Nigerian lawyers have vowed to fight a landmark free trade agreement with the UK 'all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary' to protect their legal market. The UK-Nigeria Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership, announced this week, is the first such deal with an African country. It will 'create opportunities across a breadth of sectors... such as financial and legal services,' the government announced this week. 

'It will see the UK and Nigeria’s shared aspiration to facilitate each other’s lawyers practising foreign and international law in each other’s jurisdictions,' the Department for Business and Trade said. 

However Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), described the legal services aspect of the deal as 'unacceptable in its entirety'.

'The NBA will take all necessary measures provided by our laws in support of our position on this matter,' he said in a statement this morning. 'We intend to fully challenge the legality of this agreement all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.'

He added: 'I want to use this opportunity to call on all members of the NBA to brace up for the struggle ahead. The NBA under my leadership will not allow any incursion into our legal space.'

The reaction came as no surprise to expert followers of legal market opening in Africa. 'It is entirely predictable and unsurprising,' said Alison Hook, founder of specialist  consultancy Hook Tangaza. 'No one from inside the NBA or those involved with the regulation of cross border practice in Nigeria has ever given the impression that they were ready to seriously entertain foreign lawyers having greater rights to practice in Nigeria - rather there is first a lot of work to be done on how Nigerian lawyers themselves should be regulated and the regime modernised. I don’t detect any readiness in the Nigerian profession generally to embrace foreign lawyers yet.’

Meanwhile Law Society president Nick Emmerson pointed out that the trade agreement contains no binding provisions to liberalise the practice rights of UK qualified lawyers in Nigeria. 'Our understanding is that the agreement is aspirational and provides a forum for UK and Nigerian legal stakeholders to pursue a constructive dialogue on areas of mutual interest, including knowledge sharing and supporting one another on international practice of law issues.' 

Emmerson added: 'The UK and Nigerian legal communities have long enjoyed strong bilateral relations which in turn benefit their clients and trade between the two countries. The Law Society works closely with the Nigerian Bar Association to enhance these bilateral relations and share best practice. We hope to continue our close engagement with the NBA and legal profession both within and outside the ETIP framework.'

 

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