Admission to Practice of Law in Nigeria

Step 1 – Complete an undergraduate degree called the LLB in a Nigerian University (or Foreign University). In
Nigeria, this is a 5-year course, the undergraduate curriculum requires law students to study 12 compulsory
core law courses- Legal Methods, Nigerian Legal System, Contract Law, Constitutional Law, Company Law, Law
of Torts, Commercial Law, Law of Equity and Trusts, Criminal Law, Land Law, Law of Evidence, and
Jurisprudence.
*Students who have obtained their undergraduate degree from a Nigerian university should jump to step 3*

Step 2 – Enroll at the Nigerian Law School Bar Part I program. As your undergraduate degree is from a foreign
university, you will be required to undertake the Bar Part 1 program which teaches students the important
aspects of the Nigerian legal system, which they would not have been exposed to.

Step 3 – Enroll at the Nigerian Law School for the Bar Part II program. The Nigerian Law School educates and
trains law graduates in vocational knowledge and practical skills. All courses in the Bar Part II program are
compulsory and students must obtain at least a Pass degree in all of them to complete the program. The
courses are Criminal Litigation, Civil Litigation, Corporate Law & Practice, Property Law and Law in Practice
(Ethics & Skills).

Step 4 – During your time at the Law School, you are expected to attend 3 dinners (yup, dinners…but they are
done in the afternoon, weird!), and to also get practical experience of how the legal system works by
completing 2 periods of externships- in a law firm and in a court.

Whether or not they have bar exam. YES, Nigeria has bar exam.
Step 5 – All Bar Part II students must undertake the Bar Finals examination. Students who are successful in the
Bar Finals examination will then be eligible to be ‘called to the Nigerian Bar

Step 6 – Final step! The Call to bar ceremony, this is the official ceremony where you are presented with your
certificate of call to bar, and then you are asked to go to the Supreme Court of Nigeria to be enrolled in the
Roll of Legal Practitioners which is maintained by the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
And that’s it…you are a now a Nigerian Lawyer!