Lawyers have often wondered how the Nigerian Bar Association's Section on Business Law has recorded major strides in its barely two years of inauguration. Its Chairman Mr. George Etomi spoke with JUDE IGBANOI last week on its maiden Business Law Conference which holds at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja from March 27-29, 2006 and the immense benefits it holds for Nigerian lawyers.

Q: From the 27-29 of March, the Section on Business Law of the Nigerian Bar Association will be holding its maiden Business Law Conference and you are the Chairman of that Section. What informed the choice of that theme Economic Reforms and Business Law Practice in Nigeria?

A: What informed the choice of the theme is that being a Section on Business Law, we felt that our first conference should be one that would have relevance to the immediate going on. And we felt at this point that the most important subject matter now in the economy are these reforms. And these reforms cut across so many key sectors of the economy. From communication to aviation to tax and to even cyber crimes. There is virtually no part of the economy that these reforms are not spread into. So, we feel it is our responsibility to begin to sensitize our members and the general public to what these reforms mean, where they fit in and how they can work. This is what informed the subject matter of the conference.

Q: The Attorney-General of the Federation will be the Special Guest of Honour and the Minister of Finance will give the Keynote Address. What specific plan do you have to make government buy into the outcome of the conference? How are you going to implement the outcome of the conference?

A: One thing we want to do in Section on Business Law is to conduct what you might say is the professional business of the Bar. The Bar as you know, has always been in the forefront of getting government to be alive to its responsibilities.

At intellectual and professional level, what we will be doing in the section on business law is to ensure that whatever discussions we will be having in any subject area that has relevance and needs government to give effect to, we will have a forum where we will actively interact with them to ensure that these policies are keyed into.

This is why you will see that we are hoping to get the Minister of Finance, one of the architects in this reform programme to come give a key note address and set the tone in the conference.

The current Attorney-General incidentally who is a Bar man to the core is part of these reforms too. So, we have as you might call it, an insider through whom we can do whatever we need to get done to make sure these reforms work. Don't forget that we all are desirous to see a transformed economy, which hopefully will bring about prosperity to all of us.

The thrust of the conference is that we are trying to achieve a convergence of the policy makers, industry practitioners and the entire law regime, getting them to talk. This is the first time this is going to happen. They've been talking but in different ways. So, what the contribution of the Bar through the Section will be is to have this convergence, and we hope we can keep it as a permanent feature in our economic lives. What is the beginning of these reforms? You think about it. You give the enabling legal framework, you send the Bill to embody this because you have the legal framework. Beyond the Bill stage, you go to implementation. The practitioners are the ones, is at the point of practicing you say look, this Act really address the issue on ground, problems, lets go to court, lets go to arbitration.

Now, before you can get justice as it were, it will be nice for these people to buy into the reforms, so that the court does not sit on the matter longer than it should, it leads to great injustice. Because what is the purpose at the end of all these, it will attract direct foreign investment to the economy. And how do you do that so that when the foreign investor, the singular thing on his mind is 'if I come in how do I get out?' 'Are your laws certain?' Can I get justice?' Why is it today, many of them are insisting that arbitral proceeding takes place outside Nigeria? Is that not a vote of no confidence in our legal regime? Shouldn't we be addressing that issue? What are the benefits to having certainty in any law? So, these are the things that will be continuously relevant in this entire reform process. This is why the Bar Association is taking the lead.

Q: Who are your targets of this conference? In other words, who should attend?

A: First of all we are looking for law practitioners and we are using the law practitioning in the widest event, legal practitioners, as in those who go to court, solicitors, in-house counsel, members of the judiciary, because they are also law practitioners. We are looking for law enforcement agencies, the EFCC for example, the Police Force, the ICPC and all that. We are also looking for the legislators, because there are issues involving a lot of legislation, being the second arm of government. Then we are looking for the academics, because we are concerned about the current school curricula in our universities. Is the curriculum currently addressing issues relevant to practice? We are looking for people like that. So, it's broad spectrum, any stakeholder. Because even though we styled the conference, Economic Reforms and Business Law Practice. T o choose a start, business law practice assumes such a hydra headed dimension that affect almost every spectrum of the economy. So, the se are the people we are expecting to come, including journalists.

Q: We know that this conference is about economic reforms and business law practice in Nigeria, but I remember you mentioned that one of the objectives is to attract foreign direct investment in Nigeria. From this angle are we expecting to see any foreign resource persons?

A: What we've done at this point with foreign resource persons is that we don't want foreign resource persons to come and tell us about how to attract investment, because that's why NIPC are there, and the NIPC are coming to do a paper. So, they will let us know this because that's what they are set up to do. We don't need to go anywhere specifically.

But the area we are going to have some kind of foreign input is in the area of corruption, institutional corruption, judicial integrity and all that. And we have contacted the United Nation's office on drugs and crimes, the judicial integrity desk and the other corruption desks. Currently, some of them advise EFCC to come in. The role corruption plays in the whole of this is so key as you will understand, because the aims of any reforms can be defeated by people who tend to corrupt the system. And corruption may not be an active bribe taking or whatever. It may just be shutting your eyes to things you should do, when you should do them, so that they don't lose taste and all that. So, to that extent we are going to get into all these.

But I can tell one thing, because everybody is watching the Nigerian economy, the outcome of this conference is going to generate a lot of interest especially within the sub-region.

Q: From all indications the attendance will be quite enormous, a lot of lawyers have intention to attend. What direct benefits, long or short terms, do lawyers stand to gain from the conference?

A: First and foremost, one major objective of the Section on Business Law is to assist the continued legal education programme of the Nigerian Bar association. So, first of all, lawyers must see this as an aspect of continue legal education. There will be resource persons delivering no less than fifteen papers in subject matters that are so current. The calibre of such resource persons go from people who are formulating these policies to those who are actually implementing them. So, it's quite a wide spectrum. We are going to be hearing from the Director of Budget, we are going to hear from the tax reform people, we are going to hear from the BPE, we will hear from the EFCC, we will hear from the NIPC, the we will hear from the practitioners in such specific sectors like aviation, maritime, communications, traveling and tourism. So, there is a lot to learn.

Q: Talking about the fees. I've heard a lot of juniors express their willingness to attend but for the fees. In that regard one will think it would have been better if we had differential fees, maybe based on years of call for junior counsels who are just three, four years at the Bar, paying lower fees, just like NBA conferences. The fact that they going to spend about two nights in Abuja, transportation and all that. Then pay this kind of fees and they are about three years at the Bar.

A: First of all, if you compare these fees to other conferences, you come across regularly, you know these fees are simply less. Secondly, in our profession, what normally happens is that seniors cater for juniors. So, where a junior comes up short, you should be able to sum up and afford him the umbrella to come. The problem with differential fees is that it could create logistic problems for the planners. And remember, because the spectrum is wide, it is unlike the NBA Annual Conference where it's really a lawyer affair. This one remember, is an arm of the NBA reaching out to many people as well. So we must be careful not to make it an in-house thing. The in-house thing we have the opportunity to do it in August. But this one, we are showcasing ourselves to other key players in the economy. So, we've got to strike a balance.

What I'm hoping we can do is to move the Bar to be part of the economy. Because we never really prepared ourselves or structured ourselves in such a way to let them know that we also have calibres.

Q: What specific message do you have for participants who are registering now or who are about to register.

A: We advice early registration like every thing else, because late registration fees, so you don't want to pay N5,000 or N10,000 extra simply because you registered too late.

Secondly, we are making arrangement to secure at least 20% discounts on rooms in the Hilton. Then we are making arrangements with other hotels in Abuja. In the end, even the fear that hotels accommodation is high will be minimized, because they will be paying generally low rate. We are making this special arrangement. We are also arranging that in Hilton and other hotels that people can share rooms. If you have a compatible person you can share with.

I also advice full attendance at all the events, starting from the cocktail on Monday, where we will inaugurate the Chair persons of the various Committees. Because it is important for people to come and meet their Chair Persons. Because after the conference, these are chair persons they will be interacting with going forward. Remember, we are trying to get lawyers to specialize, so this conference will kind of stimulate their interests. So it's good for them to know their Chair Persons.

A: Well it’s a worthwhile thing. In life generally, one of the things that propels you to higher glory is recognition for the work you’re done which appreciation, honours tend to propel people to heights.
I have always said the award system in the profession should be modified or expanded to include and recognise the phenomenal work being done by practitioners who don’t go to showcase themselves in court.
That is not one of our mandates at the Council but if representations do come, they will be looked at. I know there is an attempt to amend the Legal Practitioners Act, maybe it can be considered within that framework.