— Orders Strict Compliance By Lawyers And Court Staff
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The Supreme Court of Nigeria has directed all litigation staff, legal practitioners, court registrars and lawyers to discontinue the use of the title “Barrister” as a prefix to their names, describing the practice as “inappropriate and inconsistent with the standards of professionalism expected within the Supreme Court of Nigeria.”
The directive is contained in a memorandum dated July 13, 2026, issued by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, Kabir E. Akanbi, Esq., on the instruction of the Chief Justice of Nigeria.
“I am directed by the Honourable the Chief Justice of Nigeria to notify all Litigation Staff, Legal Practitioners, Court Registrars, and Lawyers that the use of the title ‘Barrister’ as a prefix to names is inappropriate and inconsistent with the standards of professionalism expected within the Supreme Court of Nigeria,” the memorandum states.
The directive is comprehensive in its reach.
“Consequently, all officers concerned are hereby directed to discontinue the use of the title ‘Barrister’ before their names in all official correspondence, records, documents, identity materials, and any other official engagements with immediate effect,” the memorandum states.
The categories listed, official correspondence, records, documents, identity materials and “any other official engagements,” leave little room for the practice to survive in any formal setting connected with the Court.
“Heads of Departments and Unit Heads are requested to ensure strict compliance with this directive by all officers under their supervision,” the memorandum states.
“Please be guided accordingly,” it concludes.
The impropriety of using “Barrister” or the abbreviated “Barr.” as a prefix to a name has long been a sore spot within the Nigerian legal profession, an issue that keeps going and coming like abiku, resurfacing every few years in circulars, seminars, branch meetings and social media exchanges, only to fade again without ever being finally settled in practice.
The objection rests on the distinction between a title of address and a description of qualification. Titles such as Dr, Professor, Chief or Alhaji attach to a person and precede the name. “Barrister” and “Solicitor,” in the tradition inherited from England and preserved in Nigerian practice, describe what a person is qualified to do rather than what they are to be called. The conventional forms are the suffix “Esq.” after the name, or the description “Legal Practitioner,” or simply the name itself.
The argument has been made repeatedly that a medical doctor is “Dr” because that is a title, while a lawyer is not “Barrister” any more than an architect is “Architect Smith” or an accountant “Accountant Jones.” Nevertheless, the prefix has proved remarkably persistent in Nigerian usage, appearing on letterheads, complimentary cards, court processes, wedding invitations, obituary notices and signposts across the country.
What distinguishes the current intervention from previous rounds of the argument is its source and its reach.
This is not a branch resolution, an opinion piece or a conference paper. It is a memorandum issued from the Supreme Court of Nigeria, on the express direction of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, signed by the Chief Registrar, and addressed not only to the Court’s own staff but to legal practitioners generally.
It also carries an enforcement mechanism, at least internally, in the direction to Heads of Departments and Unit Heads to ensure strict compliance among officers under their supervision.
Whether the directive will finally settle a question that has resisted settlement for decades, or whether it will follow the pattern of previous interventions and recede once the immediate attention passes, will be determined by how consistently it is applied in the processes, correspondence and records that pass through the Court.
The memorandum was signed by Kabir E. Akanbi, Esq., Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and dated July 13, 2026.
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