Aluko & Oyebode, Templars, Shola Soyele shine at Nigerian Legal Awards

Aluko & Oyebode, Templars, Shola Soyele shine at Nigerian Legal Awards

Aluko & Oyebode, Templars Barristers and Solicitors, Jackson, Etti & Edu and other notable law firms have emerged winners at the 2016 ESQ Nigerian Legal Awards (NLA) held at the weekend in Lagos.

Channels TV also won in two categories including Shola Soyele’s Media Personality Award while ThisDay was the winner in the Print Media category.

Aluko & Oyebode displaced last year’s winner Templars to win the Law Firm of the Year award and also won the Telecommunications Team of the Year category.

Mrs. Justina Lewa, General Counsel and Company Secretary Sterling Bank Plc, won the General Counsel of the Year award.

Publisher of Esq Legal Practice Magazine and convener of the NLA, Lere Fashola, described the awards as having a history of “transparency, credibility and openness in celebrating excellence and professionalism in the Nigerian legal space.”

He said: “A lot of effort is made yearly to ensure that the processes that produces winners for each category of the Nigerian legal awards is, without compromise, open, transparent and clear.

“The Nigerian Legal Awards, besides the new initiatives of the Forty Under Forty, Regional Law Firm, and outstanding young professionals, continues to recognise the invaluable contribution of corporate counsel and lawyers in private practice to business growth.”

Templars retained its elite position by winning in four categories: Mergers and Acquisition, Energy and Power, Oil and Gas and Project Finance Team of the Year.

Jackson, Etti & Edu won the Private Equity, Intellectual Property and Real Estate Team of the Year awards.

Other winners in the law firm category were G. Elias as Banking and Finance Team of the Year, Banwo & Ighodalo as Capital Market Team of the Year, SPA Ajibade as Dispute Resolution Team of the Year, while Royal Heritage won the Labour and Employment Team of the Year.

Yusuf Ali & Co (North Central) and Compos Mentis, (South South) were winners of the Regional Law Firm category.

Winning legal Teams of the Year in the Corporate Counsel category include Zenith Bank for Banking and Finance, Axa-Mansard Insurance for Insurance, Nigerian Stock Exchange for Capital Market/Investment and Unilever Plc for Manufacturing.

Others are Oando Plc for Oil and Gas, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited for Telecommunications, Interswitch for Information Technology while Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc won Energy Team of the Year.

In another category, seven lawyers won the Outstanding Young Professional award, while 40 others were recipients of the 40 under 40 awards.

Lifetime Achievement Awards were won by Mr Bayo Ojo SAN, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Augustine Alegeh, immediate past President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and Mr Asue Ighodalo, partner, Banwo & Ighodalo.

Business Icon of the Year was conferred on Mr Yemi Adeola, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sterling Bank Plc while Justice Emmanuel Ayoola Retd, former Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was Legal Icon of the Year.