ETHICS, LIABILITY AND STRUCTURE: LLP LAW FIRMS IN NIGERIA AND THE PROHIBITION OF PRACTICE AS CORPORATIONS

Abstract

The rules of professional conduct for Legal Practitioners in Nigeria 2023, steeped in ethical standards below which legal practitioners must not fall – in conduct as well as practice – prohibits practice of law as a corporation in its Rule 5. The rationale is presumably to ensure that lawyers are personally responsible, without any form of limitation of liability, to their clients in the discharge of their professional duties to them. Practice as a corporation – a distinct entity, different from the lawyer, will certainly limit liability of lawyers to clients. The Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 introduced Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) as a business form, which has features of a corporation and has been widely adopted by lawyers as mode of practice. Does Practice as LLP offend the rule against practice as a corporation? This paper reflects on the question, and upon analysis of relevant laws makes recommendations.