The Chairman of the Young Lawyers’ Forum, NBA Ibadan Branch, Tomiwa Fadeyi, has called for improved remuneration, welfare and professional respect for young lawyers, arguing that renewed emphasis on pupilage must be matched by better working conditions.
Fadeyi spoke during the 2026 Independent Legal Year Service organised by the Nigerian Bar Association, Ibadan Branch, against the background of the Branch’s separate Legal Year activities.
His intervention focused on a problem that has long confronted junior lawyers in Nigeria: whether young practitioners can reasonably be expected to undergo demanding periods of training while earning inadequate wages or working under conditions they consider degrading.
Fadeyi said advocacy for young lawyers to embrace pupilage would become more credible when the profession simultaneously addresses remuneration, welfare and respect.
Bench-Bar relationship must remain mutual
He also addressed the relationship between young practitioners, senior lawyers and the Bench.
According to him, the relationship between the Bench and Bar — and between senior and junior practitioners — must remain symbiotic, with no segment of the profession treating another as inherently inferior.
He encouraged young lawyers to remain confident and committed to truth and justice while resisting intimidation.
The intervention is particularly timely as the Nigerian legal profession continues wider discussions on lawyers’ remuneration, minimum professional fees and the sustainability of early-career legal practice.
Across several NBA branches, concern has increasingly shifted from merely attracting young lawyers into practice to ensuring they can remain in the profession without severe financial hardship.
A bigger question for the profession
Pupilage has traditionally been defended as a period during which young lawyers learn advocacy, ethics, drafting and professional discipline under more experienced practitioners.
But the Ibadan YLF argument introduces another side of the equation: training should not become a justification for poor remuneration or degrading treatment.
That question may become increasingly important as the NBA and individual branches debate how to retain talented young practitioners who might otherwise leave conventional legal practice for corporate roles, technology, consulting or other sectors.
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Source: City Voice report
