By Chibueze Maduka, Esq
INTRODUCTION
For years, the Nigerian Bar has pretended that undercharging is merely a “market issue” or a matter of personal choice. It is not. Undercharging has quietly become economic terrorism against the legal profession—a slow, deliberate destruction of the viability, dignity, and future of legal practice in Nigeria.
The evidence is everywhere. Brilliant young lawyers leave practice within five years; some turn to content creators. Mid-level practitioners are permanently underpaid despite crushing workloads. Senior lawyers complain—rightly—about the collapse of professional fees, yet the problem worsens every year.
The Legal Practitioners Remuneration Order 2023 was supposed to be the cure. Instead, it has exposed a deeper truth: a rule without enforcement infrastructure is only a suggestion.
THE REAL PROBLEM NO ONE WANTS TO SAY OUT LOUD
Legal billing happens in private. Unlike practising fees, stamp and seal, or continuing legal education, billing is the one part of legal practice done behind closed doors—between lawyer and client, unseen by the Bar, unmeasured by any institution, and entirely dependent on individual courage.
This is why undercharging thrives. A lawyer who insists on complying with the Remuneration Order is often punished by the market, while those who ignore it are rewarded with volume and visibility. Over time, compliance begins to feel foolish, and non-compliance becomes normalised.
This is not a moral failure. It is a structural failure.
HOW SERIOUS SYSTEMS SOLVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS
When the United States faced a surge in terrorism and complex security threats, it did not rely on speeches, memos, or moral appeals. It partnered with a technology company—Palantir—to provide infrastructure that could see patterns no human institution could track manually.
Palantir was controversial. Accusations of surveillance and overreach followed. Yet governments kept using it for one reason: it worked.
The lesson is simple and uncomfortable: Some problems are too entrenched to be solved conventionally. They require infrastructure.
THE BAR’S EXISTING HYPOCRISY (YES, IT MUST BE SAID!)
The Nigerian Bar already understands enforcement—when it wants to.
If you want to contest an NBA election, apply for elevation to the Bench, act as a Notary Public, or enjoy certain professional privileges, you must show evidence of compliance with practising fees, branch dues, stamp and seal usage, and continuing legal education.
No one calls these requirements “invasive.” No one calls them “policing lawyers.” They are accepted because the Bar understands a basic truth: what is important is enforced.
So why is remuneration—the economic lifeline of the profession—treated differently?
WHY THE REMUNERATION ORDER IS FAILING (FOR NOW)
The Remuneration Order did not fail because it is poorly drafted. It is failing because there is no practical way to verify compliance.
You cannot enforce what you cannot see. You cannot regulate what you cannot measure.
Expecting voluntary, isolated compliance in a competitive market is unrealistic. Professions that survive do not rely on individual heroism; they rely on systems.
THE UNCOMFORTABLE BUT NECESSARY CONVERSATION
Yes, any serious solution will feel uncomfortable at first. Every effective enforcement mechanism initially looks “overreaching” until it becomes normal. Stamp and seal once felt excessive. Mandatory CLE was once resisted. Today, both are unquestioned.
As the Igbo proverb says: “Anụ gba ajo ọsọ, agba ya ajo egbe” — when the prey runs with determination, the hunter must respond with equal resolve. Undercharging has run unchecked for too long.
THE WAY FORWARD
Technology designed specifically to operationalise the Remuneration Order already exists. Not to pry into lawyer-client relationships, but to standardise billing, generate objective compliance data, and make enforcement possible without witch-hunting.
One such platform is PayByTheLine—a legal billing system built around the Remuneration Order itself, capable of producing anonymised, aggregate compliance insights at both Branch and National levels.
The idea is not punishment. The idea is dignity, fairness, and sustainability.
THE REAL QUESTION BEFORE THE BAR
The question is no longer whether undercharging is destroying the profession. We all know it is.
The real question is this: Is the Nigerian Bar ready to adopt the infrastructure required to save itself?
History is unkind to professions that see danger clearly but lack the courage to respond decisively.
Chibueze Maduka, Esq; Co-Founder PaybytheLine
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