First woman Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mrs Folake Solanke has advised law students of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) to be ready to learn from senior lawyers to be successful in the legal profession.
She advised them to undergo pupilage and be mentored by experienced lawyers in order to be grounded in practice and contribute their quota to their chosen trade.
Solanke said the poor use of the English Language in court by many lawyers was the result of a weak background during their student days.
She also cautioned against poor dressing and lateness, saying such attitudes fell short of expectations.
The 85-year-old legal luminary who became a lawyer 54 years ago, and the first woman SAN, 36 years ago spoke at the weekend while delivering a lecture titled: “The Vocation and the Capacity of a Lawyer” to law students of the university.
She said some lawyers were not doing well to project the image of the profession through their conduct.
She also lamented the poor reading culture among some lawyers, saying such lazy attitude to work was capable of eroding their respect and intelligence quotient.
She regretted that some lawyers had become literarily married to the internet at the expense of conventional acquisition of knowledge through reading physical books.
She said: “A good command of the English Language is a sine-qua-non for success at the Bar. To succeed in the profession of the law therefore you must seek to cultivate a good command of language, which is the lawyer’s tool of trade.
“When you are called upon to address a judge, it is your use of words what you will hope to persuade the judge of the rightness of your case.
“As a lawyer, you are not expected to regard the internet as all in all; rather, you must see it as just an additional educational facility that should not be seen as substitute to reading physical books.
“You must not rely on ‘cut and paste’ mentality and methodology because you are just copying another petson’s work, which is a form of plagiarism and it is unlawful.
“I can tell you categorically, and with all the emphasis that I can muster that a so-called lawyer who does not read books will not succeed
“This is not a curse, it is an undisputable professional fact tested with my 54 years advocacy at the Bar, with 36 years of them as the first female SAN in Nigeria.
“Be assured too that there is no African time in the courts, you are either punctual or you are late.
“Impeccable appearance by lawyers in black and white is also paramount; lawyers are expected to wear black court shoes and not bathroom slippers to court. And to female lawyers, they are not expected to use dangling earrings to court, they are to wear small earrings while their professional wig should sit tidily on their moderate hairstyle.”
In his address, ABUAD Founder, Aare Afe Babalola, said he invited Solanke as part of his mentoring programme for upcoming lawyers.
He described the guest lecturer as one of the most conscientious and brilliant leading giants the country has produced in the legal profession.