LAWBREED: A Pleasant Surprise Capable Of 'Democratizing' Law Practice Awaits Conferees- Layi Babatunde, S.A.N

 Layi Babatunde, S.A.N is the Editor- in -Chief of Supreme court Report published by Lawbreed Ltd; on the authority of the Supreme Court of Nigeria .The Senior Advocate in this interview with TheNigerialawyer, speaks on the benefits and surprises Lawbreed Ltd: will offer to the conferees.What is law breed all about? Lawbreeed Limited are the official publishers of Judgments of the Supreme Court of Nigeria cited simply as S.C. (Supreme Court) and other legal titles. The S.C. Report, which is our flag ship publication, was at it’s inception in 1972 edited by Justices of the Supreme Court but it went off the shelf sometime in July 1988. By September 1999 we revived it with the kind permission of the then Chief Justice of Nigeria and his brother Justices. I then became its Editor- in -chief and have kept it current till date including doing a reprint of previous editions. It’s a publishing house with an unequalled pedigree, for which we remain grateful to the Supreme Court and our colleagues for their support over the years. What inspired you into venturing this business? To Start with, the name Lawbreed is a combination of deep  insight and history . It speaks to my experience in the practice of law as the foundation for law publishing  and law reporting.  The inspiration therefore has been our desire to contribute our little quota to the orderly and professional development of case Law and make the decisions of the highest court readily available to our colleagues wherever they may be serving, whether on the bench, at the Bar, in industry or even the public sector. There was a time, when our colleagues attended court proceedings with photocopies of Supreme Court judgments or even hand written notes of extracts from Supreme Court decisions. We thought that was not right and tried our best to make SC Report remain authoritative and affordable. Besides on my being called to the bar and until July 1988 when the law report went off the shelf, S.C. Report was my preferred Law Report so you can imagine my deep sense of loss when it disappeared from the shelves so to say. I am fulfilled and happy to have SC Report back on the shelf and readily available too. What are your views about the reading culture of NIGERIAN LAWYERS? We are generally industrious and committed to our practice. However, my greatest worry is the constant recourse to reliance on numbered ratios as a form of case law citation. This practice regrettably has persisted inspite of the admonition of the Supreme Court against such practice. In one instance the Supreme Court described the practice as ‘Lazy.’ According to the court a lawyer should read a judgment with a view to grasping the facts and understanding the rationale for the decision, instead of the lazy approach of citing numbered ‘ratios ‘. Failure to appreciate the context and import of a   judgment can only cause Counsel to cite decided cases out of context. Unfortunately and more troubling still, is that sometimes the so called’ ratios’ being relied upon by counsel and sometimes the court, may just be the opinion of the Editor. The editor’s interpretation of what the court has held.  This explains why with SC Reports, we highlight the reasons for the decisions of the court in the body of the respective judgment. That way, you cannot miss out on the actual words of the court, as even punctuations wrongly used, can wreak havoc on a Judgment by distorting its import. To minimize the danger posed by this attitude of over reliance on Editor’s summaries as ‘ratios’, we have clear ly separated our editorial summaries from the actual decisions of the court. As you know, decisions are contextual and words have varied meanings depending on how used. There is obviously no short cut to the practice of Law, neither will a fast food approach do us any good. Quality legal reasoning and submission is obviously more than a cut and paste adventure. How long have you been in the business? I have practiced law for close to 35 years 18 of which I have being involved in Law publishing as part of my practice. What has prompted lawbreed to move from publishing books to now using technology? Lawbreed is not just moving into using technology in aid of law publishing. We introduced electronic publishing on CD in 2002/2003 and I believe we are about the earliest, if not the first to publish law reports complete with Indexes on CD . We have moved forward to MySC extra which we intend to introduce at this AGC conference. MySC extra has unique features that we believe will greatly enhance legal practice and quality justice delivery. The point must be made though, that professional law publishing and Law reporting should not be equated with or confused with selling technology. While technology aids law publishing the quality of the offering is key. Thankfully one of the features of MY SC extra is that the content of the electronic editions and the hard copies are the same including citation. It offers a double advantage to the extent that the users of SC Report can never be left stranded even when technology disappoints as it sometimes happen. Technology and law development, including law reporting are great company provided what is being churned out represents a proper digestion of the cases reported. It is a known fact that you are in partnership with NBA for this 2017 AGC, what are the packages/products you have for lawyers? Our partnership with the NBA opens the gateway of our new offering My SC extra to conferees for a Period of six months at no cost. The activation is simple and can be done from the NBA conference Tab. However to enjoy this exceptional offer , every conferee that intends to benefit must activate their free six months account during the conference period using the same data used in registering for the conference . There are other benefits open to conferees which will be unveiled at our exhibition stand at the conference. Will there be any form of discount for conferees who wishes to subscribe after the 6 months expiration, I mean the first subscription after expiration? Obviously yes .it takes just a visit to our stand or a call to our dedicated conference customer service officer. A pleasant surprise capable of ‘democratizing’ law practice as they say awaits conferees. I don’t think anyone can ask for more, given that SC Report represents the final word on every legal dispute. In the era into which we are moving, our believe is that every lawyer deserves quality law practice which is obviously impossible without affordable access to top of the range law report. Our existing and new customers are in for great time with us, at the conference and even thereafter What are the other products you have to showcase at the AGC apart from MySC extra? In addition to our previously published works such as The Lawyer’ Companion (which is in it’s 3 Rd edition) Criminal Law and Procedure through cases and the What Sayeth The Supreme Court Series, we will be introducing three new publications at the conference. One of them is on Taxation which you will agree with me is an important subject in our country today. Professionally Tax is a matter for the lawyers as it is for the accountants. One of the publications covers the Notable pronouncements of the Supreme Court on diverse subjects. It will interest you to know, that the Supreme Court has not been silent on major issues that affect our daily lives from carnage on our roads , to the incompatibility of the ” the bottle and the rifle” , extra judicial killings,rapists being worse than an animal, why judges should distance themselves from politicians , to why the NBA conference week does not qualify as National holidays cognisable by the court .  And many more including Nigeria’s peculiar Federalism! One of our new offerings at the conference is also our new publication on the all-important issue of Right to Fair Hearing! Our preferred and greatly updated Lawyers Diary for 2018 will also be on sale, while our register for 2018 subscription to SC Reports will be opened. Has there been any previous partnership between your company and the NBA? Lawbreed and NBA have being in one form of partnership or the other for almost two decades now and we are proud to support our association, the NBA in order to achieve her objectives. I believe the NBA has found us to be dependable allies through thick and thin Do you have any policy on ground to help young lawyers and Law students in utilizing your products? We have a Foundation, Lawbreed Foundation that caters for Law Students through the award of scholarships especially the Payment of tuition for qualified students attending the Nigerian Law School. This has been ongoing for about ten years now and some of our beneficiaries are now practitioners of whom we are very proud. As for the young lawyers we have a special package for them to be unveiled at the conference. They should make out time to visit our stand to take advantage. What would you say is your role in the development of our jurisprudence and our judiciary? Through our publications  particularly the SC Reports , we believe that we have along with our other compatriots and colleagues who are doing the right things as law publishers , particularly law Reports have in our little ways aided the practice of law  and indeed the judicial community in Nigeria in the effective  discharge of their various responsibilities. We hope to do more as time goes on, while we appreciate their support and the confidence reposed in us.]]>