Dean, Faculty of Law, BPP University, London, Professor Peter Crisp, is a visiting lecturer, particularly on Commercial Law at the Nigerian Law School, Abuja. At an event in Lagos recently, he discussed the evolution in legal practice, especially in commercial law, which is sweeping across the globe, the quest for Nigerian lawyers to acquire more knowledge in commercial law and the partnership of the law school with the BPP University, among other issues. Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, recounts the discussion.
Emerging practice on mortgages and securitisation
I lecture in mortgages and securitisation. I lectured Nigerian Law School students in Abuja. The principles of mortgages and securitisation are identical, both in England and Nigeria. Obviously, since Independence, Nigeria and England have developed different mechanisms and systems. But in order to explain securitisation to students, you get to have a good grasp of security and mortgages standard, an example of secured obligation. The problem with securitisation in stock crisis in 2008 rose after the fact that, politically, President Bill Clinton decided that banks should stop lending money to poor people, which of course meant interest rate was low and property price was rising. The problem is that they wanted to control inflation, but politicians interfered and then added interest rates. People were unable to keep up with their repayments and then, you have all these bad debts. It was not even securitised. For example, the loan bonds had been sold by the banks to the institutional investors. They are sold as a special purpose vehicle. The bonds sold to institutional investors are highly securitised. It could be anywhere in the world. It could be in Lagos, Hong Kong, London or New York. Financial structures were very poorly computed, which resulted in poor quality debts that led to the financial crisis of 2009 when the chickens came home to roost.
So, it is an international topic, but it needs domestic context. Securitisation is developing fast now. We now have business securitisation. You can also securitise your future income streams. That is how, in football finance, a lot of football clubs raise money to buy players, by securitising the future income streams from televised fees and gate fees. They may predict the future income stream and securitise it. It is a fascinating example of how structured finance has had an impact on the world of football.
About BPP University
BPP University has three main schools. We have the school of law, which I am the dean; the business school and the school of health. In school of health, we have nursing, postgraduate, dentistry and psychology. In business school, we have marketing, tax, management, accountancy, human resources, and leadership. Accountancy and tax are our heritage. That is how we started. The law school started in 1992. We have students in eight locations. We have two locations in London. We have in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Cambridge. We do everything from LLB to master’s degrees. We are the largest undergraduate law degree institution in England with 17,000 students. We have specialisation in corporate finance law, debt finance, equities, mergers and acquisition and transactions. Because of that specialism, 39 international law firms do their trainings with us specifically. A lot of those firms send their trainees to BPP and nowhere else. So we are exclusive trainer to those students.
We do Islamic finance, Chinese business law, and financial regulation compliance as well as the three courses we have decided to deliver to Nigerian students. We are very much focused on the quality of teaching, and in the survey of national law students last year, BPP was rated number five for the quality of teaching. That was behind Oxford University, Cambridge University and University College London. We are happy to be behind those ones. That was a great honour for us, a great tribute for what we do.
Partnership with the Nigerian Law School
This came about following a visit to Nigeria by my vice chancellor, Professor Carl Lygo, about 18 months ago and lectured at Lagos campus of the law school, and met with the director-general. We then had a response courtesy visit by the director-general of the Nigerian Law School, Olanrewaju Onadeko, who came last year to BPP University, London. And in those visits and discussions, we came up with the idea of offering Nigerian Law School graduates a master’s degree in law. They have to qualify as lawyers in Nigeria to be able to apply. It is only open to Nigerians. We felt that we could create about 90 credits. That 90 credits will be taken in four months. In that four months, they will have to complete the third module of their chosen area and start the citation. It is a very flexible programme. What it does is that it allows students to choose a special area as well as their area of practice which is in three subjects – comparative commercial law, transnational criminal justice and the international business law. These subjects are relevant to Nigerian lawyers. It allows them to get a master’s qualification without a full-year expenses in London.
London is an expensive city to live in. It also gives them the opportunity to experience the culture of another vibrant capital city. This programme is principally for anybody who has graduated from the Nigerian Law School. The cost of the programme is £4,200 (about N1.2 million). We are also set to launch two scholarship schemes which would be awarded by the Nigerian Law School, which would allow two citizens of Nigeria to study free of charge in London.
Qualification to practice
I understand there are qualifying law degrees in England and Wales. They call it Qualifying Law Degree (QLD). After that, you go and do the vocation programme. The qualification in England is a little more complicated than in Nigeria. You have to go and do QLD, same in Nigeria. You then do the legal practice course, if you want to come in as a solicitor, or bar course if you want to become a barrister. So it is a two-route thing, depending on what you want to do. After that, you have to go for a period of supervised training, and that is called a training contract. If you want to come in as solicitor, it is two years; and if you want to come in as barrister, it is one year, and it is called pupillage. It is slightly elongating, but slightly different process because the undergraduate degree here in Nigeria is five years while ours is three years. In fact the period of time is the same, the process is different.