Be relevant, abreast of changing trends - Nana Adjoa Hackman advises new lawyers
The Managing Partner and Co-founder of Africa Legal Associates (ALA), a Pan-African corporate law firm based in Ghana, Nana Adjoa Hackman, has called on budding lawyers to be abreast of changing trends in the law profession to remain relevant.
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She further advised young lawyers to be mindful that what would never change in the law profession was its strong moral codes of which integrity was fundamental.
“A successful law career is defined by a reputation of constant learning and consistent delivery and performance over many years.
It is not something you can fast-track or take a short cut to get to.
It will require you to build within yourself, a strong foundation, with depth and substance.
This is the path that you have chosen,” Ms Hackman stressed.
She gave the advice at the 2023 graduation of 310 students of the University of Ghana School of Law, Medical School and the School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences last Saturday.
The students completed their courses successfully during the 2022/2023 academic year.
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At the event included Professor of Law and Dean of the University of Ghana School of Law, Professor Raymond Atuguba; the Provost of the College of Health Sciences, Prof. Julius Najah Fobil, and journalist and first female Chairperson of the University of Ghana Alumni Association, Doris Kissiwa Ansah, who represented the Chancellor of the University at the congregation.
Others were a lawyer and political risk analyst, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, Ghana’s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Victor Smith.
Changing world
Ms Hackman, a corporate legal practitioner specialising in corporate governance, said, for instance, that the world had changed a lot since she completed her Law degree programme in 2001.
She said the conservative law profession was, therefore, being challenged like never before to question views and practices that were once held dear to the heart.
“One such development is the emergence of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution.
I am a keen follower of the World Economic Forum and its daily reportage on trends, issues and innovations likely to cause a revolutionary change to the global economy,” Ms Hackman, who has over 20 years of legal and advisory experience, observed.
She stated that such trends and innovation as AI tools, if used well, could improve the efficiency and productivity of lawyers and law firms, but could equally retire lawyers if they failed to get on top of the new rapid developments taking place.
“We must begin to be more solution-oriented, more agile and more adept to technological trends.
It also means that like other at-risk disciplines and professions, we must begin to adopt new ways of teaching, examining and learning the law,” Ms Hackman told the new graduates.
Globalisation impact
Touching on the impact of globalisation, she pointed out that its effect on the legal profession was that “we are competing with colleague lawyers and law firms beyond our jurisdiction, but this also presents us with opportunities on a global scale”.
Bringing it closer home, Ms Hackman was of the view that the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) presented to lawyers opportunities to provide services to a marketplace of about 1.3 billion people, with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of more than $3.4 trillion.
“How do we make ourselves more relevant in this new integrated Africa? I dare say that in the area of business law, our Francophone colleagues are a step ahead of us in this regard, having developed and implemented the Organisation for Harmonisation of Business Law (OHADA) in the early 1990s,” she indicated.
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Ms Hackman underscored the importance of legal integration as sine qua non to economic integration, adding that she looked forward to the near future where young Ghanaian lawyers would be moving motions in the highest court of an integrated Africa.
She mentioned the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and global warming as other trends that required lawyers in Africa to integrate the interests of businesses with that of society, in a way that ultimately ensured the sustainability of both business and society.
