A legal scholar and Senior Advocate of Nigeria Prof. Ernest Ojukwu has spoken out against a recent notice issued by the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (BOSAN) prohibiting advertisements by senior lawyers that promote legal services.In

a statement released on January 16th, 2025, Prof. Ojukwu argued that BOSAN does not have the authority to unilaterally rewrite the Rules of Professional Conduct (RPC) that govern legal practice in Nigeria.

He pointed out that Rule 39 of the current RPC, enacted in 2007 and updated in 2023, explicitly allows lawyers to engage in advertising and promotion related to their legal practices.

“Rule 39 RPC clearly permits all lawyers in Nigeria to promote their services or businesses. And that is the right thing to do in 2025 civilization,” Prof. Ojukwu stated. He noted that the Nigerian Bar held extensive deliberations before enacting the current advertising rules, which were modeled after the

American Bar Association’s standards from 1974. Prof. Ojukwu clarified that Rule 39 does place certain limitations on legal advertisements, such as prohibiting inaccurate, misleading, or excessive promotion. However, he argued that BOSAN’s blanket ban on advertisements by senior advocates goes far beyond the scope of the RPC.

“The interesting thing in the BOSAN notice is that it seems that in banning advertisement by SANs, it still goes ahead to authorise advertisement via websites and social media so long as the advertisement is not ‘in a manner that is inconsistent with the principles and ethics of the legal profession’,” he observed.

“The principles and ethics of the profession in relation to advertisement are clearly spelt out in the RPC. They are not imaginary.”

Rather than a sweeping prohibition, Prof. Ojukwu advised BOSAN’s ethics committee to review the websites of individual members and firms to provide guidance on compliance with the advertising rules spelled out in the RPC. “BOSAN cannot rewrite our Rules of Professional Conduct,” he concluded.

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