Bar Misconduct: Supreme Court judgment puts LPDC in the dock

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
The Supreme Court, on June 26, delivered a landmark judgment that appears to have placed in the dock decisions of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) on allegations of misconduct by lawyers. In a five-to-two decision, a seven-member panel of the court declared section 12(7) of the Legal Practitioners Act (as amended) (LPA) unconstitutional, with the result that the court will no longer hear appeals from the LPDC. The LPDC is the statutory body that disciplines legal practitioners in Nigeria. It hears petitions and exercises quasi-judicial powers that allow it to impose sanctions as serious as striking a lawyer’s name off the Roll or suspending a l...