Some of Nigeria’s Female Senior Advocates
The legal practice is for everybody irrespective of gender. So many have studied Law, been called to the Bar and are practising as lawyers. Many in the profession, including female lawyers, have been successful. Among them are those who have done exceptionally well and have been accorded recognition as Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs). Leadership profiles these great women in a new article.
Mrs Folake Solanke
Legal icon, Dr Folake Solanke is the first female SAN Nigeria had. Born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, she attended Kings College, University of Durham, Newcastle on Tyne England.
She was called to bar in May, 1963, with her membership of NBA, international women layers association, she had made a stint in the legal profession before capping it all with the exceptional wig as a SAN in 1981 when she made history as the first female lawyer in Nigeria to assume the rank of a SAN.
Olufunke Aboyade
Olufunke Aboyade is a journalist, lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria. She is the 16th female SAN out of over 400 SANs who have been conferred with the rank in Nigeria.
Olufunke attended the University of Ife in 1998-1982 where she gained her LL.B (second class upper division). She also attended the Nigerian law school where she gained her B.L in 1983 and also the University of Cambridge (Jesus College) in 1985 where she had her LL.M, graduating with second class upper.
After her degree in Cambridge, she took up employment with the chamber of Fani Kayode & Sowemimo as a lawyer and worked there for over four years.
Olufunke later established her own firm known as Aboyade & co. and she was made the senior advocate of Nigeria on September 23rd, 2013.
Mrs Olabisi Soyebo
Mrs Olabisi Soyebo is an Advocate, Solicitor, Arbitrator and a Conciliator. She attended the college of St Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA from where she obtained a B.A (Hons) in sociology in 1985, she also attended the university of Buckingham, England where she graduated with LL.B (Hons) in law in 1987.
Olabisi was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1988 and has since been in active legal practice with Abdullahi Ibrahim & Co.
She was appointed a Notary Public in 1998 and also served as a member of the panel of conciliators of the International Centre of Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), Washington DC from 1998 to 2005.
Olabisi was admitted to the Inner Bar as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2008 which made her win the award from the Nigeria Bar Associations women Forum in August, 2009.
Chief (Mrs) Abimbola Williams
Mrs Abimbola Williams also made a rare record in the legal practice when in 1998, she joined the highly respected league of SANs in the legal practice. Born in 1941 in Lagos Island, she was at different times during her academic sojourn at CMS Girls School, Lagos, (1946-53), Holy Child College, Lagos (1954-55), St. Teresa’s College, Ibadan, (1956-59), Gray’s Inn, Council of Legal Education, London, UK (1960-63), Gibson and Weldon College of Law, London(1960-63), Nigeria Law School (1964), Howard University Washington DC, USA (1973-74).
Aside legal practice, Williams was also an academia haven spent some years in University of Ibadan as administrative officer, assistant registrar, senior assistant registrar, re-designated principal assistant registrar, deputy registrar, legal officer and senior deputy registrar before her voluntary retirement from university of Ibadan in 1985. Afterwards, she took part-time lecturing service in Mercantile Law and Engineering Law.
Her erudition in legal practice has taken her to different parts of the world to speak in conferences.
Dorothy Udeme Ufot
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Chartered Arbitrator, Dorothy Udeme Ufot studied Political Science at the University of Calabar. She also majored in Law and had a Masters in Law, at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
She is a founding member and managing partner of Dorothy Ufot & Co, since 1994, where she successfully heads the International Arbitration and Litigation Departments of the firm. Called to bar in 1989, she first practiced in the chambers of H.A. Lardner, SAN. With 26 years’ experience in national and international law, Ufot is a non-executive director on the Board of Chevron oil, Nigeria, PLC. She has chaired high profile litigation cases involving banks and other local and foreign parties.
As a member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), with several international and local law titles to her nomenclature, she had sat on panels of arbitrators of several global arbitration centres in Hong-Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Paris; the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) and the International Energy Arbitrators list.
A member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris since 2006, Ufot is one of the global vice chairmen on the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR since Jan 1, 2014. She passes on her expertise teaching arbitration at the Chartered Institute of Arbitration. She has to her credit presented papers on oil and gas arbitration, professional ethics and dispute resolution at several international conferences. She was confirmed SAN on the 4th of December, 2009.
Chief Mrs. Anayo Offiah
A confirmed Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), since Sept 8, 2003, she became a graduate of Law, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu Campus, in 1977, graduating from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos a year after.
She was appointed the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Enugu State, from 1994 to 2007. In the year 2007 to 2015, SAN Offiah facilitated the Enugu State Justice Reform team, aimed at delivering transparent, affordable and Independent Justice System in the state. She further advocated the electronification of judicial adjudication, and the building of better chambers in the state to fast track judicial administration. In July 2014, Offiah commissioned the Witness Support Unit at the Enugu High Court.
Following her passion for the realisation of women’s right in relation to law and culture, on which she has written several papers, Offiah chaired the Enugu State Chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), from 1998-2002. She is a founding member of the Happy Home Foundation, a foundation that deals with women issues. She also filed an appeal against the ousted Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB) Chairman, Ethel Nebo Ezeabasili. She spoke against judiciary workers’ industrial action following its face-off with the state government, an action she condemned as delaying justice administration.
Mbamali Agatha Obiozo
Confirmed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in 2010, in that controversial swearing-in following the rift between then outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mbamali started as a liaison officer at the Ministry of Justice.
She was the Director, Special Duties, office of the Attorney-General of the Federation; the legal adviser of the Federal Ministry of Health, and performed similar service for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Her most recent publicised job is as the Acting Director, Department of Civil Litigation.
Chief Mrs. Connie-Jean Aremu
Love for her late husband and legal practitioner, Justice Lateef O. Aremu brought Ghanaian Connie-Jean to Nigeria. SAN Aremu met her husband in England were she got her LL.B at the University of London in 1970. Aremu was called to the English Bar in 1973 after the confirmation, she could not be called to Bar by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) which was then restricted for Nigerian graduates.
Back in the 1970s, when she returned to Nigeria with her husband, she worked briefly at the Chambers of Chief Olisa Chukwura. She joined her husband’s chamber located at Ibadan in 1984, paring her experience as an administrative officer and the Assistant Registrar in charge of legal matters at the University of Ile-ife.
She was conferred a SAN in the year 2012. Aremu oversees the affairs at her late husband’s school, the Late Justice Lateef O. Aremu Centre for Legal Studies. The school trains students and individuals with an interest to study law or take-up a legal career.
She is blessed with two daughters and two sons, and all with the exception of one of her sons are legal practitioners.
Abimbola Akeredolu
Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu, a former attorney-general and commissioner of justice of Ogun State, is indeed, a successful lawyer. She is used to making history. For instance, she is the first female attorney-general of Ogun State.
Having come a long way in legal practice, Akeredolu was in July, 2015, conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) alongside 20 other lawyers, including three advocates from the academics. She was the only female lawyer that made the SANs’ list in 2015. The new SANs conferred in 2015 will be sworn-in later this month.
Olufunke Aboyade
Ms Olufunke Aboyade is a Nigerian female lawyer who obtained her LL.B in 1982 from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. She further gained her LL.M from the University of Cambridge (Jesus College) in 1985 with distinctions in several courses.
In 1983, she was admitted into the Nigerian Bar, a platform for her to launch herself into legal practice. There has always been something outstanding about Funke. She emerged in the top 1% of her graduating set at the Nigerian Law School. She did the same thing in OAU, Ife where she also graduated in the top 1% of her class. In all her three academic programmes in Ife,Cambrigde and the Nigerian Law School, she graduated with Second Class Upper Division, winning prizes and distinctions.
Aboyade is also a journalist. She is the pioneer editor and initiator of THISDAY LAWYER, a 16-page weekly colour pull-out dedicated to Law in THISDAY newspaper, where she similarly maintained a weekly column, The Wig & Skirt before venturing into active legal practice.
In September 2013, Aboyade was admitted into the Inner Bar. In Nigerian legal practice, she had carved a niche for herself as one of the few female SANs flying high in the profession with the male counterparts. She is one of the 17 female Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) who have been able to climb high on the ladder of the legal profession in Nigeria and get recognition as SAN since its inception in 1975
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Chartered Arbitrator, Dorothy Udeme Ufot studied Political Science at the University of Calabar. She also majored in Law and had a Masters in Law, at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
She is a founding member and managing partner of Dorothy Ufot & Co, since 1994, where she successfully heads the International Arbitration and Litigation Departments of the firm. Called to bar in 1989, she first practiced in the chambers of H.A. Lardner, SAN. With 26 years’ experience in national and international law, Ufot is a non-executive director on the Board of Chevron oil, Nigeria, PLC. She has chaired high profile litigation cases involving banks and other local and foreign parties.
As a member of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA), with several international and local law titles to her nomenclature, she had sat on panels of arbitrators of several global arbitration centres in Hong-Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, and Paris; the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) and the International Energy Arbitrators list.
A member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris since 2006, Ufot is one of the global vice chairmen on the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR since Jan 1, 2014. She passes on her expertise teaching arbitration at the Chartered Institute of Arbitration. She has to her credit presented papers on oil and gas arbitration, professional ethics and dispute resolution at several international conferences. She was confirmed SAN on the 4th of December, 2009.
Chief Mrs. Anayo Offiah
A confirmed Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), since Sept 8, 2003, she became a graduate of Law, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu Campus, in 1977, graduating from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos a year after.
She was appointed the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Enugu State, from 1994 to 2007. In the year 2007 to 2015, SAN Offiah facilitated the Enugu State Justice Reform team, aimed at delivering transparent, affordable and Independent Justice System in the state. She further advocated the electronification of judicial adjudication, and the building of better chambers in the state to fast track judicial administration. In July 2014, Offiah commissioned the Witness Support Unit at the Enugu High Court.
Following her passion for the realisation of women’s right in relation to law and culture, on which she has written several papers, Offiah chaired the Enugu State Chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), from 1998-2002. She is a founding member of the Happy Home Foundation, a foundation that deals with women issues. She also filed an appeal against the ousted Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB) Chairman, Ethel Nebo Ezeabasili. She spoke against judiciary workers’ industrial action following its face-off with the state government, an action she condemned as delaying justice administration.
Mbamali Agatha Obiozo
Confirmed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in 2010, in that controversial swearing-in following the rift between then outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mbamali started as a liaison officer at the Ministry of Justice.
She was the Director, Special Duties, office of the Attorney-General of the Federation; the legal adviser of the Federal Ministry of Health, and performed similar service for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Her most recent publicised job is as the Acting Director, Department of Civil Litigation.
Chief Mrs. Connie-Jean Aremu
Love for her late husband and legal practitioner, Justice Lateef O. Aremu brought Ghanaian Connie-Jean to Nigeria. SAN Aremu met her husband in England were she got her LL.B at the University of London in 1970. Aremu was called to the English Bar in 1973 after the confirmation, she could not be called to Bar by the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) which was then restricted for Nigerian graduates.
Back in the 1970s, when she returned to Nigeria with her husband, she worked briefly at the Chambers of Chief Olisa Chukwura. She joined her husband’s chamber located at Ibadan in 1984, paring her experience as an administrative officer and the Assistant Registrar in charge of legal matters at the University of Ile-ife.
She was conferred a SAN in the year 2012. Aremu oversees the affairs at her late husband’s school, the Late Justice Lateef O. Aremu Centre for Legal Studies. The school trains students and individuals with an interest to study law or take-up a legal career.
She is blessed with two daughters and two sons, and all with the exception of one of her sons are legal practitioners.
Abimbola Akeredolu
Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu, a former attorney-general and commissioner of justice of Ogun State, is indeed, a successful lawyer. She is used to making history. For instance, she is the first female attorney-general of Ogun State.
Having come a long way in legal practice, Akeredolu was in July, 2015, conferred with the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), by the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) alongside 20 other lawyers, including three advocates from the academics. She was the only female lawyer that made the SANs’ list in 2015. The new SANs conferred in 2015 will be sworn-in later this month.
Olufunke Aboyade
Ms Olufunke Aboyade is a Nigerian female lawyer who obtained her LL.B in 1982 from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. She further gained her LL.M from the University of Cambridge (Jesus College) in 1985 with distinctions in several courses.
In 1983, she was admitted into the Nigerian Bar, a platform for her to launch herself into legal practice. There has always been something outstanding about Funke. She emerged in the top 1% of her graduating set at the Nigerian Law School. She did the same thing in OAU, Ife where she also graduated in the top 1% of her class. In all her three academic programmes in Ife,Cambrigde and the Nigerian Law School, she graduated with Second Class Upper Division, winning prizes and distinctions.
Aboyade is also a journalist. She is the pioneer editor and initiator of THISDAY LAWYER, a 16-page weekly colour pull-out dedicated to Law in THISDAY newspaper, where she similarly maintained a weekly column, The Wig & Skirt before venturing into active legal practice.
In September 2013, Aboyade was admitted into the Inner Bar. In Nigerian legal practice, she had carved a niche for herself as one of the few female SANs flying high in the profession with the male counterparts. She is one of the 17 female Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) who have been able to climb high on the ladder of the legal profession in Nigeria and get recognition as SAN since its inception in 1975
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