What Really Is Your Age At The Bar? By Chihumenya P. Okafor Esq

Having mentioned that, I must say that the issue of age at the bar has raised so much argument among lawyers. The issue of when a lawyer becomes one year post call or when the lawyer climbs the bar practicing fee ladder has been unsettled for years now, leaving many lawyers unsure of what the right position is. While this work is not to conclude on what should be right position, it is to let out an opinion on what I think is the right position. This means that, this work is clearly open to positive criticism on any area that may not be agreed with. By the letters of the section 5 (2) of the Legal Practitioner Act¹, a lawyer of less than ten (10) years post is not qualified for the conferment of the rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Also, various sections² of the chapter VII of the constitution³ provide for specific number of years  which a person must have been a legal practitioner before he can be qualified (amidst other conditions) to be appointed a Judicial Officer. In all these, the uncertainty of exactly how many years at the bar a legal practitioner is still lingers. Whether a legal practitioner becomes one year post call the day immediately following the day he was called or 12 calendar months after is still not clear. While some lawyers are of the view that once the first practicing fee is paid (usually before call to bar) the legal practitioner immediately becomes one year old at the bar. This however is not my position. To help us arrive at what I think the right position is certain terms would be explained:

1. Post- call

This simply means after call

1. A year:

Going by the definition of the Interpretation Act, ⁴ a year means a period of twelve months. It therefore means that for legal practitioner   to conclusively say that he has one year post-call experience, he must have been have practiced for a period of 12 months from the day of his call. Several arguments have been canvassed saying that, for the purpose of age at the bar, a day after call is one year. This to me has no basis as the Interpretation Act has clearly stated what a year is in law. That is if there should be any other meaning of what a year is different from the normal 12 calendar months. Giving credence to this view expressed above is the description on the bottom of the Bar practicing fee teller that begins to count from “0-4” years as the first step in the payment of the Bar Practicing Fee. It is this year “0”zero that is skipped during most calculations. The year “0” zero is the year of the first payment of bar practicing fee usually before call. I must add at the point that while one of the requirements for certain appointments for example the conferment of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria is that the legal practitioner must be of at least ten (10) years post call, it does not means that once a legal practitioner within his first nine years of practice has ten (10) consecutive practicing fee tellers he his qualified. This is because within the first nine (9) consecutive years of practices a legal practitioner can have ten practicing fee tellers, if he adds his first payment of Bar Practicing Fee Teller. Therefore there is no difference in the calculation of the age of a legal practitioner at the bar and the calculation of the age of a person. As the call to bar of a lawyer is no more or less his birth to the bar. I hope this work goes a long way to arouse the interest of legal practitioners   in Nigeria, so the NBA can give a final word on how the age at the bar should be calculated exactly. Chihumenya P. Okafor Esq.]]>