ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL NEGOTIATORS AND MEDIATORS

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ADR COURSE (PART II) IN ABUJA ON 17th - 18th  MARCH, 2005  



ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSIONAL NEGOTIATORS AND MEDIATORS
-promoting best practices in Negotiation and Mediation

AND

DCON CONSULTING
Law Research & Training

PRESENT

ADVANCED ADR COURSE PART II ON MARCH 17 - 18 2005


STRICTLY FOR PARTICIPANTS DURING NOVEMBER 2004 ADR COURSE

 

ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL COURSE ON

ADR 17 – 18 MARCH 2005

 

All participants in the Foundation Course held in November 2004 in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja are hereby enjoined to register for the Part II (Advanced Professional Course on ADR) for optimal benefits and to consolidate the gains of

the Part I. This Part II is strictly for those who took part in the first stage of the course and it is scheduled to hold at Conference Hall, Command Guest House, Aso Clinic Road, Asokoro, Abuja

on 17th  and 18 March 2005.

 

Arrangements have been concluded to use the facilities of the Abuja Multi-Door Course for simulations and practical exercises. The Course

fee is N25,000.00 (Twenty Five Thousand Naira Only). Payment can be made in advance to DCON CONSULTING through CITIZENS BANK

PLC Account No. 0110 1308 1017 to enableus produce and send  materials to you before the course date.

 

Thanks. 

 

LLOYD DURU, ESQ.
Registrar

PART ADR COURSE ON MARCH 17 - 18 IN ABUJA


 


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INAUGURATION OF SECTIONS ON BUSINESS LAW AND LEGAL PRACTICE

 

History was made in the legal profession in Nigeria on 9th December 2004 at the Lagoon Restaurant, Victoria Island, Lagos when the Nigerian Bar Association inaugurated the Sections on Business Law and Legal Practice to pave way for specialisation in the legal profession in Nigeria. Association of Professional Negotiators and Mediators (APNM) was ably represented at the occasion by Messrs Kevin Nwosu and Lloyd Duru.

 

Here is the speech delivered by Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN (President, Nigerian Bar Association):

 

PROTOCOLS

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

 

I have the honour and privilege to welcome you most heartily to the inauguration ceremony of the new Sections of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).  I am privileged and indeed honoured because this is a historic occasion being the first time in the history of our great Association that Sections will be formally created to run its activities. The importance of this event can be summarised as follows:

 

1.     It will lead to creating greater professional depth within the profession.

2.     We would be able to reach out to our members who on account of the way the Association was structured had always felt they had little or no role to play. This category includes our members who work as in-house Counsel in industry.

3.     It would lead to the creation of more effective interaction with similar associations within and without our sub-region in mutually beneficial areas.

 

The challenges facing the legal profession today are ever increasing. The wind of globalisation is blowing. We as practitioners cannot afford to be left behind. Our Association therefore needs to re-invent itself in order to continue to be relevant and meet the yearnings and aspirations of its ever-increasing members. A case in p-point is the unbridled manner in which the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) has resorted to hiring foreign Law Firms to midwife the legal aspect of the privatisation programme. Whilst the NBA remains opposed to this development and also note that the BPE is doing something about it, we must accept the challenge it poses to us in the sense that had we been able to showcase ourselves in specialised areas of practice, the thought would not have occurred in the first place to the BPE. I believe by creating Sections with an aim to encourage specialisation, we would have provided partial answers to this problem.

 

Besides, a rapidly developing and changing world is having in its myriads of intricate legal transactions for which special knowledge is required on the part of a Legal Practitioner. Even though the university curriculum tends to teach in subject areas, it is in practice that lawyers truly get to choose what areas to specialise in.

 

It was the great Winston Churchill that once said: “To change is to improve and to be perfect is to have changed often”.

So, the NBA has arrived at that point where it needs to meet with the new challenges the profession faces by the need to create greater professional depth among the rank and file of lawyers; encourage specialisation as a means of improving our service delivery to clients and society and perhaps most importantly to protect the profession from daily encroachment by other professions. Consequently, the National Executive Committee of the NBA has approved the creation of two Sections i.e. the Section on Legal Practice (SLP) and the Section on Business Law (SBL). These Sections have been created in the mould of the International Bar Association (IBA).

 

SECTION ON LEGAL PRACTICE (SLP)

 

The Section is to be run by Section Council made up of fifteen members. A most respected and erudite Senior Advocate, Mr. Yusuf Olaolu Ali has been appointed as the first Chairman of the SLP. Mr. Ali brings to this assignment his wealth of experience in litigation and I have every confidence that he will lay a proper foundation for the establishment of that section.

 

He will be supported in this regard by Mr. Richard Oma Ahonarugho who will be the Secretary of the Section. Mr. Ahonaruogho is the IBA’s representative in Nigeria and the Section will no doubt benefit from his experience. Other members of the council are:

3.     Chief Chris Uche, SAN

4.     Chidi Nwoka, Esq.

5.     Mrs. Stella Ugboma

6.     Chief Agbo Madaki

7.     Dr. Epiphany Azinge

8.     Sir George O. Audu

9.     mr. Egbewole Wahab

10. Mr. A. S. Adeyemi

11. Chief Chike Adibua

12. Barr. Obi Ulasi

13. Tayo Oyetibo, SAN

14. D. D. Dodo, SAN

15. Mohammed Audie, Esq.

 

These gentlemen represent some of the finest crop of Legal Practitioners that the Association can boast of and on their shoulders rest the task to establish a solid foundation for the Section on Legal Practice.

 

 

SECTION ON BUSINESS LAW

 

This Section like the SLP is made up of fifteen Council members. The NBA has appointed Mr. George Etomi, one of the foremost commercial law practitioners in this country as the first Chairman of this Section. I have every confidence that Mr. Etomi will accept the challenge to reach out to our colleagues who work as in-house Counsel in both the public and private sectors. It is our specific aim to remove any notion that there are outsiders in this profession and the SBL will afford every one of our colleagues in industry to participate in its activities.

 

I am pleased to observe that the Council members of the SBL are drawn from all sectors of commercial law practice. This will no doubt expedite specialisation. The secretary to SBL is Mr. Adegbola Adeniyi who is the current Chairman of the Ibadan branch of the NBA. The other members include:

 

3. Chief Goddie Ibru

4.     Okey Wali Esq.

5.     Yomi Oyelola Esq.

6.     Mrs Nkoli Obi Awa

7.     Mr. Paul T. Oki

8.     Chief Ladi Taiwo

9.     Funke Aboyade

10. Dr. Ibe Kachikwu

11. Layi Babatunde, SAN

12. Mrs. Theodora Azinge

13. Mr. Folarin Williams

14. Mr. Serena Dokubo

15. Dele Oye, Esq.

 

The Sections will function through Committees whose Chairmen will be appointed by each of the respective Section Chairmen. Every member of the NBA must belong to at least one Committee. The other details on how the Sections will function will be provided by each of the Councils in releases that will be issued later. May I seize this opportunity to encourage all members of the Association especially the younger ones to take full advantage of the existence of these Sections to improve their knowledge of the law.

 

Once again it is my honour and pleasure to welcome you all to this historic and august occasion.

 

Thank you.

 

Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN

President, Nigerian Bar Association.

 

After the above speech, the Chairmen of the two Sections took turns to address members of the NBA and the press on their plans for the Sections. Specifically, Mr. George Etomi listed Arbitration and ADR as one of the 15 Committees already within the Section on Business Law while Mallam Yusuf Ali, SAN listed Committees (each chairman emphasising that the lists were not exhaustive).

 

Subsequently, there was an interactive session during which members encouraged the National Executive of the NBA for rising to the demands of globalisation. Needless to re-emphasise that this is an opportunity for all APNM members to assert their positions in the scheme of things in the NBA and IBA by first paying their practising fees at the Supreme Court timeously and getting as much training as possible in order to specialise properly and profitably.

 

LLOYD DURU, ESQ.