The Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA) has reportedly issued a cease and desist letter to organizations that appoint non-lawyers for legal practice.<\/p>\n
The Lagos and Ikeja branches of the NBA while expressing dismay over the growing trend of companies appointing\u00a0 non-lawyers as legal directors noted that they have sent cease and desist letters to six companies, notable among which are Promasidor Limited and International Breweries Plc.<\/p>\n
The chairmen of both branches, Olabisi Makanjuola (Lagos branch), and Seyi Olawunmi, in their \u2018Cease and Desist\u2019 letters, deplored the actions of the affected companies and urged them to desist or face litigation.<\/p>\n
Both Promasidor and International Breweries are said to have appointed Polytechnic graduates as their legal directors. The NBA said that the action negate the provision of Sections 22(1) and (5) of the Legal Practitioner\u2019s Act 2004.<\/p>\n
The Act, as the NBA said, \u201cprohibits any person who is not a legal practitioner from claiming to be such explicitly or impliedly. It adds that the provisions also \u201cprohibits non-lawyers from using any title or description that could mislead the public to believe that they are qualified to practice law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Association asked the companies to \u201cimmediately cease and desist from employing non-lawyers to the position of legal director or any other legal role within your organisations.\u201d It also vowed to take legal actions against the companies, if they fail to comply with its demand.<\/p>\n
The body also urged the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) to check the development using their members serving as human resources officers in various organisations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian Bar Association, (NBA) has reportedly issued a cease and desist letter to organizations that appoint non-lawyers for legal practice. The Lagos and Ikeja branches of the NBA while expressing dismay over the growing trend of companies appointing\u00a0 non-lawyers as legal directors noted that they have sent cease and desist letters to six companies, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":50650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t