Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-3240 (Paper) ISSN 2224-3259 (Online) Vol.39, 2015 63 Legal Education in the 21st Century Nigeria: Need for Diversity in Content Paradigm Ogugua V.C. Ikpeze Department of International Law and Jurisprudence, Faculty of Law, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria Abstract Many aspects of education including legal education are driven by new market dynamics of demand and supply.The old adage remains that law is an instrument of social engineering, and the addendum is that lawyers are part and parcel of agents of social engineering resulting to change. Therefore legal education must diversify for Law, law students and lawyers to impact positively in today’s world. Perhaps these concepts explain the ever growing course content, in the current legal education curriculum. This paper seeks to: 1. examine the previous course content in legal education and the current courses as well as the frequency of assessment. 2. The impact of present curriculum modalities for legal education and 3. Effects of innovations in legal education on Nigerian lecturers, students and society at large. The methodology is based on literature review, classroom experience, and societal reactions to lawyers and public interest lawyer-ring. It examines whether there is adequate diversification of courses for legal education in Nigeria and what needs to be done to effectively maintain relevance of law and the legal professional within and outside the Nigerian society. Key words: Legal education, Nigeria, content diversity 1.1 Introduction: The dynamics of globalisation and expansion in commercial transactions constantly demand that law intervenes in political, economic and social interactions. This in turn involves members of the legal profession. Therefore, law and legal education cannot be static. At the outset, legal education was non-existent in Nigeria. Lawyers were trained abroad especially in Britain. Nigeria being a colony of Britain, borrowed from the British legal System. The first attempt to regulate the legal profession in Nigeria was by: Section 1 of the Supreme Court Ordinance 1876. It provided for 3 categories of persons who can practice law in Nigeria to be those appointed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) and must be as provided in the following sections: Section 71 – Persons who were entitled to practice law in Great Britain as Barristers or Solicitors. They could practice in both capacities in Nigeria. Section 73 - Persons who had been articled for five consecutive years in the office of a practicing Barrister or Solicitor residing within jurisdiction of the Court and who had passed examinations on the principles and practices of law prescribed by the Chief Justice. Section 74 - Persons of good character who had acquired some working knowledge of law. They were temporarily admitted for a renewable periods of six months to practice as Persons in the following categories a. Barristers b. Solicitors c.Proctors. They were not trained. Interestingly the Council of legal Education (CLE) somewhat augmented their training. Persons in Sections 73 and 74 were called Local Attorneys. By 1914, the Local Attorneys were phased out and only trained and qualified practitioners were allowed to practice. 335 335 Only those called as Barristers in any of the 4 Inns of Court in England – The Grays Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple