Review Of The 2018 Guidelines For The Conferment Of The Rank Of SAN

In the exercise of powers conferred on the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) by Section 5 of the Legal Practitioners’ Act of Cap. L11, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf, the LPPC has made new Guidelines for Conferment, Discipline and Sanctions with All Related Matters Pertaining to the Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

The guidelines were made on the 31st day of August, 2018 and commenced the same day. The law basically has two parts. The first is the part for the objectives, principles and procedure for the appointment of senior advocate of Nigeria which has twenty one sections, while the second part which is the part for the additional criteria for the conferment of the rank of senior advocate of Nigeria and sanctions/withdrawal of the rank of senior advocate of Nigeria, has eight sections in total. This makes the guidelines to have a total of twenty nine sections.

The 2018 Guidelines for the Conferment of the Rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria and All Matters Pertaining to the Rank which was published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, official gazette No. 112, Vol. 105, maintains almost all provisions of the previous guidelines.

According to Section 1 of the Guidelines, the Award of the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) is a privilege awarded as a mark of excellence to members of the legal profession who are in full time legal practice; have distinguished themselves as advocates; and have made significant contribution to the development of the legal profession in Nigeria.

The guidelines provide that call for applications will be made not later than 1st November each legal year or such other date as the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee may direct by publications in the media. Application in the prescribed form must be returned not later than 31st January of the year of the application or such other date as the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee may direct to the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee Secretariat at the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Every candidate is expected to pay a non-refundable processing fee in the sum of N600,000.00 (Six hundred thousand naira only) or such other sum as may be determined by the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee.

Also, every successful candidate shall pay a processing conferment fee of N200,000.00 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira only) or such other sum as may be determined by the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee.

After the first application, there is a first filter by the Secretariat after which a second filter follows.

According to the procedure, a list of all such applications shall be forwarded to the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee which shall meet to review the first filter by the Secretariat. Thereafter, all unsuccessful candidates at this stage shall be notified in writing of the decision of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges who shall be requested to comment confidentially on the integrity, competence and repatriation of the candidates.

Among other procedures, the guidelines state that the application form shall require each Applicant to provide a list of at least 10 judges of Superior Courts of Record before whom he had appeared in contested cases of significance. Thereafter, the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee will select three Judges from the list provided by the Applicant from whom it will request a detailed confidential reference. The three Judges will be selected for each short listed Applicant in such a manner as to ensure that a cross section of Judges from different levels of Courts as the Applicant provides is represented. The application form shall require Applicants to identify at least 6 legal practitioners by whom the Applicant has been led or that have led or against whom by whom the Applicant has been led or that have led or against whom they have appeared, in contested cases of significance. The Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee will select 3 such legal practitioners’ from the list supplied by the Applicants from whom it will request a detailed written confidential reference about the Applicant.

Section 14 provides for the Particulars of contested cases and documents while section 15 speaks of Tax payment and documents. Section 17 then provides that the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee shall conduct a physical inspection of the chambers of all Candidates that have made the final qualification list. The chambers inspection is geared towards evaluating the level and quality of the facilities provided in the chambers and shall take into account the size and quality of library; quality of office space and other facility equipment available; number of counsel or partners in chambers (with evidence of letters of employment and pension scheme); number and quality of support staff ; and maintenance of proper books of accounts.

As affirmed at the introductory part of this review, the guidelines are divided into two parts. The second part which deals with the additional criteria for the conferment of the rank of senior advocate of Nigeria and sanctions/withdrawal of the rank of senior advocate of Nigeria, having eight sections features among others the provisions for the eligibility and competence of the candidates.

Most important on this part is the concluding part of the application which covers the evaluation criteria for the interview of the candidates. According to the law, the purpose of the interview is to confirm that the Candidate has met the eligibility criteria and to conduct a further evaluation of the Candidate’s professional competence.

As stated, the evaluation of the Candidate’s competence shall be weighed with Integrity, Opinion of Justices/Judges and the Strength of references received by candidates, General knowledge of Law, Contribution to development of Law, Leadership qualities in the profession, Qualities of Law Office/Library, and they carry 20 per cent, 20 per cent, 25 per cent, 10 per cent, 10 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively.

It is also provided that each member of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee shall receive copies of application forms, copies of references, and a list of particulars of reported cases or copies of unreported judgments and reports of chambers inspection in respect of all Candidates at least one week before the final selection interview date. The list of Candidates for interview due to appear before the subcommittees shall be compiled randomly by the Secretariat in such manner that the members of the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee shall have no prior notice of which Candidates shall be appearing before them. The Candidates shall be graded according to the stipulated criteria and shall also be scored by each member of the panel after which a weighted average shall be compiled at a joint session of all sub committees for the final sitting of the panel of the LPPC. The full panel shall then meet to consider a review of the reports of each committee after which a list of successful candidates will be drawn up taking into consideration, merit, gender representation and geographical spread.

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By Ebi Robert
Co-Editor, TheNigerialawyer