Every profession has that level in which the majority, if not all, of its members, considered the apogee. For footballers, it is either winning the Fifa World Cup or Balon D’or (an award for the best player in the world), for musicians, it is the Grammy. And for some people, they just want to make money and relax. Your table?😄
For lawyers, the zenith of the legal profession is to be conferred the title of the Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN). The Senior Advocate of Nigeria is an honorary rank conferred on lawyers who have actively distinguished themselves over a period of ten (10) years. The title was first conferred on April 3, 1975, to Chief F.R.A. Williams and Dr Nabo Graham-Douglas.
Being a slot that attracts many applicants yet only a handful get selected, it is expected that the rank will come with certain benefits. One of such is that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria gets to always present his case first irrespective of whether the case is last on the list for that day. While this seems good, it has met a lot of criticisms and displeasure from junior lawyers. Their argument is hinged on the idea that it does not give everyone an equal level playing ground. For instance, if a non-SAN has a case and there are about four to five SANS in Court that day, the Court will have to listen to the cases of the SANs before attending to his case, which in most cases when it reaches his/her turn, the Court would have been closed for that day. The frustration is further heightened if the lawyer does not practice in that locality and had to travel down. This is common in appellate Courts and necessitated the reason why litigants employ the service of a SAN when the case is at Appeal or the Supreme Court.
Furthermore, SANs enjoy the privilege of sitting in the Inner Bar – the front row of seats in court which is reserved for them – as distinguished from the Outer Bar where junior advocates sit.
According to Section 5 (3)(a-g) of the Legal Practitioners Act, the body in charge of conferring this prestigious award is the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee which comprise: the Chief Justice who shall be chairman; one Justice of the Supreme Court; the Attorney‐General of the Federation; the President of the Court of Appeal; five of the Chief Judges of the States; the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, and five legal practitioners who are Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
Most of the Senior advocates seen or heard are those in active practice, however the title is also conferred on those in the Academia(lawyers who are lecturers). This gamut of today’s analysis will be on the requirements in which those in academia must fulfill before they could be conferred the prestigious rank in the Nigerian Legal Profession.
The Requirements
1. An applicant must have made a substantial contribution to legal scholarship and jurisprudence through teaching, research, and at least 20 published works (textbooks inclusive) in any reputable journal.
2. The applicant must register for the award with a non-refundable fee of N1,000,000.00 Naira. Before it used to be N 600,000.00 N300,000.00.
3. The committee also checked the number of students such an applicant mentored. There are several ways mentorship could be assessed. It could be in form of projects supervision of LL.B,LL.M, etcs, the societies and clubs in which the applicant serves as patron, matron, staff adviser, etc.
4. Such an applicant must be a professor. Preferably a past or current Dean or any other prestigious rank in the applicant’s university.
5. The committee will also check the national and international recognition of the applicant. Recognition is based on awards won, fellowships, scholarships, places of sabbatical leave, etc
6. Though an applicant in academia is not practising, evidence of practising fee for the last five(5) years shall be attached to his application form.
The aforementioned documents shall each be submitted in seventeen copies(17) to the Committee. The time frame for application is between November 1st of a present year and January 31th of a following year.
Furthermore, the title of ‘SANship‘ is not forever. A SAN can still be stripped of the title for any alleged misconduct pending the determination of any disciplinary action. The popular case that readily comes to mind here is Chief Ajibola Aribisala (SAN) who was suspended in 2013 when Fidelity Bank Plc said it engaged him to recover a N500million debt, but he allegedly unilaterally deducted N163million as his fee without the knowledge of the bank.
In conclusion, the on-becoming journey to ‘Sanship‘ tells the tales of discipline, hard work, tears, defeats, victories, a consistent display of legal scholarship, and a spartan attitude of determination. Indeed, no be beans.
A special appreciation to Prof Oluyemi Bamgbose(SAN), the first female SAN from the Academia for her insightful contributions to this article.
Thank you for reading. See you next week❤
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