‘I vowed never to date a client, now I’m in dilemma’ (1)

Model

Dorothy Okonkwo, (not real names) a lawyer, vowed never to date a client because she wouldn’t want to disobey her father.  She was advised never to find herself in a situation where she would be tempted to have an amorous affair with any of her clients. Right now, this young lady is on the verge of breaking her vow. She is now in dilemma. Below is her story.

“When I gained admission into University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu campus, to study Law, I did so to please my dad, who was a lawyer. He specialized in property and never paid too much attention on litigation. He hardly set his feet in a law court except on tough special cases. He would tell you boldly that litigation seldom fetch large chunk of money. So, he would advise me to always concentrate more  on property. I agreed! Another thing he warned me never to do was to have an affair with a client. That it would mean mixing business with pleasure, and that would be detrimental to my profession. I agreed as well. All his don’ts, I have always ‘gummed’ at the tablet of my heart and I vowed never to disobey him.” She said.

Just as Dora (as she was fondly called by friends and peer group) remembered off hand the things Barrister Okonkwo, her father warned her against, “I also do remember very vividly the things he gave nod to. He said there was nothing wrong in dating a lawyer or marrying him if need be. Or any other guy in a different profession that I met else where provided he isn’t my client. I agreed and we laughed over it. Though dad had always been a very jovial man, but you dared not disobey him. He was strict to the core and was described  by his members of staff as a workaholic. Whenever he was disobeyed, be ready to see the other side of him.  So, I wouldn’t want to disobey him because I loved him. He cared for his family, loved his three daughters and never disturbed my mum for not giving him a male child. Rather he was always praying for good sons-in-law,  whom he would take not just as sons-in-law but as his own sons. So, why would  I treat the instructions of  such a loving and kind man with a kid’s glove? I decided to obey him completely, not giving a damn whose ox was gored. He would make bold to say that his three s daughters would all be lawyers and take over his huge chamber when he was gone. And that he would make sure we didn’t regret it. We agreed and being the first, when I was applying for choice of course, I didn’t consider any other course or you would vent his anger,” she enthused.

So, when Dora was on campus, “I met Bernard, a law student but he was my senior by two years. His father was also a lawyer and he told me how his father desperately wanted him to be a lawyer. His story and mine were somehow similar. So, somehow, we got along well. When he was through and was ready for law school, I brought him home to meet my parents, my father in particular. When my parents saw Ben, they liked him. My father took special interest in him. He never ceased to ask him questions. Through out the three hours he spent in my family home before my parents, he kept on answering my dad’s questions. I knew my father wanted to know how brilliant he was. He engaged him in conversations and I trusted Ben, he too loved to talk. They discussed everything-politics, the country’s economy, power sector, telecom industry, legal practice just name it. And Ben was fluent. How I knew that my father had developed a soft spot for Ben was when he told me to get him one more bottle of wine to share with Ben. He told my mum to serve lunch and we all enjoyed it. It was indeed a sumptuous meal. My two younger sisters who were giggling on the table were happy for me. They had already started calling  my fiance Uncle Ben, as if he was the elder brother we never had. That was the role Ben was invariable coming to play in our lives and he was prepared for it. At least he assured me of that. Then when he mentioned it on the dinning table before he took his leave that his father was also a lawyer, I saw the glint of joy in my father’s eyes. I knew he was happy. He told Ben to always feel free to call him, that he should remember that the younger one should be the one to call the elderly first and greet him. We all laughed and then I walked Ben to his car,” she recalled.

Before Bernard traveled to Lagos for his Law school, “he brought his folks to see my parents. His father too was very enthusiastic in getting his son a wife. He was the only son (only child) of his parents, so you can imagine how desperate they were for their son to get married. When I realized that, I was somehow scared because all attention would be on me to start breeding grand children for them. That was what my two siblings reminded me of jokingly. My immediate younger sister was the one that started it first. He just said that she was ready to help me nurse her nieces and nephews who would start coming immediately after signing the dotted lines. That I should know his parents were eager for that. We laughed heartily,” she said.

But before the traditional marriage proper, lots of sad things happened as if they were bent on dashing Dora’s hope.

Pix used for illustration is a model