What is the rate of employment of lawyers in Kenya?

Answer 1

The rate of employment of Lawyers in Kenya is dependent upon several variables. A fresh graduate of law should consider whether they want to practice law at the bar as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya or whether they want to get employed in the private sector as legal officers or if they fancy their chances in the academia.

Should they decide to practice at the Bar, they are expected to attend the Kenya School of Law as made mandatory by the Advocates Act for the conferment of a Diploma. This as currently stands is a one year clinical programme at the end of which one sits a Council of Legal Education Exam that serves as the Bar Entry exam at the Kenya School of Law plus an extra six months thereafter receiving instructions at the Chambers of an established advocate of not less that five years experience.

Should they satisfy these provisions, one is admitted to the Bar. Ordinarily there is a period of time about 3 months to 8 months which one may have to wait during the petitioning for admission. During this time, the pupil master has no obligation to continue engaging the young lawyer. However, some firms use this as an opportunity to further engage in the training of potential employees and thus retain them on the basis of their merit and experience at the law firm during their pupillage. This is called the holding over period where one may be engaged not as a pupil but as a legal assistant.

Upon admission, the young advocate is expected to further act under the instructions of a senior qualified advocate for another mandatory period of two years. Ordinarily most firms will tend to retain their trainee recruits. In some instances some law firms will advertise for new recruits from the market. Turn over of advocates at law firms with some two to seven year experience is high as some leave to start their own firms, for higher education, to join the corporate world or the Public Service. It is instructive to note that certain cadre of lawyers employed in the civil service known as state counsels are employed by the state under the Attorney General. The Attorney General's Chambers for all means and purposes is a law firm albeit a public one.

For Lawyers wishing to join the private sector, their chances of employability are few and far between. One has to have a rapport with several people in order to know who is employing and when. It also requires that the young lawyer to have outstanding academic credentials and may further require that they learn some extra skill such as take up and pass the Certified Public Secretary Programme (CPS) in order to become a Legal Officer. These types will ordinarily not practise in court. It is important to note that private sector in this regard refers to NGO's, Private and Public Companies registered under the Companies Act, Banks and Micro-finance institutions and all other organisations commonly refered to as non-legal employers. Recent trends however show that such employers are increasingly looking for persons who can handle both litigation and the tasks as legal officers requiring young recruits to have either a masters degree level of education or a practising certificate as an advocate or both.

The young lawyer may also opt to engage in research and academia where the minimum requirements are a postgraduate degree i.e a Legum Magister degree (LLM). There are several institutions of higher learning with fully fledged law schools or faculties. There are also many mushrooming colleges and various tertiary institutions offering diplomas and certificates in Law, and those that involve a law component to their traing such as business law in the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) course that may provide opposrtunity for employment of a lawyer.

This answer would be incomplete if mention is not made of the fact that the Law Schools and Faculties in Kenya, its neighbouring countries and other commonwealth jurisdictions churn out hundreds of lawyers yearly. The economy has done well to absorb most of these so far but is almost reaching saturation. Therefore opporunities are getting more and more scarce due to stiff competition with low rates of return to the lawyer. However, with the continued realisation of the importance of legal practitioners, it is common knowledge that there is always room for the very best.