The Two-Year Pupillage for Law Graduates in Nigeria: A Path to Professional Mastery or a Barrier to Access.
Author: YOHANA MARY, Winner of the Maiden SI OLAWUNI ESSAY COMPETITION 2026.
School: Federal University Wukari
Level: 200Level
Phone: 08144488066
Gmail Address: maryyohanna931@gmail.com
Studying Law is a Lilliputian task. Law students almost do not have a life outside their books, all because of the tight demands of the course. Little wonder, they always cannot wait to finish the 5-year undergraduate programme (LLB), dash to the Nigerian Law School, and go off afterwards to face real-life situations proper. This is why the 2- Year Pupillage Bill, which mandates every fresh graduate of the Nigerian Law School to a 2-year compulsory pupillage, has been greeted with mixed reactions, with a staggering majority staunchly against it. However, emotions are not the gauge. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine whether the Bill is a path to professional mastery or a huge barrier to access. The Black's Law Dictionary defines the term ‘pupillage’ as ‘a person under the authority of a tutor’. The Bill, by virtue of Section 86(1), seeks to create a 2-year compulsory pupillage for all new wigs. This is a post-call-to-bar apprenticeship initiative of the Legal Practitioners Act (Amendment Bill) 2025. The Bill aims at helping them gain mastery of the profession and practical experience, reform and improve professional ethics in the Nigerian legal profession. Is the Bill a path to professional mastery indeed, or a barrier to access? Let us first consider its merits.
Firstly, it is unarguable that subjecting new lawyers to a 2-year compulsory training and mentorship will yield dividends, particularly, in terms of enriching their experience and expertise, thereby making them better positioned to thrive in the profession after the training. Secondly, Professional Ethics, taught in theory both at the LLB level and at the Law School, gives students little or no practical experience at all. This is exactly where the Bill comes in: lawyers learn to avoid little but costly mistakes in their relationships with the court, other lawyers and clients. This is achieved as the ‘pupil’ gets mentored by an older legal practitioner. Overall, such mentorship will produce lawyers that have keen sense of professional ethics, and not lawyers who behave like motor park hooligans, hence, strengthening the prestigious profession of Law and restoring its lost dignity.
Thirdly, there is the nervousness that comes with every first time experience, and new lawyers are not exempted. Being among the best counsel during mock and moot trials in your undergraduate days or in the Law School is no immunity. Appearing before a real court, the stakes are higher: your gestures and words are weighed by the curious eyes and formidably analytical mind of the judge(s). Most new wigs are ‘reputed’ for shivering, stuttering and making a big mess of themselves during their first appearances. However, during the 2-year pupillage, the requisite confidence to stand boldly and make one’s submissions is both built and acquired. This is gradually instilled in the new wigs as they flank their principals in and out of courtrooms.
Fourthly, it helps in fostering effective networking and fast-tracking the career growth of the ‘pupils’. Being under a principal for two full years affords you the opportunity of coming across notable personalities you would not have met if you were on your own. And most times, you end up creating ties which are not severed even after the two years. Also, while serving under a renowned lawyer during this period, you get to handle ‘big’ cases right up to the apex court. This in turn speeds up your pace in the profession. Many who zoom off into independent practice after being called to the Bar find themselves stuck in the lower shelf of the profession, with slim or no hope of rising to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). Now, let us consider the other side of the coin. Indisputably, the Bill has its dividends. However, that is not to mean that it is a utopian scheme. Since the Bill went viral, law students, legal practitioners, etc., have expressed disapproval, tagging the Bill, among other things, a barrier to access.
The bitter fact that one would still have two whole years of compulsory pupillage after already spending about seven years on average is a huge setback. Law students, their guardians and sponsors, patiently undergo the pressing demands of studying Law with the consolation that immediately after finishing, they will become independent to explore different opportunities before them. This consolation is what the Bill is about to dash into pieces. It wants to hold them back, regardless of whatever opportunities beckoning on them, thereby truncating their path to access.
Furthermore, it also exposes new wigs to the risks of exploitation, sexual harassment, financial hardship, etc., by unscrupulous senior lawyers. Law firms are likely to treat them as unwanted personnel or even a burden; thus, subjecting them to ridiculous remunerations, poor working conditions and lots more, which might jeopardize the whole aim of the mentorship. It is dreaded that junior lawyers may end up being assigned menial tasks - running personal errands for senior lawyers and other tasks completely unrelated to legal practice. They might also be treated as mere employees solely to maximize profits, and not as human resources to be trained and mentored for the good of the nation at large.
The Law Graduates Association of Nigeria (LAWGAN) lamented that,’ . . . legislative reform must be driven by a clearly defined problem. However, no empirical or structural justification has been provided to demonstrate that the current system produces incompetent lawyers or that an additional compulsory pupillage is the necessary solution’. It views the Bill as duplicate of the existing vocational training provided by the Nigerian Law School; and finally concludes that, it might discourage young Nigerians from the legal profession.
Conclusively, inasmuch as the Bill has the prospects of entrenching better professionalism, boosting the confidence of new lawyers, affording them a golden opportunity to network and fast-tracking their career growth, it is quite reprehensible to add two whole years to the already donkey years one takes to study Law.
Author: YOHANA MARY, Winner of the Maiden SI OLAWUNI ESSAY COMPETITION 2026
School: Federal University Wukari
Level: 200Level
Phone: 08144488066
Gmail Address: maryyohanna931@gmail.com
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