By Sylvester Udemezue
For a lawyer to be held guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect,” the following two conditions must be met:
The affected lawyer must have committed the misconduct in the course of rendering professional services or while working as a lawyer . (See Re G Idowu: A Legal Practitioner (1971) 1 ALL NLR 126);
AND
The misconduct complained of must be one reasonably regarded as disgraceful or dishonorable by his professional colleagues. (seeAllison v. General Council of Medical Education & Registration (1894) 1 QB 750; Re A Solicitor (1912) 1 KB 302; OKIKE V LPDC (2005) 15 NWLR (Pt 949) 471).
♦️Please note that these two conditions are mutually inclusive; * if one is absent, there is NO *”infamous conduct in a professional respect”
♦️Note also that not all unprofessional conduct done in the course of acting for a client is “infamous conduct.” There are some unprofessional conduct which are not “disgraceful nor dishonorable,” but are merely against established norms and the legal tradition. An Example, LPDC has held that a lawyer using the word, “barrister” as a title honorific before his name is an “unprofessional conduct.” (See NBA v. OFOMATA (2017) 5 NWLR (PR 1557) 128 @ 133). Would you now say that such amounts to an “infamous conduct” on the part of a lawyer who chooses to continue to introduce himself/herself as “Barr ….?” That’s my point. A lawyer standing surety for his client, although “unprofessional,” is not ipso facto an “infamous conduct in a professional respect.”
♦️EXAMPLES OF “INFAMOUS CONDUCT IN A PROFESSIONAL RESPECT:” stealing or converting or misappropriating a client’s money or property, defrauding a client, divulging privileged professional communication, acting in spite existence of conflict of interest, colluding with a client to commit illegality or fraud or perjury, or forgery, stealing another lawyer’s client, a law lecturer participating or engage in exam malpractice, a prosecuting legal officer colluding with the defence to destroy evidence or otherwise to pervert the course of justice, a lawyer bribing the judge or other court official to have judgment in his client’s favour, a lawyer communicating privately with the judge in a case he is handling, etc.
Thank you ?
Respectfully,
UDEMS