Olumide Akpata
Olumide Akpata
Education
Olumide had his early education in Warri, Delta State. He thereafter attended King's College, Lagos for his secondary education. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B) from the prestigious University of Benin in 1992 and subsequently qualified as a Barrister and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1993. He did his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in Kano State, and upon the completion of his service year, he joined the firm of Dr. Mudiaga Odje & Co. in Warri, Delta State.
Career
Olumide began is legal practice under the tutelage of the late, great sage: Dr. Mudiaga Odje, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, OFR, who was one of the most seasoned Litigators of his time. It was under Dr. Mudiaga Odje, SAN, that he learned the rudiments of litigation and courtroom advocacy.
Templars
In 1996, Olumide relocated to Lagos and teamed up with his cousin, Oghogho Akpata, who had just set up the law firm, Templars. He joined in the formation of Templars at the age of 23. He has grown that firm into what is today one of the largest law firms in Nigeria with a workforce of about 100 Lawyers.
Olu is currently the Senior Partner and Head of the Corporate & Commercial Practice Group of Templars, which comprises the following practice areas: Mergers and acquisitions; Capital market; Corporate law; Labour & Employment; Immigration; Telecommunication, Media, Entertainment and Technology; and Regulatory compliance.
Olu is often called upon to speak at local and international conferences and seminars and currently sits on the Council of the Nigeria Bar Association Section on Business Law.[4]
Nigerian Bar Association
Olumide began participating in the activities of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), as soon as he joined the law firm of Dr. Mudiaga Odje & Co., as a member of the NBA Warri Branch – as it then was. Upon relocating to Lagos in 1996, he joined the NBA Lagos Branch.
He became more active in Bar activities upon the creation of the NBA Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) in 2004.
He is a foundation member of the NBA-SBL and he worked closely with the pioneer Chairman of the Section, Mr. George Etomi, and his team to operationalise the Section after its inauguration in December 2004 by the then President of the NBA, Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN.
He was also a member of the Planning Committee which organised the very first NBA-SBL Conference that was held in Abuja in March 2006 and which proved to be a transformational conference that set the NBA-SBL on its current trajectory.
Olumide Akpata was the Chairman of the Section of Business Law (SBL) of the NBA from 2016 to 2018 and within that period, the SBL became the most vibrant and most reformed of all the sections of the Nigerian Bar Association and attained greater heights. Under him, the SBL organized many trainings for free for the benefit of all lawyers with the facilitators drawn from all over the world. These programmes were targeted at arming our colleagues with the skills, exposure and know-how required to compete with foreign lawyers, accountants and other professionals that are constantly encroaching into areas of practice that lawyers previously had as their exclusive preserve. [2]
NBA-SBL
The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL) is one of the specialist sections of the NBA, set up primarily to engender the professional development of Nigerian commercial lawyers, thereby raising the level of business law practice in Nigeria.[33]
In his two-year tenure as Chairman of the NBA-SBL, Olumide made some remarkable strides and achievement was eventful and impactful.
In keeping with its objectives of engendering the professional development of Nigerian commercial lawyers and raising the level of business law practice in Nigeria, the NBA-SBL, under his leadership and with the immense support of his colleagues in Council, was able to achieve, among other things, the following:
expanding the frontiers of legal practice by creating several additional subject-matter specific committees that were, and remain, actively focused on new areas of legal practice with each committee organising periodic seminars and other capacity building programmes across the country for members, with facilitators drawn from leading international law firms, Nigerian law firms and corporate organisations;
organising two world-class NBA-SBL Conferences (2017 and 2018) at which attendees had incisive and enriching sessions, knowledge exchange and extensive networking opportunities with lawyers, clients and prospective clients;
organising, in partnership with the International Bar Association, a free training seminar for over 100 young lawyers on the fundamentals of International Legal Business Practice;
setting up SBL Clubs in six universities across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria to expand the horizon of law students and enable them, at a foundational level, to develop appropriate interest in contemporary areas of law practice;
establishing a partnership with the National Assembly and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, with support from the UK Department for International Development (UK DFID), to create the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER) as a platform for the Legislature and the Private sector to engage, deliberate and take action on a framework for improving the Nigerian business environment. That partnership resulted in a comprehensive review of the institutional,
collaborating with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council on the ease of doing business in Nigeria which involved the review of extant laws and regulations and the monitoring of the productivity and response time of Ministries, Departments and Agencies including the Corporate Affairs Commission.[3]
NBA Elections
The NBA election was conducted through electronic voting spanning from July 29 Wednesday to July 30.
Olumide Akpata scored 9,891 votes out of a total of 18,256 voters who participated in the elections, representing 54.3% of the votes.
He defeated Dr. Babatunde Ajibade (SAN) who scored 4,328 and Dele Adesina (SAN) who scored 3,982.[34]
Olumide Akpata became the first non-SAN to be president of the largest and oldest Bar in Africa since 1998
“In 2 years from now, we would look back to this day with gratitude.
We would say thank God that Olu became President.
We would never regret this day.
We would transform our association and the Bar will work for all”.
Beyond Nigeria
Olu has advised on international joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, takeovers and also the world’s second largest port operator in its bid for the Apapa Container Terminal concession.
He is the Vice-Chair (West Africa) of the International Bar Association’s Africa Regional Forum. He has advised on several key transactions: Olumide advised on the Nigerian Bureau of Public Enterprises’ restructuring of the Nigerian Electricity sector and the unbundling of the national power utility.
His interest in the advancement of the legal profession has also led him to participate actively in the International Bar Association where, besides representing the Nigeria Bar Association on the Council of the IBA from 2014 to 2016,he served in the following capacities: Vice-Chairman of the IBA Africa Regional Forum; Member of the IBA Presidential Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession; Member of the IBA Credentials Committee; and Officer/Member of the IBA Anti-Corruption Committee.
Personal
Olu runs an informal mentoring scheme where he pairs young lawyers who come up to him for guidance with other successful young lawyers to act as their professional coaches and also follows up with them to ensure that the mentor-ship is progressing as it should.
Many of the people whom he has paired as mentors to younger lawyers and those who have benefited from that mentor-ship are very well known.
Recognition
Olu has been recognised by IFLR 1000 as a leading Mergers & Acquisition lawyer in Nigeria and by Chambers and Partners “as having long experience in representing foreign clients” in his area of practice.
He regularly advises local and international corporations on the impact of Nigerian Law on their investments and/or operations in Nigeria particularly regarding: the establishment of local subsidiaries, corporate governance and compliance, mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring, labour and immigration, regulatory issues and tax.
Olumide advises several local and international clients on regulatory compliance in relation to company law and practice in Nigeria.
He acts for several clients on a wide range of Immigration and Labour matters including the setting up of private pension schemes, employment contracts and general immigration compliance.
Trivia
Olu loves to be in the company of his friends and family or attending social events.
He also love travelling and reading the biographies of distinguished personalities.