The crimes lawyers commit and outsmart the law.

The law profession is generally believed to be a noble profession but questions are: Is the profession really noble? Are lawyers noble as well? To what extent do lawyers assist criminals to escape justice either based on technicalities or corruption? Lawyers as we know play a crucial role in upholding justice and protecting the rights of individuals only if they want. However, like other professions, the legal profession has no immunity to acts of criminality, corruption, professional misconducts and criminal behaviours.

Someone is a lawyer does not mean that the fellow is an upright personality; newspapers have often reported cases where lawyers have been known to embezzle clients’ funds or steal from their law firms. Some have taken part in violent crimes and eventually made harvest of financial benefits.

Some lawyers engage in bribery and corruption, either by paying or accepting bribes to influence court decisions on government officials and more. There are also reports of judges who have compromised justices either because of financial inducements of amorous relationships. According to Punch newspaper of March 26 2016, titled, ‘I have no regret marrying judge who dissolved my marriage,” a Lagos State Customary Court Judge horridly dissolved a marriage between Adeyeri and Doyin and married the woman known as Doyin. There are several examples of such cases across West Africa. Under the act of fraudulent behaviours,  it is an indisputable fact that lawyers commit fraud by falsifying documents, misrepresenting facts, or engaging in other deceitful practices in order to win their cases and smile to the banks. The case of Rocky Mount Mayor C. Holland Perdue III is a good example. According to reports, “Rocky Mount Mayor C. Holland Perdue III faced legal trouble for allegedly falsifying court documents in a civil case. The case involved a contested will where Perdue represented a widow, Valerie Venning, who missed a deadline to file a claim against her late husband’s estate. Perdue is accused of submitting a document with an incorrect filing date, and a motion for sanctions was filed against him.”

The act of obstructing justice finds prominence and expression in the hearts of lawyers in many countries across the globe and that is indeed very sad. Many lawyers do not in any way deserve the honour and respect the general public accord to them. Our learned men and women have consistently obstructed justice by deliberately tampering with evidence, intimidating witnesses, or interfering with investigations and at times sponsor the killing of witnesses in cold blood. According to Aljazeera of 18 September 2019, under the title, Killing of crown witness’s lawyer DerkWiersum shocks Amsterdam, the report says: “A Dutch lawyer in a high-profile case against a group of men charged with a series of drug-related killings was shot dead in Amsterdam on Wednesday morning, police said.”

Speculations emerged that the opponent lawyers in this case may allegedly know what really transpired. Also according to Fox, “NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A federal grand jury has returned an indictment accusing a disbarred attorney and a second New Orleans man with conspiring to murder an FBI informant in September 2020 to protect a sprawling insurance fraud scheme.”

The victim was identified as 44-year-old DerkWiersum, a defence lawyer for Nabil Bakkali, a crown witness in the case against 16 men accused of five murders and one attempted murder in the Netherlands between 2015 and 2017. What a world of learned gentlemen.

Across the world, many lawyers have become criminal companions of money launderers and most of them have got out with it. In 2024, Investigative Journalism Foundation released a report which claimed that Canadian lawyers play key role in money laundering. The foundation quoted a financial intelligence report.

It is sad that lawyers may be involved in money laundering schemes where they use their law firms as fronts for illicit activities.

Umuaka Times gathered that in the Panama Papers scandal, many lawyers and law firms were implicated in the Panama Papers scandal which involved large-scale tax evasion and money laundering activities by our men of noble profession. Also in the Enron scandal which occurred at Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas, our respected lords played criminal roles which involved corporate fraud and accounting irregularities.

Another sad area Umuaka Times correspondents found out was the area of human trafficking. Many lawyers across the world are human traffickers. In some cases, many lawyers have been accused of prominent participation in human trafficking, either directly or indirectly.

As an Africa proverb says, everyday for the thief and one day for the victim, lawyers who engage in such criminal and professional misconducts may one day face the long arm of the law, depending on who is in charge. Disbarment and loss of practicing license have always been the punishment stipulated by bar associations to control the excesses and criminal activities of our lords. Umuaka Times is not aware if this works in this part of the world.

It is very sad that the behaviour of some of our “learned” men of justice has at several times brought the legal profession to disrepute and many highly placed law firms have suffered under this regard. The solution here is, doctor, heal thyself! Could this be why William Shakespeare wrote: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”