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Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order and The Rules of Professional Conduct 2023.

Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order.

Published

10 months ago

June 20, 2023

Stella Charles Akupue

Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order and The Rules of Professional Conduct 2023.

I write to bring you up to speed on the recent developments in the regulatory frameworks of the legal profession in Nigeria.

Legal Practitioners Remuneration (for Business, Legal Service and Representation) Order, 2023

2. In my Inaugural Speech on 26 August 2022, I did indicate that I would liaise with the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to set up the Legal Practitioners Remuneration Committee (LPRC) as provided for under Section 15 of the Legal Practitioners Act, 2007 (LPA).

This effort was primarily meant to incorporate the recommendations of the NBA Remuneration (White Paper) Committee adopted by the National Executive Council (NEC) on 9 June 2022, after painstaking and detailed work by the NBA Remuneration Committee constituted by President Olumide Akpata.

3. Under this commitment and considering that the last time a Remuneration Order was issued was in 1991 under the hand of Prince Bola Ajibola, KBE, CFR, SAN (of blessed memory), as the then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, I wrote to the HAGF requesting the formal constitution and inauguration of the LPRC.

The Committee, by the provisions of the LPA, comprises the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, the Attorneys General of the States, the President of the NBA and 3 representatives of the NBA.

Three of our members, namely: Abdullahi Yahya, SAN, Barbara Omosun and Reginald Aziza, were nominated to this Committee for their participation in the earlier work by the NBA Remuneration Committee to ensure continuity.

4. I also constituted an ad hoc committee – the Remuneration Order Committee – to prepare a draft of the Remuneration Order. This Committee, chaired by Oluseun Abimbola, SAN, with Abdullahi Yahya, SAN; John Aikpokpo-Martins; Attah Ochinke; Anthony Nwaochei; Ruth Kabruk Badung; Ovonlen Ebhohimhen and the Assistant Publicity Secretary, Charles Ajiboye, came up with the draft Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order.

5. The LPRC was formally inaugurated on 15 May 2023, and the draft Remuneration Order was presented for consideration. The LPRC considered the draft and eventually passed the same, giving birth to the Legal Practitioners Remuneration (for Business, Legal Service and Representation) Order, 2023, on 16 May 2023, under the hand of the HAGF. It is now Gazette No. 0102 in Vol. 110, Government Notice No. 68.

Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order and The Rules of Professional Conduct 2023.

6. You will recall that upon the enactment of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) published a circular in February 2013, directing all Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBPs), including legal practitioners, to register with the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML).

You will also recall that the Registered Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) took out an action in March 2013 against CBN and the Attorney General of the Federation at the Federal High Court (FHC).

The facts and decisions of the FHC on the matter delivered on 17 December 2014 and the subsequent judgement of the Court of Appeal in CA/A/202/2015 – CBN v. Registered Trustees of the NBA & Anor. are very well known to all of us and require no repetition herein. The appeal against this decision is pending before the Supreme Court.

7. In the meantime, in May 2022, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria signed into law the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act of 2022, which repealed the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act of 2011.

Under the new Act, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, in November 2022, made the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Anti-Money Laundering, Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Countering Proliferation Financing of Weapons of Mass Destruction for Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, and Other Related Matters) Regulations, 2022.