About NLS and VLAIN

The Nigerian Law Society (NLS) received its certificate of registration dated 30th December 2025 as the one-and-only umbrella association of non-litigation Nigerian lawyers. While the Nigerian Bar Association-NBA is the umbrella association of litigation lawyers who have been called to Bar in accordance with the Legal Practitioners Act, 1962.
The lawyers and law graduates of the Nigerian Law Society (NLS) are legal professionals in the following areas of law under the following legislation as follows:
1. Paralegals and legal aid professionals under the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria Act, 2011;
2. Legislative drafting lawyers under the National Assembly Service Commission Act, 2014;
3. Arbitrators and mediators under the Arbitration and Mediation Act, 2023;
4. Companies incorporation professionals under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020;
5. Notary Public under the Notary Public Act, 2023;
6. Data controllers under the Nigerian Data Protection Commission Act, 2023;
7. Other areas of law too numerous to list here.

Based on a research study conducted in the year 2021, and updated in the year 2025, we identified that majority of Nigerians (over 70%) of the over 240,000,000 (two hundred and forty million) Nigerians are unable to receive pro bono or legal aid services from the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria whenever they are faced with legal problems and challenges.
The Legal Aid Council of Nigeria was established in the year 1979 by an Act of the National Assembly to provide free legal aid services to Nigerians who are indigent, and cannot afford the services of a lawyer. We discovered that one of the reasons for this inability is because the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria Act, 2011 does not provide for provision of legal aid services through the use of information communication technology (ICT). Another limitation of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria Act, 2011 is that the legal aid services is limited to criminal court cases which are already in court.

Legal aid services are not provided for landlord and tenant matters, debt recovery and drafting of legal documents for Nigerians who are involved in small and medium enterprises which is where 60% of Nigerian citizens are engaged in. We also believe that this aligns with your vision and mission of the Johnny Agim Foundation which is to provide grants that would positively impact the stakeholders and operators of small and medium enterprises in Nigeria.

Coincidentally, our Nigerian Law Society (NLS) enjoys a dual registration status under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) which was established by an Act of the National Assembly in the year 2003. Legal aid services are restricted to physical and face-to-face contact at the offices of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria which are located mainly at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and some of the capital cities of the 36 States of Nigeria.