Dear all at MBCLEGAL, I request your rapt attention to join me in congratulating Ms. Easmon, Ms. Aitkins and Ms. Kabba, who were all called to the Bar yesterday.
Colleagues, your persistence, patience, yearning for the law, and the Grace of God Almighty have brought you thus far.
But alas, in this moment of euphoria, excitement, and exhilaration, I must with humility and the benefit of over two decades at the Bar caution that your journey has only just begun and the decisions you now make will be a blessing to those many lives and paths you will traverse along the way or a curse and or an impediment.
You must treat and guard the law jealously. Your first and primary duty as an officer of the law is to the courts and the law. You must at all times be true to yourself, your conscience, and above all, treat this Firm with candour and honesty.
Colleagues, this is a time-honoured profession steeped in antiquity. You must honour and uphold the law and those time-honoured practices.
You must conduct yourselves at all times in a manner befitting the profession and this Firm. You must serve clients of the Firm as well as the Firm and your Pupil Masters selflessly. Disloyalty, laziness, and / or resting on the oars of thinking you have arrived, procrastination, pride, and misguided judgement have so many a time undone brilliant minds at the Bar.
I wish for you all the sincerest and heartiest of congratulations on your well-deserved success and as you commence the journey of the select few that are referred to as LEARNED, I also take the opportunity to congratulate and thank your parents and all those who have supported you on the journey thus far.
You have been offered pupillage at MACAULEY, BANGURA & CO, one of the best Firms in Sierra Leone among so many others who applied and were turned down. This privilege given to you should never be treated lightly. 228 of you were called yesterday, and those numbers will exponentially increase into the thousands in years to come.
To proffer an opinion and / or express views based on good judgement, rationale, knowledge, the law, and reasoning is the preserve of this profession. It is a sacred duty gifted by the Almighty God to a few. It must always be treated as such as it can easily be lost or squandered as a result of some of the ills we all see plaguing the profession in present times.
At the risk of stating the obvious with these numbers, only the hard-working, focused, and resilient practitioner will survive.
MACAULEY, BANGURA & CO is a family. We pride ourselves in teamwork, having each others back and looking out for each other. We guard our own jealously. Welcome to the family.
May God Almighty grant you health, wisdom, and strength to fulfil this next chapter of your lives.
