One of the oldest law firms in Nigeria Punuka Attorneys and Solicitors has launched its alumni association.
The event held at the Landmark Events Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. It coincided with the chambers’ end-of-the-year dinner where new partners, and outstanding lawyers and workers of the firm were rewarded for their contributions to the firm in the outgoing year.
The firm’s Managing Partner, Mrs Elizabeth Idigbe, said the staff members were being recognised for their loyalty and commitment to work. She thanked their clients for their patronage.
Launching the Alumni Network, the Chamber’s Senior Managing Partner Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN) went memory lane. He recalled that the firm was formed in 1947 by the late Justice Chukwunweike Idigbe (JSC), who passed on on July, 31, 1983. He said over the years the firm had produced many lawyers who have made their mark at the Bench and Bar such as high courts, justices, attorneys-general, Federal High Court judges, magistrates and senior advocates. He said the firm had also trained lawyers who moved on to form their chambers.
He, therefore, said there was the need for an intimate connection between the old and the new alumni, though informally there was such an arrangement, adding: “It is because of you that we are what we are today.’’
Idigbe noted that though some of the former staff members maintained this contact, there was the need to create a ‘symbiotic relationship’ with them for a mutual long beneficial one. ‘’Under the Network, alumni will be kept abreast of happenings within the firm and have more access to it,’’ he said.
He added: “Punuka is a family. Once a Punuka, always a Punuka. It is my hope that the alumni will grow and develop.’’
Like Mrs Idigbe, he also thanked the firm’s clients for their patronage and “keeping the brand going’’.