Beyond Covid-19: NBA Gifts Young Lawyers 1-Year Law Pavilion Subscription
- The Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA”) has just signed a contract with LawPavilion Business Solutions Limited (“LawPavilion Business Solutions”) for the “provision of LawPavilion Electronic Law Reports and Legal Research Software Licenses to Young Lawyers (i.e. Post-Call ages 1 to 7) who had paid their Bar Practice Fees as at 31 March 2020”. This is a most rewarding and milestone project for us and one that fulfills in an unparalleled manner, our commitment to the welfare and upliftment of our young lawyers.
2. More often than not, the discourse on enhancing the welfare of our young lawyers turns on immediate gratification, mostly in the form of financial palliatives and handouts. Indeed, in the wake of COVID-19, calls for interventions on behalf of the young lawyers mostly promoted such transient gratifications and financial handouts. The problem with those classes of welfare packages, as handy and useful as they might be for a moment, is that they are alwaystransient and not long-lasting howsoever.
3. In order not to remain in that beaten and well-traveled path, we had been ruminating for some time on how best to give to our young colleagues a welfare package that would not only be meaningful but would alsobe impactful, foundational in nature, long-lasting and enduring. It was in the course of those ruminations that we settled on the idea of a one-year electronic law report subscription for all young lawyers who were up to date in the payment of their Bar Practice Fees (“BPF”) as at 31 March 2020. We interviewed a number of service providers in that genre and settled on LawPavilion Electronic Law Reports and Legal Research Software Licenses (“LawPavilion”) after a protracted negotiation process.
4. Ordinarily, LawPavilion Business Solutions offers its one-year LawPavilion subscription to lawyers at the rate of N30,000.00 per subscriber; for this special project and at the instance of the NBA it agreedto give us a very steep discountwhich crashed its subscription rate to N3,000.00 per subscriber without reducing the offerings and features of the subscription. In particular, the features of the subscription include the following:
- Over 20,000 authorities of both Supreme Court and Court of Appeal starting from 1960 till date with automatic updates;
- 61 Years Consolidated Index and Law Digest – both SupremeCourt and Court of Appeal Judgments;
- “Google-like” Search Engine for quick retrieval of authorities on issues (e- Research);
- Laws of the Federation
- Civil Procedure Rules for all the Courts
- Subsidiary Legislation generally.
5. With this subscription project, the NBA has pioneered the empowerment of our young lawyers with the most essential and primary tools of our legal trade, to wit, the precedents, statutes, court rules and research materials with which they can serve their clients effortlessly and without being at the mercy of any person. Young lawyers with industry and drive who had paid their BPF as at 31 March 2020 now have no excuse for not researching their cases properly and serving their clients well by making powerful and well-directed submissions to courts in a manner that would not only earn them the respect of their peers and seniors but also earn them sustained upkeep and the appreciation of their clients.
6. I have already instructed the NBA Secretariat to compile the names of all the qualified beneficiaries of this scheme and liaise with LawPavilion Business Solutions for the provision of the service to them. I have also conscripted the Governing Council of the Young LawyersForum, led by its dynamicChairman, Tobi Adebowale, to work with the NBA Secretariat in harvesting the names and contact detailsof these prospective beneficiaries from the list of lawyers who had paid their BPF as at 31 March 2020 and who had opened their portals at the NBA website. I mention the NBA website portals because this would be a web-based subscription service that would be accessed through the NBA website and available only to those young lawyers who have opened their portals at thewebsite.
7. If you are a young lawyer(i.e. post-call ages 1 to 7) and had paid your BPF as at 31 March 2020 but are yet to create your personalized portal at the NBA website, please do so now and immediately. LawPavilion Business Solutions, working with the NBA Secretariat, will contact you directly based on your contact details in your portal. Should you encounter challenges in creating or accessing your NBA website portal for the purposes of this exercise or at all, please contact Umar Gezawa immediately at Umar.Gezawa@nigerianbar.org.ng and copy the mail to Ayodeji Oni at ayodeji.oni@nigerianbar.org.ng and Tobi Adebowale at tobiadebowale@nigerianbar.org.
Paul Usoro, SAN
NBA President
