While working in Nigeria, more than 5,000 miles from home, attorney Veronica Finkelstein experienced many memorable moments — including power outages. 

“I was inspired by the way lawyers in Nigeria roll with the punches. The electricity goes out, and they don’t even flinch. They just turn the flashlight on, on their phone, and keep going,” says Professor Finkelstein of Wilmington University School of Law. “They face a lot of challenges that lawyers in the United States do not face, and they persevere with a really positive attitude.” 

NITA Programming 

A longtime volunteer with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), Professor Finkelstein recently visited Nigeria for a five-day workshop designed to “teach advocates realistic and useful trial skills.” 

“I do a lot of public interest programs in the United States, and I have always felt like that is one of the ways that I do the most good and give back to the community,” Professor Finkelstein says. “But when you go to a place like Nigeria and you teach skills to those lawyers that they can turn around and teach to other lawyers, you really do a tremendous amount of good and have an impact much greater than the impact that you could have elsewhere.”  

She received a warm welcome in Lagos, describing it as a multicultural, densely populated, industrial city, where a modern building may stand next to a canvas-topped craft market. Lawyers there face heavy caseloads. 

“The judges said that they will hear 20 cases in a day — every single day, five days a week — and they still have a tremendous backlog of cases,” says Professor Finkelstein, who joined other international faculty members from NITA and the U.S.-based law firm Jones Day to help “support a system that’s more functional.”   

“NITA’s program with the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender (OPB) is the crown jewel of NITA’s Africa Rule of Law programming,” says NITA representative Marsi Mangan. “It has quickly become the model for similar advocacy skills trainings in Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar, with expansion into Ghana and Ethiopia expected next year.” 

Lagos State Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu considers the training program “a significant step forward in his administration’s ongoing commitment to ensuring access to justice for all Lagosians, particularly the most vulnerable,” according to a news release. 

Trial Advocacy Training 

As part of the workshop, the team simulated a discrimination case in the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, a specialized court for labor and employment suits. Professor Finkelstein co-authored the case file about an employee fired for having HIV. 

“In a place with limited resources, with a lot of attorneys who are relatively new who have to defend clients in an incredibly wide array of cases, to see them take a case that I’ve written and bring it to life and find new meaning in it, it is incredibly rewarding,” Professor Finkelstein says. 

She appreciates the opportunity and her colleagues’ encouragement. 

“WilmU has been incredibly supportive of my NITA teaching and recognizes the value,” Professor Finkelstein says. “Every time I teach in one of these programs, I come back having learned something new, and I can turn around and impart that wisdom to the Wilmington (University) law students.” 

For more about the workshop, watch Official Lagos Television’s coverage.

Learn more at Wilmington University.