British Nigeria Law Awards 2019 Winners & Runners Up
BNLF 18th Anniversary – Annual Gala Dinner & Awards 2019
November 28, 2019
The Winners are:-
George is a distinguished transaction lawyer regularly consulted by multinational companies and top government agencies. He was closely involved in acting for the first mobile telephone service in the country and advises major foreign airlines operating in Nigeria. He has extensive experience in commercial transactions, spanning Arbitration and other ADR methods, Aviation, Building and Construction, Banking and Finance, Energy and Natural Resources. He has represented clients on a variety of corporate and commercial matters including public and private offerings, privatisation and major project finance transactions.
Mr. Etomi also has a special interest in the Energy and Natural Resources field and is a member of Center for Petroleum Law Research [CPLR]. He has worked over the years with numerous multinational oil companies. In the power sector space, he supported power investors during the acquisition and concession of Successor Companies in the Nigerian power privatisation process and provided high-level legal advisory services to the Government and core investors alike throughout the several stages of the privatisation process. Mr. Etomi is a Director on the Board of one of the top performing Utilities in Nigeria where he serves as the Committee Chairman of The Board Legal, Corporate Governance and Regulatory Affairs Committee.
Mr. Etomi is the first past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Section on Business Law and recently, the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies named a centre after him: “The George Etomi Centre for Strategic Investment and Corporate Governance”. Mr. Etomi has also been given a Professorial Chair at the Institute. In 2016 George Etomi was appointed a member of the Body of Benchers, the highest regulatory body of the legal profession in Nigeria. He is a member of the International Trade in Legal Services of the Bar Issues Commission of the IBA. He is a regular facilitator at global business conferences. Mr. Etomi is a published author of several articles and newspaper publications including his latest book titled, An Introduction to Commercial Law in Nigeria.
Adenike was admitted as a solicitor in 1992, having trained in the banking sector, where she worked as an in-house lawyer until 1994. Thereafter, she spent 14 years working as an in-house Employment lawyer. She was appointed as a fee-paid Employment Judge in May 2003, sitting in Cardiff for 2½ years then in Southampton for 4 years. In November 2009 she was appointed as a salaried Employment Judge, based at the London South Tribunal in Croydon. Since 2016, she has been assigned to sit in the County Court for 6 weeks a year, hearing general civil matters. Nike sits on the Executive Committee of the UK Association of Women Judges, whose president is Baroness Brenda Hale. She is also a member of the International Association of Women Judges, and served as its joint Regional Director for Europe and the Middle East region, for 2 years, until May 2016. Nike is a Judicial Mentor under the Judicial Mentoring Scheme set up by the Judicial Office to encourage and support women, BAME lawyers and lawyers from non-traditional backgrounds intending to apply for their first judicial appointment. She features in a video on the Judicial appointments website, as a case study of a solicitor becoming a Judge.
Adetokunbo ‘Toks’ Hussain is currently a Legal Intern at United Nations, the Hague and co-head of the BNLF, Junior Lawyers Division. At the UN’s annual mock trial 2019, he won the Best Defence Oralist. He is also a guest lecturer at the Ambrose Alli, Law Clinic. This year, he received the Lincoln’s Inn Overseas Scholarship, the Black Heart Foundation Scholarship and the Ilesha Trust Grant. He is also a recipient of the Lincoln’s Inn Geoffrey Nice Award and was selected to assist the Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China led by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. Toks won the runner up award in the Global Legal Hackathon for his app designed to assist litigants-in-persons. Toks has worked on human rights projects for the Law Society and the Bar Human Rights Committee. He is currently starring in a UN documentary about himself.
Coming Soon!
Lorna was called to Bar in Nigeria in 1990. In 2004 she was admitted to the register of CILIP – Chartered Institute of Libraries and Information Professionals UK. She is a member of the Leaders Network at CILIP and Institute of Management UK. Working for the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, she has been instrumental to the work on piloting Youth offending teams across London South East and London South West. At the YMCA London South West she has been instrumental in overseeing the rehabilitation and resettling of young men and women released from prison making sure they are integrated back into the society. She also helps with education, training and development and re-housing of the homeless. She is also an author of several books. Her crime fiction legal thriller is celebrated world-wide.
Ifeanyi is a Barrister at Garden Court Chambers called to the Bar 2011. He specialises in human rights, sports, media & employment law. Ifeanyi is listed in Chambers and Chambers 2020. He was nominated Legal Aid Newcomer in 2018 and is shortlisted for the Chambers UK Bar Awards for outstanding contribution to diversity & inclusion on 31 October. As a leading Barrister in sports law, with expertise in discrimination, he was appointed to the Football Association’s Anti-Discrimination Chairman’s Panel at its inception in 2013. He considers disciplinary and regulatory cases and also represents marginalised and disadvantaged groups in the areas of civil liberties and public law. In May 2018 at a seminar organised by the British Association for Sport and Law, Ifeanyi was a speaker on the topic of ‘Football, politics and discrimination’. He often represents family members at Inquests. He acted for a bereaved family in a police restraint related death which is now a leading authority case on causation and expert evidence. The case attracted the attention of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and Inquest campaign groups.
RUNNERS UP
Nwabueze is a dual qualified lawyer, called to the Nigerian Bar in 1978 and admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1995. She is a certified mortgage specialist and holds the Institute of Financial Services’ Commercial and Mortgage Lending Diploma. As a Solicitor in the UK, she has served on many boards and committees representing the interests of BME lawyers. She is a Council Member of the Law Society of England and Wales, first elected in July 2005. She is an active member of the Birmingham Law Society, Vice Chair of its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and a member of the Law Society’s Ethnic Minority Law Division. She is a past chair of the Black Solicitors Network and is the present Chair of BSN Midlands. She is involved in Prison monitoring (IMB), for prisons in the Redditch area. She also supports the Handsworth Law Centre Birmingham, IISA (JCWI) Birmingham and the Citizens Advice Bureau, Solihull.
Tochukwu is a dual-qualified lawyer, in Nigeria and New York, United States. He is a visiting foreign lawyer in the International Arbitration Practice Group of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, succeeding to this role from a competitive pool of interns. In this role, Tochukwu has worked on several commercial and investment treaty arbitration cases and has also been involved in arbitration reform projects for certain countries. Prior to joining Wilmer Hale, he was an Associate at Aluko & Oyebode, Nigeria and has also worked at the BASF Corporation, New Jersey, United States. He published an article on arbitration in the Commonwealth and led an internal team responsible for drafting country reports on the arbitration regime of the 53 Commonwealth member states. Recently he was a panelist at the AYA Africa Arbitration Academy held in London and was also a panelist at the CIArb (YMG) arbitration conference held in Lagos.
Hilda is a Barrister and Senior Civil and Commercial Mediator at 12 Old Square Chambers, she was called to the Bar in 1989. She represents individuals, corporations and governments in both civil and commercial litigations; contentious and non-contentious works. In a recently reported case she appeared on behalf of the Defendant, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and was successful in applying for orders to be set aside and the court accepted her argument for immunity.
Zina was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1990, now in the UK she is an author, Divorce Coach and mentor for women. She hosts a radio show called Believe and Live Again and speaks on expert panels to assist women after a divorce. In 2018 she took part in the Female Entrepreneur Collaborative Challenge Expedition to Malawi where she supported local women to overcome the challenges after divorce. Whilst in Malawi she attended domestic violence and sexual abuse workshops and met with divorce lawyers. In 2018 she won the Diamond Special Recognition Award for coaching and mentoring services to traumatised women worldwide.
The BNLF Annual Gala Dinner & Awards is kindly sponsored by: @sra_solicitors with Media Sponsors: Africa Legal @legalPSG, @LegalBlitz & @Yangatv @Madonna_Momoh
