An association of Nigerian non-litigation lawyers has asked the National Industrial Court of Nigeria to halt the 2026 Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, conferment exercise.
The suit is the latest development in a legal battle between the non-litigation lawyers, under the umbrella Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, and the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and its Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC, over ALDRAP’s introduction of the Blue Silks rank as an alternative to the SAN title.
ALDRAP and its Executive Director, Dr Tonye Clinton Jaja, had asked the Abuja Federal High Court to stop the NBA and the LPPC from interfering in the conferment of the Blue Silks rank – conceived as an alternative to the SAN rank for non-litigation lawyers. ALDRAP subsequently approached the Court of Appeal after the Abuja Federal High Court, presided by Justice James Omotosho, granted an order of perpetual injunction restraining it from conferring the Blue Silks rank.
In the suit at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, dated June 25, 2026 and filed on the same date, ALDRAP argued that the release a list of 89 applicants shortlisted for conferment of the SAN rank by the LPPC was sub-judice as the matter relates to pending litigation.
The Chairman, Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee, LPPC; Mr Kabir Akanbi, Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and Secretary of the LPPC; and the LPPC were listed as respondents in the suit filed by ALDRAP at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria through its lawyer,
