*LAWPAVILION ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION – BEYOND COVID-19 PANDEMIC RELIEF FOR YOUNG LAWYERS

The Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA”) has just signed a contract with LawPavilion Business Solutions Limited (“LawPavilion Business Solutions”) for the “provision of LawPavilion Electronic Law Reports and Legal Research Software Licenses to Young Lawyers (i.e. Post-Call ages 1 to 7) who had paid their Bar Practice Fees as at 31 March 2020”.

This was made known in a document released by Paul Usoro, SAN NBA President

Read the full statement below

LAWPAVILION ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION – BEYOND
COVID-19 PANDEMIC RELIEF FOR YOUNG LAWYERS
1. The Nigerian Bar Association (“NBA”) has just signed a contract with
LawPavilion Business Solutions Limited (“LawPavilion Business Solutions”) for the
“provision of LawPavilion Electronic Law Reports and Legal Research Software
Licenses to Young Lawyers (i.e. Post-Call ages 1 to 7) who had paid their Bar Practice
Fees as at 31 March 2020”. This is a most rewarding and milestone project for us
and one that fulfills in an unparalleled manner, our commitment to the welfare and
upliftment of our young lawyers.
2. More often than not, the discourse on enhancing the welfare of our young
lawyers turns on immediate gratification, mostly in the form of financial palliatives
and handouts. Indeed, in the wake of COVID-19, calls for interventions on behalf of
the young lawyers mostly promoted such transient gratifications and financial
handouts. The problem with those classes of welfare packages, as handy and useful
as they might be for a moment, is that they are always transient and not long-lasting
howsoever.
3. In order not to remain in that beaten and well-traveled path, we had been
ruminating for some time on how best to give to our young colleagues a welfare
package that would not only be meaningful but would also be impactful, foundational
in nature, long-lasting and enduring. It was in the course of those ruminations that
we settled on the idea of a one-year electronic law report subscription for all young lawyers who were up to date in the payment of their Bar Practice Fees (“BPF”) as at
31 March 2020. We interviewed a number of service providers in that genre and
settled on LawPavilion Electronic Law Reports and Legal Research Software Licenses
(“LawPavilion”) after a protracted negotiation process.

4. Ordinarily, LawPavilion Business Solutions offers its one-year LawPavilion
subscription to lawyers at the rate of N30,000.00 per subscriber; for this special
project and at the instance of the NBA it agreed to give us a very steep discount which
crashed its subscription rate to N3,000.00 per subscriber without reducing the
offerings and features of the subscription. In particular, the features of the
subscription include the following:
• Over 20,000 authorities of both Supreme Court and Court of Appeal starting
from 1960 till date with automatic updates;
• 61 Years Consolidated Index and Law Digest – both Supreme Court and Court
of Appeal Judgments;
• “Google-like” Search Engine for quick retrieval of authorities on issues (eResearch);
• Laws of the Federation
• Civil Procedure Rules for all the Courts
• Subsidiary Legislation generally.
5. With this subscription project, the NBA has pioneered the empowerment of
our young lawyers with the most essential and primary tools of our legal trade, to
wit, the precedents, statutes, court rules and research materials with which they can
serve their clients effortlessly and without being at the mercy of any person. Young
lawyers with industry and drive who had paid their BPF as at 31 March 2020 now
have no excuse for not researching their cases properly and serving their clients well
by making powerful and well-directed submissions to courts in a manner that would
not only earn them the respect of their peers and seniors but also earn them
sustained upkeep and the appreciation of their clients.
6. I have already instructed the NBA Secretariat to compile the names of all the
qualified beneficiaries of this scheme and liaise with LawPavilion Business Solutions
for the provision of the service to them. I have also conscripted the Governing
Council of the Young Lawyers Forum, led by its dynamic Chairman, Tobi Adebowale,
to work with the NBA Secretariat in harvesting the names and contact details of these
prospective beneficiaries from the list of lawyers who had paid their BPF as at 31
March 2020 and who had opened their portals at the NBA website. I mention the
NBA website portals because this would be a web-based subscription service that
would be accessed through the NBA website and available only to those young
lawyers who have opened their portals at the website.

7. If you are a young lawyer (i.e. post-call ages 1 to 7) and had paid your BPF as
at 31 March 2020 but are yet to create your personalized portal at the NBA website,
please do so now and immediately. LawPavilion Business Solutions, working with
the NBA Secretariat, will contact you directly based on your contact details in
your portal. Should you encounter challenges in creating or accessing your NBA
website portal for the purposes of this exercise or at all, please contact Umar Gezawa
immediately at Umar.Gezawa@nigerianbar.org.ng and copy the mail to Ayodeji Oni
at ayodeji.oni@nigerianbar.org.ng and Tobi Adebowale at
tobiadebowale@nigerianbar.org.

Paul Usoro, SAN
NBA President