Extract from the Strictly Law Business Session

Good Morning Colleagues,

My name is ‘Tosin Ajose Popoola, I practice in Ibadan, Oyo State of Nigeria and my focus areas are Commercial Litigation, Family Law and Employment Law. I’m passionate about litigation. In summary I’m a Court Girl.

I have titled today’s session πŸ‘‰"Defining and Treading Your Path Timeously and Diligently”
In recent times, I have referred to myself as a content creator and I have adopted a lot of techniques in creating my contents, one of those techniques is storytelling, so permit me to tell a short story.

I was called to the bar in November, 2012. After the call, I was clueless, I didn’t know what I wanted out of the profession or where I wanted to go. I just wanted to be a successful lawyer! At my father’s instance I started a career in litigation, while in the PATH of litigation, I found the job interesting but not financially rewarding. In a quest for “something” more financially rewarding, I started my Masters’ Program. Few months into the Masters’ Program, I was 100% certain that Academics (PATH) was not for me. The discovery notwithstanding, I completed my Masters’ Program. Have I started my PH. D? Will I?
Still on a journey of better financial reward, I went for an interview as an in-house counsel to a Pharmaceutical Company, I almost got the job, before I realized I was about to make a huge detour from my PATH.

After all my ‘merry go round” I have defined my path and I’m consistently and consciously treading it. I will tell you the path I defined for myself; but first I would love to hear YOUR stories. Have you always known what you wanted out of this profession? Kindly share your journey with me in the comment section.

This brings me to today’s discourse, it’s a 2 in 1 discourse:

πŸ‘‰Defining your path timeously

πŸ‘‰Treading it diligently

A Path is the direction in which something is moving, it is not the destination rather it is the way to the destination. For example, if your destination/aim as a lawyer is to become a Judge, Magistrate or SAN, YOUR PATH is clearly litigation, if your destination/aim as a lawyer is to become a Professor, YOUR PATH is Academics, if your destination/aim is to be the pioneer of an evolving or emerging area, YOUR PATH is to start creating the needed platforms, and so on and so forth.

 There are a lot of paths in this career, there is the traditional Litigation, the ever evolving Corporate, Several Emerging Areas such as Entertainment Law, Fashion Law, FinTech etc.

Recently, several paths have been created such as blogging, vlogging, writing, content creation, and speaking, we have a whole lots of paths. I have met quite a lot of lawyers (on LinkedIn and Instagram) doing mind blowing things (all within the confines of law).

I have created a guide to a well-trodden path:

1. It's ok not to have it figured out either at the point of being called to the bar or few years down the line, BUT, we have to keep figuring it out. Let’s not stop until we have identified our destination/aim/purpose.

2. Lets do a self-assessment and be brutally honest with ourselves;πŸ‘‡

a Identify your area of strength and weakness.

b. Stay with your area of strength, there is no point struggling with a weakness.

c. If you don’t like Court, it’s fine. If you don’t have (and not ready to develop) the writing skills amongst other skills it takes to draft pleadings or write briefs, move to your area of strength.

d. If you don’t like Board Room drama, General Meeting Palaver and so on and so forth, what are you still doing in Corporate Governance?

e. If you like the razzmatazz of the entertainment industry and the buzz of social media, why have you not taken up Entertainment Law? Why do you not have a Youtube Channel? Why are you not Vlogging.

3. Let's do a re-assessment after few years or months in an area of perceived strength or likability:πŸ‘‡

a. Do I still love this area (path) of law?

b. Can I get fulfillment from this area (path)?

c. Can this path give me the financial reward I desire?

d. Is this the path to my destination?

e. Can I take a different path or merge 2 paths to get to my destination?

πŸ‘‰Treading it diligently

I’m assuming you’ve found your path, you have to tread it diligently, consistently and consciously. Imagine, you have a bushy path on your way home, and to prevent snake bites and the likes, you cleared the path. The bush will likely not grow back, if you take that route home daily/if the path is well-trodden, but where you cleared the path in January and take a different route home for 6 months, the bushy path would have grown again and the path you earlier cleared will not be visible.

The above is true of our careers, treading it diligently simply means:πŸ‘‡

 a. Get all the necessary (continuous) trainings required in that field, if your path is mediation, please go for trainings. If your path is vlogging law contents, a short course in film making is not bad.

b. Read all the relevant materials, books, Law Reports, Law Texts. Whatever path you’ve created, read materials in that field, if litigation is your thing, subscribe and read Law Reports, don’t be a lawyer that comes to WhatsApp group to ask for a draft of a letter, written address, briefs, how to move an Application etc. We see a lot on WhatsApp group nowadays!

c. Get the appropriate certification, if Arbitration is your path, why have you not enrolled with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators? You desire to tread a path in Finance and you have not started a course with a Tax Body, or the Institute of Chartered Accountant and the likes.

Sometimes paths are intertwined and you need to see and experience different paths before you can actually decide or create your own paths. Once you’ve found your path, please tread it, don’t be swayed.

Finally, don’t be blown by every wind, plant your seed, water it, see it grow and enjoy your harvest, after all you’ve earned it!

Thank you.

NB: I'm still treading my paths and simultaneously discovering other paths that will lead to the same destination, I'm not there yet and I have my moment of struggles too. One thing is certain though! I'm not relenting. Let's push together. See you at the top!

#strictlylawbusiness
#slb
#oluwatosinajosepopoola
#mystory

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MAKE A WILL:Not a death wish! (Pt. 1)

Lessons from Covid-19

Lessons from the Okada ban