This incessant cry of Too many lawyers has been rubbing me the wrong way. How can it be such a travesty that more persons are aspiring to study law and many are successfully being called to the Bar? This is not even about law anymore or the backlog in our Courts, its about an educated and progressive populace...how do we overlook that fact? While there might be some connection between the increasing number of Attorneys being admitted to the Bar and the number of complaints filed against Attorneys with the General Legal Council, it is unfair and unjustifiable to suggest that the said increase in admission is only breeding professional impropriety! Do not give the impression that of the number of Attorneys admitted in any single year, theres an equal number or a number even close to that, of complaints filed against those said Attorneys with the GLC. Otherwise stated, the vast number of complaints filed with the GLC is not against young Attorneys (referring to those 3 or less years out in practice). The practice of Law, like so many other traditional professions, is no longer exclusive and the ills being experienced in the fraternity is merely a reflection of our societal woes. In attempting to curtail the breakdown in professional standards, let us not revert to making education accessible only to the rich because that will not aid in the cause. We cannot tell our children that education is the key to success; encourage them to dream big; identify their gifting and work towards it, while in the same breath build impenetrable walls of classism, social divide and distrust! Pursuing further education should not be an albatross around the necks of people and this is precisely the effect if the primary policy change in attempting to better control the floodgates of entry into this noble fraternity, is an exorbitant increase in the cost of acquiring a legal education. It is also very disappointing that some of my own colleagues have jumped on this bandwagon of Too many Lawyers without coming to the discussion with a balanced approach and evidently perpetuating the selfish mentality that, once me get it, everybody else lucky! Had it not been for an expansion, some of us would not have been afforded the privilege to have come so far in our legal education and perhaps if the momentum continues behind the cry of there being too many lawyers, the glimmering gates of entry into the fraternity which seem so close as never before may very well elude us.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 13:52:40 +0000
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