My Path to Choosing a Tax Lawyer Career

I was anxious before I became introspective. I was anxious on 22nd December 2010 when I went to a cyber café to register for my Jamb Exams. I was anxious when the scroll bar pulled down and I selected Law as my choice of course of study. I was anxious when this act attracted more than a few gazes, from people wondering why this fool believed in his abilities so much that he would pick a course so hard to get into and expect to be admitted. I was anxious when I checked my admission status. I was anxious when I got admitted to study law.

My anxiety was not logical but the law was. The law depends on logic, that every similar application will give a similar result. It was a rebellion, a rebellion that made me feel safe in more ways than I can express in words. My anxious self was the same self that read law. It influenced all the extra effort I put in as a law student: the extra time I spent in the library because I was so certain that the teacher would surprise us in the exams with a topic they did not teach;when they did surprise us, it made me appreciate the necessity of hard work, for the times they didn’t I learnt the importance of smart work. For All the times I spent evaluating law reports looking for subtleties in the different opinions of the judges it made me imbibe the importance of having a point of view. For all the times I was worried that a case law I cited had been overruled by a recent one; I appreciated the law’s dynamism and the duty to keep up. For every time I consulted more textbooks than I needed to for a trivial point of law that escaped me in class; I understood that a Lawyer’s duty was not to know all the laws but where and how to find all the laws. For all times I was disappointed by my grades after a very anxious effort, I learnt that best efforts are not always translated into success and that expectations are not usually guarantees. For all the work I put in as member of the Legal aid group; I became aware of privileges and the very natural tendency to believe that human suffering is not as bad as you possibly can imagine when in fact they exceed them; how an act as simple as showing up in court can make a difference to a person who hasn’t been arraigned in 5 years and the unimaginable power a law degree has to create a presumption of knowledge in your favour and the need to keep up and never rebut that presumption but prove it in any event.

My anxiety kept me on my toes and till I learned to control it, it was the fuel that drove me, but the values I imbibed when I had it has stuck with meI will admit that I have not always had an interest in tax law. It has a reputation of being boring, too serious, affecting nothing and limiting. I discovered the beauty of tax law from the phrase i heard my mentor say once ‘Tax affects everything’. Tax law became to me that hidden line that ran through all aspects of the government, financial decisions, life events and law practice, requiring me to appreciate subtleties, keep up to date because of its hyper dynamism, and it offered the privilege of becoming a specialist within an already specialist field. I was fascinated. I dedicated a substantial part of my practice with H. O. tietie and co dealing with broadly financial and specifically tax matters: advising clients on structuring assets, documentation and implications of various financial decisions. I relish these experience; the coherence of tax law and the very real tangible implications a seemingly small legal advice can make.

It is my plan to continue on this track as an academic and a tax lawyer simply because I enjoy doing it and it is best suited to my abilities and values. I know that Georgetown is the only School in the world that can sharpen my abilities and make me competitive in an increasingly global labour market.