PALU President, Chief Emeka Obegolu JP

 

Text of a paper presented by Emeka J. P. Obegolu, President of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) during the West African Legal Talk (WALT) Program of the Regional project “Promotion of Rule of Law and Judiciary in Africa” of the German Agency for International development (GIZ) on Wednesday, 19th May 2021

ABOUT PALU

PALU is the premier continental forum of and for lawyers and lawyers’ associations in Africa.

Established in 2002 to reflect the aspirations and concerns of the African people and to promote and defend their shared interests, PALU brings together the continent’s regional and national lawyers’ associations, and individual lawyers

To realize a united, just and prosperous Africa, built on the rule of law and good governance, PALU has adopted three core areas of thematic focus, namely institutional development, development of the legal profession, and the rule of law and good governance.

Institutional Development Theme

The strategic goal of the Institutional Development Theme is to build a modern, well-resourced and sustainable Pan African membership organization with optimum institutional capacity to deliver on its mandate.

Development of the Legal Profession Theme

The strategic goal of the Development of the Legal Profession Theme is to develop a competent, ethical, effective and independent legal profession in Africa.

Rule of Law and Good Governance Theme

The strategic goal of the Rule of Law and Good Governance Theme is to strengthen the standards of adherence to the just rule of law and good governance in Africa.

PALU has created a member-focused, solutions-oriented website that seeks to provide lawyers, law students and legal professionals valuable insights and practical tools to help them navigate the legal profession’s emerging needs considering the digital future.

THE CONCEPT OF BAR ASSOCIATIONS AND LAW SOCIETIES

National Bar Associations and Law societies engage in regulation of the profession, as well as the enlightenment and continued professional development of their members.

Their role is to create a professional body for lawyers, regulate law practice by enforcing ethical conduct and generally work towards advancing the interest of members.

THE DIGITAL FUTURE OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION

Futures with changing dynamics, such as market force events, are constantly changing, causing a continuous shift in the practice of law. To keep up with the trends, strategies for these types of changes need to be adaptive.

Bar Leaders need to be conscious of the ongoing stream of changes with their membership base and their practice, and in the Legal profession, giving them the flexibility of mindset to change direction when the assumptions upon which they based previous decisions have changed. The key is having systems in place to detect such changes and to react nimbly and decisively.

This rethinking needs to be actively led, yet most Bar Association leaders remain fixated on technology as a driver of efficiency within their current leadership model, not as an opportunity to transform to a new one.

In times of great change, having a sense of optimism in Bar associations is one of the most important tasks of leaders. Apathy is unhealthy for any association, so optimism leads to engagement and productivity in members. They participate enthusiastically in adaptive strategy processes and collaborate more effectively in driving the Association forward.

To remain relevant in an era of digital transformation, Bar Associations need to do five things.

  1. Educate themselves about what exactly digital transformation entails.
  2. Focus first on what must remain constant, then on what can change.
  3. Systematically engage with members about their future legal needs.

4.   Consolidate and properly organize the Association’s digital initiatives.

5.   Develop a culture of digital enablement.

As we begin grappling with the digital age, we find some of these changes integrated into the role of the legal practitioner, fundamentally altering the profession and how it is regulated.

Artificially-intelligent “lawyers”, online law service providers, and mobile apps for legal services — these represent only a modest cross-section of some of the changes that have permeated the legal sphere in recent years.

As with all change, questions inevitably arise as to whether the future of the regulation of the legal profession is viable? Is it able to adapt and sustain itself? In what ways does technology promote or hinder the relevance and role of the Bar Association?

Challenges

Traditionally, Bar Associations and Law Societies are limited by jurisdiction. Technological innovation has opened entirely new dimensions in the operation of legal practice, effectively removing lawyers from the constraints of their home jurisdictions and into the work of complex multi-jurisdictional disputes and cross border issues. Globalization has profound impacts on the law as a profession, affecting the way that lawyers interact with each other, conduct business and, ultimately, how the profession will be regulated.

A fully integrated, interconnected Bar Association demands a degree of cultural understanding and awareness of legal differences in country-specific regulations. It is much a balancing act between tactful cultural understanding and digital capability.

Because the global lawyer today needs to interpret legal issues from a new perspective, keeping an open mind and considering the newer, untapped possibilities that convergence of the law with technology now bring, the Bar Association is challenged to continually adapt technologically in order to support her members. The modern lawyer must be receptive to new concepts, and eager to continually learn and upskill as newer digital tools and technologies permeate the legal sphere.

Digital innovation has effectively removed the restraints of jurisdiction and geography in legal practice, allowing lawyers from all over the world to connect. Naturally, the lawyer today is expected to be open to working in teams and to possess a degree of cultural competency in their interactions with clients and professionals from culturally diverse contexts. With the rise of cloud data sharing and other connective technologies, the emphasis on collaboration between lawyers and networking is becoming increasingly crucial to the structure of the profession.

Opportunities

The 22nd Century Bar Association could utilize Technology to its advantage and thereby open up a world of opportunity for the global lawyer to tap into a new market for legal services, and dramatically improve quality, speed and access of services, while cutting workplace inefficiencies and costs.

Some of the ways technology may be utilized for the benefit of members of Bar Associations are:

  1. Promoting interactions among lawyers across jurisdictions.
  2. Providing continual professional development and knowledge sharing.
  3. Digitization of libraries and enabling access to members.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to one variable — those Bar Associations embracing technological changes and interconnecting with other Bar Associations equip themselves with a competitive advantage and a chance to create value for membership, whereas those that do not will find themselves increasingly losing membership loyalty and fidelity.

In closing, I commend to us all the mission statement of the American Bar Association Section on Science and Technology Law:

“to provide leadership on emerging issues at the intersection of law, science, and technology; to promote sound policy and public understanding on such issues; and to enhance the professional development of its members”

 

Emeka J. P. Obegolu, FCIArb, FICMC

President, PALU