There is a particular silence that settles over you after the last paper at Law School. For months your life has run on a timetable: lectures, group work, attendance, mock exams and the steady pressure of knowing that everything was building towards one week of examinations. Then that week ends, you hand in your script, and for the first time in a long while nobody is telling you where to be.
What comes next is the wait for Bar Final results, and it can take several weeks. Some graduates spend it well. Others spend it sleeping late, scrolling through every rumour about when results will drop, and slowly losing the discipline that carried them through school. When Call to Bar finally arrives, the first group often already has an NYSC placement, a few useful contacts and some idea of the kind of lawyer they want to be (even when the law school result doesn't match their expectations). The second group is starting from scratch.
The difference is rarely intelligence. It is usually what each person decided to do with those few weeks of uncertainty.
What follows are ten things worth doing in that period, roughly in order of urgency. The quotes are illustrative, drawn from experiences that young Nigerian lawyers commonly describe.
1. Rest, and Be Honest About the Anxiety of Waiting
Nobody talks enough about how unsettling the waiting period can be. During the exams, at least, you had something to do. Afterwards there is only time to replay questions in your head, second-guess answers and react to every rumour in the class WhatsApp group.
“The waiting was worse than the exams. I kept replaying one Criminal Litigation question for weeks. What helped was muting the class group and giving my days some structure again.” Femi, Lagos
Rest is necessary. Law School is draining, and you will not be much use to any employer if you arrive already exhausted. But rest works best when it has a shape and an end. Take a proper break, see family, do things that have nothing to do with law, and then set a specific date to restart. Limit how much time you spend on result rumours, because they change nothing except your peace of mind. If the worry becomes overwhelming, talk to someone you trust rather than carrying it alone. Your result is already written. What you do while you wait for it is still up to you.
2. Start Applying for NYSC Trainee Associate Places Now
If you do only one thing from this list in the first month, make it this one. Many firms and organisations start looking for corps members well before Call to Bar, and by the time some graduates begin searching, the most sought-after places have already been filled. Graduates who wait until after Call to Bar are often left choosing from whatever remains, or accepting a posting that has nothing to do with law.
It helps to change how you think about the service year. It is not just a compulsory year to get through before your real career begins. For a law graduate, it is often your first sustained experience of practice: the first time you draft documents that are actually filed, sit in on client meetings, or take responsibility for a file. Many lawyers were retained by the firm where they served, and many more built relationships during that year that shaped the rest of their careers.
You can find NYSC trainee associate roles listed in one place at trthrive.com/nysc. The platform NYSC page offers a directory of over 550 law firms you can send a cold or speculative email to. They might or might not be recruiting associates but it is worth just sending them the application. Some might be actively recruiting with deadlines or dedicated application links. So keep an eye on Thrive or on social media platforms.
Thrive also has a Swipe to Apply feature lets you apply straight from your phone by swiping, without needing a laptop and without writing a new cover letter from scratch for every application. That matters more than it sounds. It's possible you don't have a laptop, and the effort of writing a fresh letter for each firm is exactly what stops people applying widely. Removing that barrier means you can apply to many good firms (as many as possible) instead of just two or three.
Apply broadly. The big names are worth trying, but smaller practices and regional chambers also give corps members more real work and closer supervision. Keep a simple record of where you have applied and when, so you can follow up politely and won’t lose track when responses start to arrive. You can do all of these on Thrive anyway.
3. Reconnect With the People You Met During Externship
During court and law office attachments, most students meet more practising lawyers in a few weeks than they have in their whole university career. Then Law School ends, everyone scatters, and those contacts quietly fade. If you really enjoyed working with the lawyers, then reviving them is one of the most valuable things you can do in the waiting period, and it costs nothing but a few thoughtful messages. (The case might be different if you didn't enjoy working with the lawyers)
“I sent three lines to the senior associate who supervised me during externship, just thanking her and asking for advice on NYSC placements. Two weeks later, she offered to pass my CV to the partner.” Akin, Lagos
The key is to ask for advice, not to demand a job, and to make your message personal enough that the person remembers you. Mention something specific they taught you or a matter you worked on together. Beyond your externship contacts, think about lecturers who knew your work, senior alumni from your faculty, and lawyers whose work you have followed online. Not every message will get a reply, but almost none get a reply unless they’re sent. Relationships in this profession are built slowly, and the best time to start is before you urgently need something.
4. Volunteer at a Firm or Chambers Near You
If the thought of spending two or three months at home with nothing structured to do worries you, there is a simple option that surprisingly few graduates consider: approach a law firm or chambers near where you live and offer to help for a few weeks.
“I walked into a chambers near my family house in Osogbo and asked if I could assist while I waited for results. In two months I learned more about real practice than in my whole externship.” Ayo, Abuja
This works best when you are clear about what you’re offering and what you’re asking for. Say that you’re awaiting your results, that you want practical exposure, and that you’re happy to help with research, drafting, filing or anything else that’s useful. Don’t expect payment, and be reliable, because a principal who takes a chance on you will notice quickly whether you turn up on time. Small practices often welcome the help, and because they’re small, you’re more likely to be given real work rather than photocopying. The experience also gives you something concrete to talk about in NYSC placement interviews, which many of your peers won’t have.
5. Get Your Finances and Documents in Order
This is the least glamorous point on the list, and one of the most important. The period between Law School and your first salary can be financially demanding, and many graduates are caught off guard by how quickly the costs pile up.
Call to Bar alone involves the call fees, a wig and gown, bands, suitable outfits and, for many people, travel to the venue and somewhere to stay. Then come the costs of NYSC mobilisation and, if you get a placement in another city, accommodation, transport and daily living expenses until the first allowance or stipend arrives. Graduates who have planned for these costs move through the transition calmly. Those who haven’t often find themselves borrowing at the last minute or turning down a good placement because they cannot afford to relocate.
Sit down and make a realistic budget, even a rough one. Find out the actual Call to Bar costs instead of guessing, and talk to your family early if you will need their support. At the same time, gather your documents: original certificates and copies, your statement of results when available, passport photographs, and whatever details you will need for NYSC registration. Keep scanned copies in a folder you can reach from your phone. It’s a small task that will save you hours of stress later.
6. Test the Direction You Think You Want
You don’t need to decide what kind of lawyer you’ll be for the next thirty years. But you’ll make much better applications, and much better use of your service year, if you have some idea of where you want to start.
A useful exercise is to look back honestly at Law School and your attachments. Which parts did you genuinely enjoy? Some people discover that they come alive in a courtroom and can’t stand the paperwork of corporate transactions. Others find the reverse. Some realise they’re more drawn to policy, regulatory work, technology, human rights or in-house roles than to traditional practice. Once you have two or three possibilities, test them. Read recent articles in those areas, follow lawyers who work in them, and ask one or two of them what their working days actually look like.
Treat your conclusions as a starting point, not a commitment. Plenty of excellent lawyers began in one area and moved to another after a few years. The aim is simply to stop applying everywhere at random, which tends to produce generic applications and a service year that teaches you less than it could.
7. Sharpen the Skills a Junior Lawyer Actually Uses
Law School teaches you the procedure. It doesn’t always teach you the everyday skills that make a junior lawyer useful from the first week, and supervisors notice those skills quickly.
Think about what a new associate actually does. They write professional emails to clients and colleagues, often under time pressure. They prepare first drafts of letters, agreements and court processes. They find the most recent authority on a point and summarise it clearly. They format documents properly in Word, use track changes without making a mess, and keep files organised so that anyone can find what they need. None of this is glamorous, but a junior who does these things well earns trust far faster than one who knows more law but needs every document redone.
Use the waiting period to practise deliberately. Draft a tenancy agreement and compare it with a good precedent. Write a short legal opinion on a recent judgment. Learn the Word features most lawyers ignore, such as styles, automatic numbering and tables of contents. If you can get a practising lawyer to review even one piece of your drafting, the feedback will be worth more than hours of reading.
8. Write Something Worth Reading, and Start Building Your Expertise
Writing is one of the few ways to show what you know before anyone has hired you. A thoughtful, well-researched article on a legal development tells a prospective employer far more about your ability than any list of certificates. It also matters a great deal if you are even slightly drawn to academia, which many graduates wrongly assume is something to think about only after years in practice.
“I answered one call for papers on data protection while waiting for results. That single publication led to research assistant work with a lecturer and later strengthened my master’s scholarship application.” Tolu, LLM candidate
Look out for calls for papers from Nigerian law journals, student law reviews and academic conferences, and aim for one strong submission rather than several rushed ones. Choose a topic you can research properly, and ask a lecturer or senior colleague to read your draft before you submit it. If academia appeals to you, contact lecturers whose work interests you and ask whether they need research help. Look into master’s programmes and scholarships early as well, because many have application deadlines months before the programmes start and ask for a writing sample. Even if you end up in practice, the habit of careful writing will serve you for the rest of your career.
9. Take One High-Quality Course, Not Ten Certificates
The waiting period is when many graduates collect online certificates the way some people collect stamps. A dozen webinars later, they have a folder full of PDFs and very little to show for them.
A better approach is to choose one serious course connected to the direction you are exploring and actually finish it. Universities and recognised institutions offer substantial online courses in areas such as international arbitration, data protection, corporate finance, legal technology and negotiation, and many are free or affordable. Pick one that requires real effort, such as assignments, reading and assessment, rather than one that issues a certificate for simply attending.
Then make the learning visible. If you complete a course in data protection, write a short piece comparing Nigeria’s framework with another jurisdiction’s. If you study arbitration, follow a few recent awards or institutional rules and be ready to discuss them in an interview. An employer won’t be impressed that you watched something online. They’ll be impressed that you can talk sensibly about what you learned.
10. Show Up Where the Profession Gathers
Some of the most useful conversations in a legal career happen in rooms you could easily have skipped: the networking session after a conference, the coffee break at a seminar, the casual chat at a book launch. Graduates who only ever apply through online forms miss a whole layer of opportunities that never get advertised.
Make a habit of checking trthrive.com/event regularly for legal events, summits and seminars, and pick a few that genuinely interest you. Many are free or affordable, and some are entirely online, so you don’t need to live in Lagos or Abuja to take part. When you attend, go with a purpose: listen properly, ask one considered question, and introduce yourself to at least one or two people. Follow up afterwards with a short message referring to something specific you discussed.
You don’t need to work the room like a seasoned partner. Turning up consistently, being curious and being remembered as pleasant and prepared is enough. Over time, those small encounters add up to a network.
A Final Word
It’s easy to treat the time between Law School and Call to Bar as dead time, a pause before life properly begins. But the profession doesn’t pause while you wait. Firms are filling NYSC places, lecturers are looking for research assistants, journals are reviewing submissions, and events are bringing people together whether or not you’re there.
You don’t have to do all ten of these things, and you certainly don’t have to do them all at once. Rest first. Then choose the few that matter most for where you are and where you hope to go, and give them real effort. If you only manage to secure a good NYSC placement, reconnect with two people from your externship and write one strong article, you’ll still arrive at Call to Bar far better prepared than you would have been.
The graduates who come out of this period ahead are rarely the ones with unusual advantages. They are the ones who used the waiting on purpose.
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.