Professional Ethics and Legal Malpractice: Managing Accountability in Nigerian Law Firms

Professional ethics form the cornerstone of legal practice, underpinning public confidence in the administration of justice. Legal malpractice, encompassing breach of professional duty, conflicts of interest, and misappropriation of client funds, continues to attract significant disciplinary attention from the Nigerian Bar Association and the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. This study examines how Nigerian law firms, particularly mid-sized practices operating in Lagos and Abuja, manage accountability for professional misconduct. A professional case study methodology was employed, drawing on structured interviews with senior partners, compliance officers, and disciplinary committee members, alongside analysis of disciplinary proceedings published by the NBA between 2019 and 2024. Secondary sources include the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners 2007, academic texts on legal ethics, and comparative bar association governance studies. The findings reveal that internal accountability mechanisms in Nigerian law firms are underdeveloped, with few firms maintaining dedicated ethics compliance programmes or formal client complaint handling procedures. Disciplinary proceedings at the national level are protracted and rarely result in firm-level structural reforms. The study recommends mandatory ethics management training as a condition of annual practising certificate renewal, establishment of firm-level ethics officers, and simplification of the disciplinary complaints procedure for clients. This research contributes professional practice guidance to the discourse on lawyer regulation and accountability in Nigeria. Keywords: legal malpractice, professional ethics, NBA, law firm management, disciplinary proceedings.