VP Osinbajo Delivers Keynote Address At Law Pavilion Legal & Technology Virtual Gathering On 13/08/2020

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KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AT THE 2020 LAW PAVILION TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE THEMED “A NEW PARADIGM IN JUSTICE DELIVERY” ON THURSDAY 13TH AUGUST, 2020

Let me thank the proprietors of Law Pavilion and the TELNET Group for the very kind invitation to me to make these remarks at this very unique Legal Technology Conference.

As I congratulate you on this landmark gathering that you have boldly described as a new paradigm in justice delivery, let me at least make a partial if not a full disclosure. My former law firm and a group of others have been partners with Law Pavilion for many years and I have watched very keenly how through the years the company has blazed the trail along with other Legal Tech companies in innovating for our administration of justice system.

Almost on a yearly basis the team at the Law Pavilion has consistently introduced new technology products for justice delivery. We are all extremely proud of your resourcefulness and the hard work that you have put behind all of these through the years.

Our world has changed dramatically. In March this year with the COVID-19 pandemic, something happened that clearly redefined everything that we knew to be normal. No nation was prepared for what we are experiencing today.

First, a lockdown, our movements restricted within the walls of our homes. Even as that eased it appears that with social distancing and the rules against crowded spaces, the world is set for a new paradigm defined by very limited human interaction. It is a paradigm that technology innovation appears to have predicted.

When years ago the likes of Law Pavilion and other groups went from State judiciary to State judiciary, preaching a message of technology-assisted processing of cases, including virtual court proceedings, they seemed to be literarily living in the clouds, if you will pardon the pun.

No one believed the day would come when the Supreme Court would, as it has now done, endorse Virtual Court Proceedings. Or that the day will come when e-filing of court processes will be considered even medically safer than the physical filing of court processes.

Even judges today, will, of course, prefer virtual processes to in-person proceedings. In any event, no one even wants to be in a crowded courtroom.  With all the jokes and vicious jibes against lawyers, no one ever predicted the ultimate irony of compulsory mouth covering for advocates in court! Such is the time we are in.

So, we are at a fortuitous but incredibly auspicious convergence in human history. Technology and the fourth industrial revolution, are no longer luxuries but they are the inevitable substructure of our new way of life.

For the administration of justice system, change has surely come, and I am personally excited to see how easily our entire judicial system is willingly adapting to innovation.

First, only a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court endorsed virtual court proceedings. The reform of adjectival laws, all our rules of procedures and laws of evidence, is a far-sighted one. This is because years ago, we embraced electronically generated evidence. Besides, our courts have also made several favourable pronouncements opening the way to a more favourable attitude to the use of technology tools in procedure and proof.

In the next few years, we are bound to see even more changes. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a bigger role in our court systems. I am told that Law Pavilion is already pioneering an AI-Powered Speech-to-Text Transcription System to replace writing in longhand and even the traditional slow stenographic recording.

They also have the AI-Powered Document Review System that helps judges quickly extract authorities and laws cited in any legal documents, outlines and analyses the principles relied upon. So, now there is a facility that allows judges, by introducing written material into the system, to quickly analyze cases that have been cited in those documents without any human interference. This is aside from the comprehensive court proceedings software that they have now perfected.

Your Excellencies, my Lords, whether we like it or not, nothing can ever be the same again. Legal practice is also in a flux for those of us who are lawyers. Artificial Intelligence will make research a million times faster, the lawyer may no longer be required for several categories of legal advice. There are already apps updated to the latest positions in legislation and case law.

So, the lawyer can no longer just be a technician, somebody who just looks up the law and tells a client what the law says. The lawyer (As I said to a group of students of law last week) must become a multi-disciplinary, multi-tasking tech-savvy person of affairs, that is who a lawyer must be, now.

The democratization of law and justice is now on fast-track. The question that we should ask ourselves is, what should we be doing? I think that is already being answered by Tech companies like Law Pavilion. Tech companies must now innovate even more. We must now have purpose-built virtual proceedings software that takes into account the various needs of trials and other court proceedings. By that, I mean, it may longer be useful using virtual meeting software like Zoom and other all-purpose virtual meeting software. We now need our own type of software that is adapted to specifically court cases, that enables us to do the things that we do physically, virtually. This sort of innovation is where we expect our Tech companies to go now.

There will be opportunities for retraining of judicial personnel, lawyers, and paralegal staff, the new normal calls for new skills and new ways of doing old things and doing away with many old habits.

Already, my Lord the Chief Justice has set the example of adaptation to the new paradigm. This is my second virtual meeting with my Lord, the Chief Justice in barely four days. So, if my Lord, the Chief Justice who represents not just the new but the contradictions of the Justice system is ready to adapt so quickly and is adapting so well, then shame on the rest of us if we don’t adapt very quickly to what is going on.

Let me say in conclusion that, the Federal Government of Nigeria is committed to doing everything possible to support Tech companies especially those that are concerned with the administration of justice system. If you look at the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), there is a whole section devoted to innovation. And I think that, as much as possible, tech companies such as Law Pavilion should take advantage of some of the offerings in the ESP and also in the current work that the Ministry of Communications and Digital Technology is doing. There is so much opportunity for collaboration with government at this time.

Again, just to congratulate Law Pavilion and TELNET Group on this conference and bringing us together to look at how the new normal will play out and what our roles will be in this new normal.

Thank you once again, and God bless you.