Q & A

INTERVIEW: ‘MLS will continue to offer prompt, fair criticism to govt’

The Malawi Law Society (MLS) has a new leadership. EPHRAIM NYONDO talked with the new president John Suzi-Banda to find out where his team wants to take MLS.

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Q: What has been your professional journey?         

A: I was born on 30th October 1979. I joined the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs as senior State advocate in 2003. I later joined Raymond & Hughes, a local law firm, before joining Loita Investment Bank in 2004 which was later acquired by Ecobank Group in 2008.

I also worked at a leading City of London law firm, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP in 2009. I was then seconded to 3-4 Square Chambers at Middle Temple in London, where I was trained in commercial litigation. I have attended several seminars, including short courses, conducted by some of the world’s top law firms such as Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith and Allen & Overy, and also at three of the world’s leading universities: Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge.

I later worked as the group head of corporate services of a regional engineering company based in Pretoria, South Africa, Matla Group (Pty) Limited.

Currently, I am the managing partner of JB Suzi & Company, a law firm with offices in Blantyre and Lilongwe. I hold a law degree from the University of Malawi (Unima) and a master’s in business administration from the Eastern and Southern Africa Management Institute (Esami).

Q: Where do you want to take Malawi Law Society (MLS)?

A:  I intend to focus on three major issues. One, ensuring that any complaint against any member of the MLS is dealt with speed, efficiency and fairness. There is a perception that we fail to act against our own members when they misconduct themselves. This is a perception that we ought to deal with immediately.

Two, I will focus on continuing professional development (CPD) of our members. The importance of CPD in a lawyer’s professional life cannot be overemphasised. There are always new trends in the law and new pieces of legislation are passed all the time. Lawyers have to stay updated on these to offer good service to their clients.

Further, I believe that as a profession, we ought to play our role in the socio-economic development of this country. To do so, we, lawyers, ought to have sufficient knowledge and skills in certain specialised areas of the law such as mining law, international arbitration, cross-jurisdiction financial deals and others. These are some of the areas that we believe as professional body; we should be offering our members short courses in conjunction with well-known training institutions.

Three, we shall continue to offer prompt and fair criticism to government on the lawfulness of its decisions and actions. This is our statutory mandate. We owe this duty to the people of Malawi.

Q: British High Commissioner Michael Nevin, in his keynote address, challenged MLS to champion the country’s reforms agenda. How, as a new president, will you take up the challenge?

A:  My plan is to create a law reform sub-committee which shall champion law reform and liaise with our colleagues at the Law Commission accordingly. Our immediate focus shall be constitutional reform, electoral law reform and also, closer home, the passing of the Legal Education and Legal Practitioners Bill which law shall change the manner in which our profession is regulated.

Q: Recently, there have been public concerns regarding the standards of integrity and ethical behaviour in your profession, especially with some lawyers answering criminal charges representing clients in court. As a professional body, how do you intend to handle this?

A: The obsession with the issue of lawyers answering criminal charges continuing to represent clients that voluntarily decide to appoint them is certainly misplaced. I believe that there are more serious matters of misconduct which require my urgent attention as president. I don’t think though that I should be telling the public what we’re going to do now. I think the public and many of our members are tired of hearing assurances from the society that these issues are being dealt with. We will soon publish a press release on issues of discipline in which we hope to explain to the public our complaints handling procedures. I would want to be judged on our actions or lack thereof rather than on empty statements and assurances.

Q: Law in Malawi is always viewed as what happens in courts—litigations, bail, injunctions and etc. Lawyers are barely considered as economic and social development practitioners. How do you intend to bring law more to the daily needs of the people?

A:  Most of this perception is due to the fact that litigation matt ers make headlines. Other types of work we do don’t make headlines. I think this happens in most countries. However, as I have said above, we are not resting on our laurels. We believe we can do more. This country needs all of us—especially professionals, to work towards reducing the absurd poverty levels in this country. Hence, my pledge to ensure that our members have opportunity to training programmes in specialised areas of the law which will definitely contribute to the development of this country.

Q: What is your message to your fellow lawyers?

A :  To my learned lawyers, I call upon them to dedicate some time to the causes of Malawi Law Society. It is unacceptable that whenever we call for volunteers for public interest litigation the same people show up. It is unacceptable that when we have training programmes for lawyers to discuss trends in the law, less than a dozen lawyers show up. It is unacceptable that even privately we’re failing to admonish each other on transgressions and unethical conduct. What is there to fear? And it is unacceptable that we are failing to dedicate our talents, skills, knowledge and experience to improving our profession, but have rather decided to keep to our little corner profitably serving our clients and feathering our beds.

 

 

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