By Emem Idio, Yenagoa

Immediate Past Vice -President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has posited that the legal profession is facing a turbulent time following the revolution of Artificial Intelligence, AI.

Osinbajo stressed that just like other prodessions, the legal profession is also being impacted by AI and advocated a review of legal education curriculum to meet the challenges of present and future realities.

The former vice president also berated corruption and ethical violation in the judicial system, lamenting that the public perception that the country’s system of justice is corrupt and that the Bar and Bench are culpable is enough damage to the system.

Osinbajo. who stated this in his keynote address at the 2025 Law Week of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Yenagoa branch, held at the NCDMB Conference Hall,on Friday, said the profession “needs a new vision anda new set tools in a new era.”

Speaking on the sub theme:”The Legal Profession: A Vision for a New Era,” Prof Osinbajo declared :”Our profession is in a radically new dispensation, a dispensation created by the most consequential advancement of new technology, perhaps the most turbulent and uncertain times in living memory.

“The pace of technological advancement today, rise of globalization, the democratization of information has already transformed every profession. Yet the legal profession, we are bound by precedents and tradition and some bad habits has remained stubbornly resistant to change.

“It is scared that a lot of the work lawyers do or used to do, can now be done much faster and much more accurately by technology. The systems don’t get tired, don’t go on leave and do not ask for extra pay, these tools are becoming much cheaper and like mobile phones they will be available everywhere and to every one very soon.

“Technology is fast replacing basic legal analysis and opinion writing, a big part of our cake has been bitten off by technology and more will be bitten up very soon and very quickly.

“Globalization has made legal expertise easily available in real time anywhere, what is happening now before our very eyes is the most profound revolution that our profession has ever experienced, a revolution that will radically change the delivery of legal services and even adjudication forever.

“We are no longer the gate keepers and custodian of basic legal knowledge, that is all gone, but more importantly, we are no longer the custodian of legal reasoning and legal legal opinions.”

On how the profession can navigate the era,the ex vice president said: “What we should be looking at now is an enhanced curriculum for legal training if students have to be competitive in the years to come. We must also integrate legal technology and AI into the curriculum, learning how to critically assess inputs from systems like ChatGpt and other AI tools. We needs to have more cross disciplinary trainings for lawyers. Law, data Science and design thinking, data privacy, algorithm bias, designs of legal tech systems.

“And because AI systems will increasingly take over legal tasks, like legal research, drafting and even basic reasoning, the true value of human lawyers will no longer lie in our ability to find the law or to summarize it , machines can already do that faster and more accurately.

“Lawyers must now focus on the aspect of legal practice that machines cannot properly do or are not able to replicate yet, so we must now develop skills in determining what ought to be done in the clients best interest-ethical reasoning and interpretations skills.”

Declaring open the NBA Yenagoa Law Week Plenary Session with the theme; “Law, Leadership and Transformational Development,” Governor Douye Diri urged lawyers to always uphold truth and justice, adding that as a huge beneficiary of the justice system, he will continue to promote the rule of law.

Diri said: “If you stand by the truth and by the rule of law, l am sure that this country will survive as you know you are the last hope of the common man. If not for you I will not be standing here today as governor of Bayelsa State. As we gathered like this, we must look at own and interest and the interest of our country. The interest of the children and the interest of generations yet unborn.”