Another set of law students in a different firm said, “We can count the times we have actually had physical interaction with our principal partner for the duration of the period, we deal directly with the head of chambers, we read case files of the cases the lawyers in chamber put appearance in court, we draft assignments based on case files that transpired in court, then spend the rest of the day in the library reading our books; we even do tutorials and answer past questions with our supervisor once or twice in a week. The only job we do for the law firm is to search authorities when the firm is working on a case.” The scenario is different from firm to firm depending on the operating style of the principal; do these discrepancies in standard and treatment to law students during attachment play any role in the outcome of their Bar final at the end of the day? Some would say yes, others would say No. One school of thought has argued that law students should be through reading the school curriculum before coming on attachment and should use the attachment period to familiarise themselves with law office management and operation. This writer belongs to the school of thought that a firm ought to help the law student achieve his objective of becoming a legal practitioner, not the law student helping the law firm achieve its business objectives. It is my belief that the primary responsibility of a law student at the attachment stage is to pass the Bar finals and become a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Truth be told, a law student who has quality time to study during chamber attachment and master his or her drafting has a better chance of making good grades at the Bar final, than those constantly engaged with activities of the firm with little time for studies. These firms give these tasks innocently with the aim of familiarizing the law students of how the legal practice works in reality and so do not have the intention of hindering any law student from making the Bar finals. It then behoves the Nigerian Law School to set a standard by setting out the role law interns are obligated to perform during attachment in a law firm. This responsibility of setting a uniform standard cannot be achieved without the intervention of the law school which does the posting ab initio to the law firms. A detailed and specific schedule of tasks to be assigned to law students on attachment ought to be included in the correspondence sent to the firms on behalf of students. Secondly, each law firm has its peculiarity and difference in the way it conducts its affairs of the office and so might not be conversant with a specific task meant for law students on attachment. Some law students would tell you they close by 6pm because they were working on a case, there’s nothing wrong with these students helping in research, preparation and filing of court processes to gain experience, there is however a problem when such task is done at the expense of studies. In order not to misplace priority which may negatively or positively affect the outcome of Bar Finals, it is imperative that a structure is created to determine the kind of experience gained during chamber attachment. Worthy congratulations to the new set of legal practitioners just called to the Nigerian Bar, welcome on board. Goodluck and Godspeed! Please send your comment{s}, recommendation{s} or observation{s} to danielbulusson@gmail.com or like us on www.facebook.com/younglawyerscolumn]]>