MALILA GOES FOR LAWYERS
…some will stop at nothing to satisfy their
large appetite for material wealth – Malila
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
CHIEF Justice Mumba Malila says some lawyers have got large appetite for material wealth even if it means being accessories to crimes.
And Dr Malila has described corruption as a public enemy and killer.
Opening the Law Association of Zambia’s annual law conference at Avani Hotel yesterday, Dr Malila challenged lawyers to uphold professional ethics and help fight corruption.
“It is an embarrassment to the legal profession, is it not, that there are some lawyers who do not take the ideals of this noble profession seriously and only think of ways of fleecing the country or their clients of their resources. Some lawyers, I grieve to say, will stop at nothing to satisfy their large appetite for material wealth, sometimes using incongruous ways to make money and more money, even if this means being accessories to crimes, especially those involving corruption,” he told delegates. “To put it crudely, some of your members, Mr president [Abyudi Shonga], must work at addressing the deficit in them of good fiscal morals and professional ethics. Is it not a matter of serious regret that we see lawyers, in dramatically increasing numbers, standing up at forums away from the courts, not to fight corruption, but to root for corruption instead?”
He said some lawyers seemed not to have respect for their oath of office and conscience.
“…Some of our lawyers appear to have neither respect for their oath of office and calling nor reverence for good conscience. In keeping with the best traditions of the legal profession, lawyers should not skirt the edges of legal ethics when it comes to representing suspects. What the lawyer accepts to do and how he does it should not, in my humble view, be determined merely by how much power or influence the person being represented holds or how much money he or she is willing to pay for legal services,” Dr Malila continued. “What is self-evident today is that some lawyers, probably labouring under the erroneous view that they are rather ‘hot stuff’, become culprits in the calculated or systemic delays in concluding corruption cases, employing what can fairly be described as ‘Fabian tactics’ designed to derail what should otherwise be straight forward proceedings. They choose to bring about an intricate mesh of tactical manoeuvres under which the substantive merits of the cases before the courts become blurred or buried, using all the while, due process considerations to turn proceedings into highly legalistic and costly affairs. For the courts concerned, this invariably strikes at their autonomy and leadership in judicial proceedings and, while litigation winds its laborious ways through the procedural maze and the delay that ensues, institutional paralysis of sorts is sometimes experienced.”
Dr Malila cited how certain lawyers have done wrong things against society.
He specifically cited the Financial Intelligence Reports where some law firms have been mentioned in money laundering activities.
“Have we not heard fairly disturbing reports of lawyers being party to wrong doing in the course of performing what are supposedly fiduciary duties on behalf of their clients, especially corporate ones, commingling financial accounts and creating highly disconcerting conflict of interest situations? We have heard, have we not, stories of lawyers being cited in the Trends Reports by the Financial Intelligence Centre for being possible architects or accomplices in corruption and money laundering activities,” he asked. “We have equally heard of lawyers being convicted of fraudulent conduct, and even then, continuing in their odious ways of deceiving
innocent consumers of legal services while on bail pending appeal. And, in some cases, we have unfortunately heard of lawyers seemingly colluding with adjudicators and court support staff, either directly or through third parties, and sometimes with opposing counsel, to defeat the course of justice.”
Dr Malila also gave an example of judicial officers who have been involved in pecuniary demands.
He said there could be no hope of winning the fight against corruption if lawyers were involved in perpetuating the vice.
“More grievously, we have also heard of lawyers who are adjudicators exerting wrongful pressure or making inappropriate pecuniary demands on litigants. We cannot hope to win the fight against corruption if some of our legal experts maintain this kind of mindset towards the scourge of corruption. I think, Mr president, that it’s high time that lawyers who have progressively cast themselves in the role of antagonists in the fight against corruption must be made to recognise their own responsibility to temper the demands of their financial interests with proper considerations for the collective economic well-being of our country and its people, recognising always that they too, must take a broader view of the Zambian society’s aspirations and general good than the legalistic,” Dr Malila said. “Pyrrhic victories, which will vindicate what is legal but not necessarily what is ‘right’ in the context of the larger society’s aspirations, may be won in the courtroom but that should not be the endgame. Lawyers, especially good ones, must realise that there is greater injustice to the Zambian people when they play for time or employ Fabian tactics in legal proceedings, all in the quest to frustrate justice or to get richer at the expense of real justice for the majority poor. After all, the Holy Book proclaims that a good name is better than riches. We should all, as players in the justice sector be rightly concerned with the poverty of our people brought about by corruption.”
He reminded delegates about how shameful it is that some countries poorer than Zambia have maintained their corruption levels at a low.
“Is it not a shame, that we witness some of our neighbouring countries which are far less endowed with natural resources than we are, but which have succeeded in keeping corruption levels low, scoring tremendous economic development while we regress economically,” he said. “Whether they be adjudicators or transaction advisors or defence counsel or prosecutors, or what not, corrupt lawyers are uniquely unsuited for any responsibility or leadership role in the legal firmament and outside it, whether in this season or beyond it. They inflict enormous reputational carnage to your profession. In its vetting responsibility in appointments to critical legal positions, your Association should make it a practice to doubly check that it is not
only the prescribed qualifications that should count when people are to be entrusted with public engagements, a background of immaculate morality, irreproachable integrity, pure intentions and grounded patriotism must be confirmed too. You ought as an Association of learned men and women to know how to separate the wheat from the chaff in the profession.”
He implored lawyers to be agents of social change.
“It is my humble submission, Mr president, that as the good agents of social change which they must be, lawyers should be in the frontline in the reorientation of the mind-set of the Zambian people in the renewed fight against corruption and the social and economic renaissance generally. They must all, individually and collectively, commit to the creation of a clean legal system which is a sine qua non to defeating corruption,” Dr Malila said. “As a clean legal system must come from unblemished characters, corruption within the legal profession, grand or petty, must be eradicated first. We need credible transaction legal advisors; we need credible prosecutors; credible defence counsel and credible adjudicators too, if the law is to be truly advanced as an instrument for economic growth, social order and justice in this country.”
And Dr Malila asked lawyers to view corruption as a public enemy.
“We must all view corruption as a ‘public enemy’ for corruption is not just a character problem or one of misadventure or merely wrong behaviour which affects only a handful of members of the society; it is an economic crime that affects us or our own directly. It is not just money and opportunity unjustly lost or stolen; corruption is also a killer,” said Dr Malila. “Think, for example, about the patient who dies from substandard medication corruptly procured in lieu of genuine, efficacious medication. …The reassuring news, Mr. President, is that by far the majority of your members and our adjudicators are decent men and women who have the craving to combat corruption and create a clean legal environment. These lawyers must be encouraged to stand up and fold their sleeves to do battle with graft. On the other side of the spectrum, those few of your members with an inclination for fueling sleaze must be encouraged to deliberately purge themselves of their dishonest tendencies and, wherever possible, they must be roped into the fight against corruption.”
And LAZ president Abyudi Shonga called for the fight against sexual harassment or sexual extortion amongst lawyers.
He noted that this may be an uncouth topic to discuss but that it must be discarded.