
methods from traditional lessons and traditional teaching to clinical
methodology that drives an integrated learning- knowledge, skills, and
competencies, and values with heavy exposure to experiential learning at the
LLB and vocational levels, many young lawyers will be able to start careers on
their own especially if the legal profession and bar supports them early with
canopies, incubators and capstones programmes.
FINALLY SIR, WHAT DO YOU THINK THE LEGAL PROFESSION
CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA?
Too
many. It is the responsibility of the legal profession to lead the fight
against corruption. The legal profession should start with itself- the bar-NBA,
lawyers; the judiciary, the Registry entire support system at the Judiciary,
Judiciary fund management. If we clean up the inside or at least begin to show
greater commitment to self-cleansing, then we can have the courage, impetus,
and confidence to help the Nation drive anti-corruption programmes in other
sectors- the Police, Immigration, Customs, Universities, Civil Service and
other public sectors. The Nation stinks with corruption.
THE END
