Take for instance; to incorporate a private company limited by shares depending on the share capital costs one hundred and fifty thousand naira from start to finish at the Corporate Affairs Commission and Federal inland Revenue, the lawyer charges one hundred thousand naira as professional fees making a total of two hundred and fifty thousand naira, the client drops one hundred and fifty thousand naira only as initial deposit and promises to pay the balance after completion of the job. The scenario above puts a lawyer in a precarious situation, do I go ahead and use up the whole money to incorporate the company and wait for the client to comply? Not forgetting that not all clients comply after completion of the job, some take two – three months to come back for a job already completed. Do I charge the client to cover both the cost of the job and a little for my professional fees to ensure both parties are secure? Many young wigs {this writer inclusive} would prefer the latter question to the former. It is advisable and most times neater to complete a job first before exhausting the finance meant for that job, let me explain why. Experience has taught me that once the finance meant for a job is used up before the completion of the job, it automatically affects the output of the job. The job takes longer than the necessary time, the lawyer is constantly under pressure affecting his performance in other jobs, and this act might even lead to joggling client’s money to complete several jobs, which if you ask me, is ethically wrong. As we grow in the legal profession, we learn of acts not needed in the lifestyle of a professional lawyer and drop them on the way up, we also discover cleaner ways of solving legal issues and adopt same, truth be told, the kind of practice a lawyer gets accustomed to at the early stage would practically be the same when such lawyer becomes a senior or establishes his or her own law firm. My point being, there is nothing wrong in making mistakes at the early stages of practice as long as we learn from our mistakes and work to improving same, it is a different thing entirely when we know a particular practice is wrong and still insist on sticking to it. If it has been the practice of a young lawyer to exhaust the monies meant for a job before the completion of the said job, the solution is to come up with a payment schedule that would not affect the job and also not choke the lawyer to violate the ethics of the profession. Using the scenario of incorporating a company above, a lawyer can insist that the client pays one hundred and eighty thousand naira before his job would be complete, the client might pay same in the initial deposit or might request to pay the money twice before completion. This way the lawyer has secured part of his professional fees and also the money meant for the job. Once this can be achieved, the lawyer must strive to complete the job first as that is the essence of a remodeled payment plan in the first place. Change is in the young, if the future of the profession is going to be better than what we have today then the young ones must be ready to do things properly and differently, most importantly, we must drop ‘jankara practice’ as we progress. RE: LETTER TO MY PRESIDENT (2) “Good day Counsel, kudos for the letter to the President, that was so thoughtful of you. We pray God would bring the success, that which he has begun through you…” Benny Maria-Goretti Dung “I wish to commend the writer of this letter, he has spoken the minds of young lawyers. May I respectfully add that our President needs to regulate the fees that the bodies responsible for continuing legal education charge young lawyers. How will a young lawyer earning N15, 000 afford a fee of N350, 000 to become a chartered arbitrator? Being chartered… helps to open up ones practice but these institutions are not helping the young lawyers to breakthrough because of the fees.” Joseph Siyaidon Bowei Do send your comment{s}, observation{s} and recommendation{s} to danielbulusson@gmail.com or like us on www.facebook.com/younglawyerscolumn]]>