Adebayo Adenipekun, SAN, BA. Ed. (Hons.); LL.B. (Hons.); LL.M (Ife) B.L., FCI Arb. (UK and Nigeria) is the Managing Partner Afe Babalola & Co. He was born at Iloro Quarters, Ilesha Osun State to Pa Gabriel and Madam Felicia Adenipekun. He entered Baptist Teacher Training College (BTTC) Iwo, Osun State in 1976 where he obtained his Grade Two Teachers’ Course in 1979 and started teaching at St. Mathew Primary School, Ijebu-Jesa. While at BTTC, Iwo, he had also simultaneously enrolled for the General Certificate in Education, where he passed five subjects creditably. Following his success in the G.C.E, he was elevated to a secondary school teacher and transferred in 1980 to St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School, Ijebu-Jesa. In 1981, he got admission to pursue an N.C.E Programme at the Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo State and subsequently changed to a degree program to pursue B.A. (Ed) English the following year.
Mr. Adenipekun SAN graduated from ACE in 1986 and after undergoing his mandatory NYSC programme in Ogun state, applied to the University of Ibadan (UI) for a Law degree programme. He was admitted to study law and in 1990 he obtained his LLB. He was called to the Nigeria Bar in 1991 after his BL at the Nigerian Law School. He obtained his LLM also from the University of Ibadan. Since after his call to bar, he has been in active practice and has over 21 years of litigation experience. He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2005.
Career/Achievements
Immediately after his call to bar in 1991, Mr. Adenipekun SAN joined the chambers of Afe Babalola & Co as an associate and became a Senior Associate in 1996. In the year 2000, he became the Head of Administration and Deputy Head of Chambers in the firm and in 2006 he became the Head of chambers. He was made the Managing Partner of the Firm in 2011. As the Managing Partner, he co-ordinates the activities of all lawyers in Chambers and is in charge of the general administration of the office.
Mr. Adenipekun SAN is a seasoned litigation lawyer specializing in Company and Commercial Law and Practice, Land and Property Matters, International Law, Election Petitions and Appeals. He has handled many sensitive and high-profiled legal suits, at all hierarchy of courts in Nigeria. He was part of the team that handled the 2003 presidential election petition against President Olusegun Obasanjo, at both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The legal luminary was also part of the President Goodluck Jonathan successful legal team. He has handled successfully governorship election petitions involving many state governors.
He is an intellectual by all standards and has published various articles in reputable journals. His scholarship in the area of election petition has crystallized in the publishing of a Book titled- ‘Digest of Election Petition Cases’
Mr. Adenipekun SAN is a recipient of many awards, among which are; Fellow Chartered Institute of Arbitrators England, Fellow Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Nigeria as well as Member International Bar Association among others.
He is also an Adjunct lecturer at the College of Law, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) In a letter dated April 4, 2017 and signed by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Mr Taiwo Abidogun, the Federal Government appointed Mr. Adenipekun, SAN, as a member of the permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands. He regularly sits as an arbitrator over submitted disputes both as presiding and party-appointed arbitrator. He also appears as counsel in arbitral proceedings and is currently the Lead Counsel representing Nigeria in an investment arbitration currently pending before a panel of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), sitting in England.
Mr. Adenipekun SAN is a man whose ambition was to be a Grade II teacher but who suddenly found himself not just as an accomplish lawyer, but a distinguished member of the ‘First Eleven’ of Senior Advocate of Nigeria where he is also a primus inter parre. He surmounted all odds despite his unfortunate reality of losing his mother at the age of two and his father at seven. He never let these unfortunate events limit his achievements. Today he appears before ‘Lords’ and kings defending not just the lowly, but the mighty.
Mr. Adebayo Adenipekun SAN is a Legal Luminary!
Source: Afe Babalola & Co; Latest Nigerian News