Introduction
Legal Ways to Make Money in Nigeria as a Young Lawyer. Making money as a lawyer in Nigeria is no longer a dream. With the advent of the internet, the number of internet lawyers is increasing fast. Many websites are online and ready to help you make money as a young lawyer.
Succeeding as a young lawyer in Nigeria is quite difficult, this is because there are no measures in place to enforce minimum pay for young lawyers. Sadly, some principals go as far as paying young lawyers in their firm N15,000 to N20,000 monthly. You will probably be wondering what on earth could the N15,000 to N20,000 monthly afford in the present-day economic situation in Nigeria? In this article, I will be showing you the Legal Ways to Make Money in Nigeria as a Young Lawyer. This will help you sort out your immediate needs while you concentrate on the Legal practice to equip yourself. It helped me and I believe it will help you too.
Legal Ways to Make Money in Nigeria as a Young Lawyer | Sad Realities
Law is a dignified profession. It’s always a dream come true when one gets admission to the University to study law. I remember mine with all sense of humility and how much joy was inside of me when I got admitted.
It takes an average of seven years including going to Law School and NYSC for a person to become a Lawyer in Nigeria. However, a major challenge facing young lawyers in Nigeria is how to sustain themselves after being called to the Nigerian. This is because the average salary of a young lawyer in Nigeria is around N50,000. (Fifty Thousand Naira Only) Yes, you heard me right, Fifty Thousand Naira Only.
The truth is that the life of a young lawyer is difficult in Nigeria. Young lawyers are left to plunder and survive without any lead or help. Although some cities in Nigeria like Lagos pay young lawyers around 80 – 100 thousand Naira monthly, however, the disadvantage is that the cost of living in those big cities outweighs what they are being paid.
I’m also aware that some good principals understand the needs of younger lawyers and are committed to helping them grow in the legal practice as well as balancing their financial needs. Sadly, this class of principles represents only 20% whereas the rest remainder of 80% does not care. So we young lawyers must explore other alternatives to making money in our early years of practice.
In the next stage of this article, I will go ahead to share with you my personal experience in my early years of law practice. Thereafter, I will proceed to show you the Legal Ways to Make Money in Nigeria as a Young Lawyer.
Personal Experience of my early years of Law Practice
Luckily for me, I was already called to the Nigerian Bar Association while I was undergoing my one-year compulsory NYSC program. I was posted to a pure litigation law firm with about 10 to 15 cases today. We were only three in the law firm my principal a senior colleague and my humble self. You could imagine the workload.
Although I was new to Law Practice, I nonetheless had little experience. This is because I was actively involved in moot court trials at my university and this allowed me to learn the basis of litigation. I also participated in several physical and virtual internships which gave me practical experience in mitigation.
So, upon arriving at the law firm, my principal began engaging me with lots of work to do not minding I was newly called to the Nigerian Bar Association.
Although I am grateful for the numerous opportunities my principal gave me in the law firm, I sincerely believe that their pay was in no way commensurate to the work I was doing at the law firm. I imagine you he would like to know how much I was being paid in the law firm? Hang on, we are getting right there.
How Much Was I Being Paid? – Legal Ways to Make Money in Nigeria as a Young Lawyer
I was only paid the sum of 10,000 Naira monthly. Out of this 10,000 naira, I transport myself to the law firm, I eat lunch and I transport myself back to my house at the close of work.
- I remember protesting about the pay to my principal one day and these were his arguments.
- If you’re not extravagant, 10,000 Naira should be enough for you monthly.
- You should not Focus or put your eyes on the money, money should not be your priority.
- You should be happy that you are in a law firm where you will learn the practice of law very fast. He concluded by saying that I should be the one paying him for teaching me the practice of law and not the other way around.
Sadly, 80% of Law principals have the same reasoning as above. How has asking for money to support your daily living become setting money is my priority? Do you mean I spent the whole of seven years in the university and Law School and successfully graduated to start earning 10, 000 naira a month? How am I going to survive? How do I pay my bills? These were the thoughts that occupied my mind. But thank god for the NYSC monthly allowee which helped me a great deal to sort out my bills and keep me going.
Fast forward to my post-NYSC experience, how much was I been paid?
Post NYSC Experience – How much was I being paid?
After my NYSC program, I decided to stay back in the law firm, and guess what? My salary was only increased to 20,000 Naira. Remember that there is no longer a monthly allowee from NYSC. So I was only living on 20,000 Naira and possibly any other amounts I’m able to hustle out during Court as an appearance fee.
Men! Life was unbearable. It was difficult. I was crying for help.
What broke me, even more, was when I realized that graduate medical doctors in Nigeria and not paid less than 150,000 Naira monthly was doing their house job. In fact, my medical doctor friends who were Corp members were nesting an average of 250, 000 Naira. The gap was far above average.
So I decided to learn about other legal ways to make money in Nigeria as a young lawyer.
In the next phase of this article, I’ll be taking you through a step-to-step guide on How I made money that sustained me during this difficult period of my early years of law practice.
What are the Legal Ways to Make Money in Nigeria as a Young Lawyer
Recall that Rule 7 of the RPC prohibits lawyers from practicing law and engaging in other business at the same time. So the legal ways to make money in Nigeria we shall offer you must be compatible with the rules of professional conduct for legal practitioners in Nigeria.
Below are the ways to make money as a young lawyer in Nigeria.
A. Start a Freelancing Legal Services
The world is going global and a lot of things are being done online. This has presented many opportunities for lawyers to take advantage of especially Young Ones. There are a couple of freelancing websites and spaces where young lawyers can register and become members. It will allow you to provide legal services to clients both local and abroad and stand the chance to earn in dollars.
Some of the legal services to render in these freelancing sites are:
- General Contract drafting like a Non-Disclosure Agreement, Software Licensing Agreements, etc.
- Drafting of Websites Legal Pages like Terms and Condition page, Privacy Policy page, and Disclaimer page.
- Contract review jobs,
- Startup company incorporation.
- You can also get the opportunity to serve as compliance officers for companies abroad looking to have a branch in Nigeria. These are just body few
Recommended Freelancing Platforms
Below are the freelancing platforms I am recommending to you.
- Upwork: Upwork is a global place for freelancers. It is currently the largest freelancing platform with lots of experienced freelancers in the world. There are over 3,000 remote job listings in Upwork a day. I am a Freelancer Upwork and I can assure you that there are thousands of related jobs for you. Below are examples of the kind of jobs, you find in Upwork.
- Fiverr is also one of the most popular freelancing marketplaces in the world. You could take advantage of it and explore your legal freelancing services. It’s easy to set up an account with Fiverr. All you need to do is to click on the link and go through the account creation process.
Lastly, I have also found a good website for you to follow and find the Best Freelance Websites to Find Work in 2022.
B. Open a Blog and Monetize your Legal Knowledge.
One of the easiest ways to earn online is to open a blog just like I did. A Blog is a website where you write articles within your knowledge and get them optimized to be discoverable by search engines. I know you may be wondering how will you earn from having a blog? It is quite simple.
There are several monetization channels out there such as Google AdSense. These monetization channels allow you to monetize your display by displaying ads on your blog. So once a visitor clicks on ads your website displays on, earn a commission from Google.
We recommend that you read this article by Neil Patel on How to Start a Blog That Generates $3817 a Month. It’s a good guide.
See Also: What to Do After a Car Accident in Nigeria | The Position of the Law
Conclusion
What I did in this article is to give you my proving means of how I survived my early days as a young lawyer. It is very easy for me to write plenty of things on how to make money online. But no, I intend to give you my proven hacks. That is why I streamlined this article on Legal Ways to Make Money in Nigeria as a Young Lawyer to only two ways. That’s what I do and I will recommend you take them seriously.
Lastly, if you need any help in starting any of the two ways and on how to make money as a young lawyer, do not hesitate to contact me. I will be willing and ready to help you.
I will guide you on how to set up your Upwork account to attract clients. Finally, I will also guide you on how to set up your blog and connect it with Google AdSense. All these I will do for free. I’ll be waiting for you in the comment section of this post. Thank you.
