Once again, I welcome you on behalf of the Board and management of the Johnny Agim, SAN Foundation [also known as “JASAN Foundation”] to the 2nd edition of the “LEGACY DIALOGUE” tagged #TheLegacyDialogue2.0 holding here in Abuja, the Federal Capital City of Nigeria.

As an Advocate that is passionate about legal reforms in order to build a lasting legacy that is preparing young generations of lawyers for excellence, #TheLegacyDialogue, as our flagship annual thought leadership platform for promoting mentorship, sponsorship, reforms and advocacy within the legal profession has become one veritable tool in achieving that goal by bringing together legal experts, academics, and stakeholders with the aim of exploring innovative approaches to mentorship and sponsorship in the legal profession. The maiden edition laid a solid foundation for dialogue on the future of law and professional identity formation, underscoring the pivotal role of strategic sponsorship and mentorship in shaping the legal profession.

Building on the success of the inaugural edition, this edition will deepen the discuss by exploring mentorship as a structured and enduring framewok for advancing professional growth and strengthening institutional legacy. At a time when new wigs and young lawyers face significant challenges navigating their career paths and the profession grapples with sustaining its tradition of excellence, the need for a structured, enduring framework for metorship has become even more urgent. We have assembled a line up of well qualified experts in the academia, the Bar and the Bench to help us dissect this subject matter today.

We remain committed to fostering excellence in the legal profession through Mentorship and Sponsorship by creating a network of 500 well rounded young lawyers poised to drive positive change in the legal profession by taking the rank of Silk or becoming Judges of Courts of Records in the next 10 years in the midterm and to becoming institutions in themselves in no distant future.

At the inuaguration in 2024, the JASAN Foundation N1Billion Endowment Fund for Legal Education Sponsorship and Scholarship was launched; as well as the unveiling of our transgenerational logo. I am happy to report that the seed sown in 2024 just a year ago has already sprouted as the students awarded scholarship by our Foundation got admitted into the Nigerian Law School and it is our plan that after their Call to Bar in a few months time, they would all be admitted into our Mentorship programme which Platform we are set to launch today. The mentorship platform is a one stop automated online portal where all our mentorship activities would be carried out with the strictest form of professionalism, supervision, assessment, and security.

As part of our blueprint, admission into the #Legacy500 Elite Mentorship Programme is through awarding full tuition to final year law students, prospective law school candidates, and 1 – 10 years Post Call to Bar lawyers into the Mentorship programme; we expanded our target number from 11 in 2024 to 30 beneficiaries in 2025.  I want to report that despite the entension of time for applicants to submit their applications from 6weeks to 8weeks as against the 5weeks period in 2024, though we received 86 [Eighty-Six] applications, only 15 [Fifteen] applicants scaled the prequalification stage, and transitioned to the final selection stage by the Judges, thereby making it impossible for us to meet our target number of 30. I guess this is because of our very rigorous screening process midwifed by our experienced Judges.

Looking at the big picture, I like to see the chalenge of not getting the requisite number of applicants to qualify and take benefit of this life transforming opportunity to enrol in the Nigerian Law School tuition free, as the cup being half full rather than being half empty because our goal is to admit only prepared students who when they come in contact with the faculty of our mentorship programme can only but fly, because there is not much to do than just pointing them in the right direction.

There is much to say, but for brevity of time, permit me to specially thank these category of persons who had blind faith in me and have suported this vision till date, His Excellency Sen. Prince Bassey Edet Otu, the Executive Governor of Cross River State, Engr. Prince Arthur Ikpechukwu Eze, OFR (Member) and Sen. Kanu Godwin Agabi, SAN, CON (Chairman, Board of Trustees). So, I enjoin you to relax as we take you on a journey you would be glad you did.

Like I said when we all gathered here last year, at the inuaguaral launch, “let us not just dream change, let us bring the change we desire.”

This is not a journey that I can take alone, I need you.

Therefore, I invite those who have not yet joined, to please join us on this journey as we work towards building a lasting legacy in the legal profession.

Welcome and enjoy.

Johnny U. Agim, SAN

President, JASAN Foundation

24th October, 2025