In the continuation of this exclusive interview, Nyerhovwo Umokoro talks about his Team Project, Experience in Legal Writing, and Extracurricular Activities.
Read on to learn about Complex Legal Concepts, Legal Technology, amongst others…
Can You Describe A Situation Where You Demonstrated Leadership In A Team Project?
I like this example a lot. I remember my internship at Banwo and Igodalo, when I was much younger and I can’t remember the exact task.
But, we had to do some stuff in Microsoft Excel and I remember that some of my friends were manually doing that.
It was about 5000 rows and they were manually doing that. I just felt like there’s an easier way guys and I could do it.
You know, like Ctrl+X of Microsoft Word to find something, it wasn’t that straightforward on Excel, you had to use a question and get to know the function, to locate that particular thing. I went to browsers, got it and put it into Microsoft Excel, voila!
The time we would have spent doing other things was almost wasted on that.
Can You Explain To Us About A Time You Received Constructive Criticism Or Feedback About What You Did, And How Did You Apply It To The Person You Are Now and Your Career?
Yes, I think we all have to get feedback, if you do not want to get feedback, it means you don’t want to do anything great.
It’s just like what people say, if you do something for the first time, you must have issues doing it.
Obviously working in a top tier law firm like Templars, we tend to get feedback a lot.
There was no particular one that I can say, stood out and shaped me.
It was just a composite of things I have done before, it just makes you get more detailed in your approach.
There’s no stand out feedback, I would just say it’s a composite of most of them, really.
For the legal problem solving, I cannot recall anymore right now.
You Said You Are In Corporate Law, Would You Say You Have Gathered Extensive Experience in Legal Writing And Drafting?
Obviously what you draft as a student is different from what you draft as a corporate lawyer.
As a corporate lawyer, you are literally doing agreements, as opposed to brief writing you know that you would typically do as a student.
If you say experience, I don’t really know as I have just spent six months as a lawyer.
When You Were In School or Law School, How Did You Balance Academics With Extracurricular Activities?
Like I said earlier, it helps that I am not a going out person, I like to be by myself.
So, balancing that social life wasn’t really a problem.
I don’t even think I balanced it, my efforts were tilted towards Law School than other parts.
Because my timetable was very rigid, we would do class from 8-3, I would eat, sleep, wake up around 6, and read till 12 or 1.
So, imagine doing that for a whole year, straight up. I don’t think that I balanced it fully. But there was no other way. I say this phrase a lot to a number of people who have asked and in numerous interviews that I have been in.
There’s the line in the Avengers Movie where Doctor Strange told Iron Man that there was no other way.
Funny enough, it just stuck with me. I had to tell myself that Nyerhovwo, you would have to do this because there’s no other way.
There’s no other way you are going to do well in law school, there’s no other way you are going to start your career where you want to start it without having to go through this.
So, that was it, it was a mental thing.
Thankfully, it was worth it.
Give Us A Little Picture Of Corporate Law, What it is Like Negotiating An Agreement In A Layman’s View.
First things first, is getting to know what your client is interested in. That’s probably the first thing. What your client is looking out for, the interest of your client.
And I would be using a particular scenario that I recently did.
So, a borrower applied to the lender, and the borrower under the terms of an existing contract could not repay the debt at the time he was meant to repay the debt.
He just wanted an extension to pay the debt at a later time. That’s what is called debt rescheduling.
But, that kind of thing you don’t do it the way I just said it, you have to draft an agreement, etcetera.
In the lender counsel, after drafting the agreement, obviously the borrower would have feedback, the feedback would be like we want this, we don’t want that.
So, what you would do as a lawyer or counsel to the lender, you have to consider their interest. you would send the first draft to them and they would give feedback on it, they mark what works for them and whatnot.
Here’s a simple scenario.
Let’s say one of the classes is that, the borrower would pay a restructuring fee.
As a counsel to the lender, you want to phrase that clause to the effect that they are going to pay that fee irrespective of whether the restructuring is successful or not.
And the point is this, both parties are trying to restructure the debt payment term, right.
For any reason, it is possible that both parties are no longer interested in the terms of restructuring, maybe the lender didn’t like it or the borrower didn’t like it or whatever scenario really.
You want to put it in the contract that irrespective of the restructuring, the borrower would pay this amount.
All these agreements, the lender’s counsel has already started drafting it. So, the lender must pay their counsel for the draft.
The draft and the back and forth, so that clause has to be structured in a way that probably the agreement does not get signed, the borrower would have to pay that fee because the lender’s counsel has already facilitated the draft.
So, it’s just essentially protecting the interest of your client, really.
That’s just it.
How Do You Communicate And Explain To Layman About Complex Legal Concepts And Can You Narrate An Experience When You Effectively Did That?
I don’t think I am eloquent. I use normal English.
I don’t think anybody finds it difficult comprehending what I say.
I get your question, really, but as a corporate lawyer, addressing your client is not about being eloquent but about the effectiveness of the approach.
I Would Like You To Describe Your Experience With Legal Technology And I Would Also Like To Seek Opinion On Whether You Think AI Would Replace Lawyers?
A lot of people speak about this. It is a subject of debate.
I don’t think so, to be honest.
There’s a lot of bespoke work that goes into drafting, you can’t just use a machine to generate agreements.
There are a bunch of sample agreements on the internet, so why don’t people just download some and get their work done?
Because, it doesn’t just happen like that. You can’t just use machines to generate agreements.
Beyond that, there’s a human initiative that even the brightest of minds cannot get from an AI.
With AI, there’s no human discretion, humans precisely understand what their clients want.
At times, even humans have a hard time interpreting words for an AI, it’s only human to human that can properly assimilate it, AI’s cannot.
In the end, I don’t see how it happens but this is life, right and nothing is impossible.
How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure In Your Work Life?
If I watch football, watch Liverpool play.
I am good to go, that has already made me happy.
I don’t need to do much to relieve myself of stress.
I rest, I play FIFA.
I mentioned others earlier.
Can You Tell Us About A Legal Precedence That Interests You?
It doesn’t necessarily fascinate me and it’s not even a legal precedent, but the discussions that have come out of it. It’s not even a legal precedent but it’s more of statistory.
The people on Twitter especially would have heard about how quotes and unquotes, people are not meant to make payments in dollars in the Nigerian economy.
It was a really popular thing on Twitter and that was most people’s interpretation of it on Twitter.
What the law said was parties cannot receive payment in naira.
For example, if Geeky wants to make a payment to Nyerhovwo in naira, Nyerhovwo cannot refuse and say you must pay in dollars.
But that was what CBN said, but people got the wrong interpretation about payments in dollars.
But, the law spoke about naira and not dollars.
In essence, you can choose to make payment in naira or dollars, there’s no problem.
What the law states is about refusing naira.
The broader point is this, there are several cases like this, right.
The interpretation of the law, you know, with just small nuances that makes a difference.
I think that’s the difference between million dollar lawyers and normal ones, there’s a fine margin.
Explain Your Long Term Goals
There’s this thing I saw on Twitter, and I have loved it.
The billionaire intellectual.
So, my goals would be something around that.
For me, right, it’s not just about being rich, of course I want to be rich and I will be rich, really wealthy.
But, it’s more than that, it’s more of an impact being a legacy.
I hope to do that kind of thing.
Of course, there are different pathways of getting there but the broader way is just that.
What Would You Say Have Learnt So Far In Your Legal Practitioner Career?
I would say, you need to ask questions, you need to not put yourself under pressure.
There’s always external pressure, from your clients, to your seniors and partners to deliver your work, there’s always pressure at the top.
It’s just like a game of football, the guys that play football at their highest levels are always under pressure to score, everyone is watching them.
So many things going on, the best of them, the Messi’s of this world, the Ronaldo’s of this world, they become cold, no pressure, effortlessly just do what needs to be done.
When it comes to legal practice, it’s almost the same thing.
At times, you also put pressure on yourself, you want people to know you know what you are doing, so you put yourself under pressure to deliver.
One thing I have learnt, for a while now, I don’t put myself under pressure to deliver or impress.
We are human beings, right. It’s difficult because pressure is part of life.
I feel like we just become cold in the moment of execution or delivering allows you to do a better job.
Can You Tell Us Your Vision For Your Legal Career And How You Plan To Achieve It ? And Also Your Advice To Our Audience Who Want To Venture Into Law
My advice would be, if you want to be on the highest level then you have to have a high level of scrutiny.
The Messi’s of this world, the Ronaldo’s of this world, they are always scrutinized, they are always critiqued.
As a footballer, you want to play in the world cup finals, you want to play in the Champions League Finals, that kind of stuff comes with high pressure and they are also the best places to be at.
If you don’t want intensity, you would probably never do anything great in life.
If you want intensity, be ready to go through the rigor, be ready to go through the process.
That’s what I would tell younger people, so enough of the “this place is hard”. It means you probably don’t want it enough.
But, if you want to be at the highest level, you must go through the rigor.
Then, in terms of my vision, it’s just being a problem solver, being at the top of my career, being that guy that gets the job down for his clients, etcetera. That’s it, and by God’s grace it would happen.