REALITY: SENIOR LAWYER SILVER KAYONDO PENS DOWN ADVICE TO YOUNG LAWYERS AND LAW STUDENTS

The internet of recent has been filled with news about the LDC results where over 90% of the students failed the bar course exam. With the high failure rate, a number of students or lawyers have been left in despair about the next step in their lives moreso towards their carriers.
This prompted Silver Kayondo to throw in some advice in regard to his knowledge and experience at the bar of which every young lawyer or law student needs to have a look at before things can go wrong.

For those who dont know whom Silver Kayondo is, perharps the little profile wenhave can helpmyou admit to this. Silver Kayondo is a ugandan and South African dual trained senior lawyer and partner at Ortus Advocates with adverse experience in law, innovation, technology, venture capital and private equity funds. He specialises in legal, policy, transaction and regulatory mandates for financial institutions and emerging technologies. He is a co founder of Drone Nerds Africa. Silver Kayondo holds a Bachelor of Laws(Hons) from Uganda Christian University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre, a Masters of Laws(with distinction) from the University of Pretoria, an Advanced Certificate in Insolvency & Restructuring from the South Africa Restructuring & Insolvency Practitioners Association (SARIPA) and Strategic Issues in Leadership in Telecoms, Broadcasting & Postal Regulation from the Public Utility Research Centre (PURC), University of Florida & UCC.

In this very important message posted and summed up in a twitter thread he noted,
LDC and the legal profession in Uganda: Theory vs Reality
“There is a general belief/perception that Advocates are generally rich and influential people in society. This perception has driven many young lawyers to undertake the Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice Course (LDC)“
Unfortunately, this perception is most times not informed by proper career advice. Matters are not helped by the dogmatic way in which the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) program is structured and delivered in universities, without consideration of career options other than the Bar.
Undoubtedly, LLB remains one of the most versatile degrees globally. Even in small economies like ours, that qualification presents numerous career options for its holder across a broad spectrum in business, politics, media, advocacy, activism, research, policy, et cetera.
Furthermore, the illusion of wealth is premised on comparison with a very narrow section of Advocates who are “making it big“, but that is not the most accurate representation of the profession as a whole. Young/Junior lawyers need to assess their personal circumstances deeply.
To make it as an Advocate requires a lot more than the qualification. Here are a few things they will not tell you in law school;

1. Your family and social network will play a big part in your early career. These are people who know you and how talented you are. I expound more. Individuals from wealthy families are more likely to have an early boom career because family refers business to them. This also comes along with the right social, political & economic connections to execute the mandates you get. You need to carefully analyse your career strategy.The ugly reality is that you will not make a lot of money in the early years of your career. The first 5 years are for learning. Goes same way for other traditional careers as well. Conservative societies like ours still do not trust young people to do certain big-ticket work. You start gaining market recognition if you are really good and are enjoying a niche market. Fields like tech are awesome because they have low barriers of entry, but they are also arenas of mostly young people. They are peer driven and very democratised. Reason I put 80% here.
2. Exposure. No professional can be better than the exposure he/she gets. Small economies= little exposure. When you solve small problems, you earn small money. Even the Bar where many are clamouring to come is very crowded. There is backlog of Advocates still finding their foot. I do not say this to discourage colleagues who aspire and genuinely want to join the Bar, but to point out that as you form your aspiration and pursue it, a lot more has to go into it. Everything has an opportunity cost and the little that is there is fiercely fought for. When the Ugandan Bar created challenges for colleagues, some went to Kenya. That caused some shifts in lucrative cross-border work. Multinationals that set up regional offices in Nairobi do not need to hire Ugandan law firms. They just hire these dual-trained lawyers in-house. Some Kenyan-based law firms have also hired this Ugandan talent. They also have English and US trained lawyers on their teams. This makes them more global and competitive in the eyes of international clients who have the big-ticket mandates for corporate & commercial work. I have been thinking deeply about these issues because I think a new type of leadership and perspective is required to create decent opportunities for most of our colleagues. It can be done, but we need a fresh prism/lens on the nature and quality of ecomonic value we can add. Nothing is disheartening to both parents & young professionals like being elevated to a certain level and then the carpet is pulled away. I’ve met folks who say they first wore a suit and a tie for the first time in their lives while at law school. Imagine failing to sustain this.
3. Professional structure. We are running a fused profession at the moment. We do both Solicitor and Advocates work. This has its challenges, even from a training perspective. I believe that a solution can be crafted for colleagues who have LLB but want to focus on Solicitor work.
4. Conclusion. The profession is undergoing a lot of change and scrutiny. Legal training is lagging behind the market expectation. 19th century mercantilism and rote learning are being questioned by 21st century agility. Take charge. You are on your own in this. Make it work.
5. There are very many perceptions that young lawyers or even law students take on to believe not knowing the truth about the legal practice, i believe if you have clearly ready then you are somewhere. Just like Robert Kirumira, a lawyer and lecturer at Makerere Law School told the students who passed the bar course “you have just passed the course and not the bar“.

HERE IS THE THREAD;