Commercial law firm, Aelex has been named Nigeria’s ‘Law firm of the Year’ and its Partners recognised as “leading individuals” in the Nigerian Legal Market, by two of the world’s largest independent legal referral guides, Legal 500 Europe, Middle East & Africa and Who’sWhoLegal.
The firm, which won the ‘Firm of the Year Award’ at the recent 2015 WHO’SWHO LEGAL COUNTRY & STATE AWARDS, was also a top performer in the 2015 edition of the Legal 500 Europe, Middle East and Africa publication. It was the only Nigerian firm ranked as a top tier firm in all five practice areas featured this year; namely – Corporate and Mergers &Acquisition; Dispute Resolution; Energy and Natural Resources; Shipping and Transport; and Banking & Finance.
Aelex, made it as a tier-one firm in four out of the five categories, while four of its partners were listed as “leading individuals” in all of these areas of practice.
Legal 500 rankings are based on a series of criteria; highlighting the practice area teams who are providing the most cutting edge and innovative advice to corporate counsel. The organisation’s research is based on feedback from clients worldwide, submissions from law firms and interviews with leading private practice lawyers, as well as a team of researchers who have unrivalled experience in the legal market.
In this year’s ranking, Aelex Partner, Soji Awogbade was recognised as one who provided ‘timely wisdom during negotiations’ while another partner, Sina Sipasi was described as ‘commercial and thorough’. Together, their recent transactions include; acting as Nigerian legal counsel to Seven Energy in acquisition of petroleum assets, acting for Addax Petroleum (a Sinopec subsidiary) regarding tax matters and advising a syndicate of banks on a $750m reserved based lending facility for the acquisition of petroleum assets.
Senior Advocate of Nigeria and leading Nigerian lawyer, Funke Adekoya, SAN was described as a “leading individual” in the Nigerian Legal Market – one with ‘experience, knowledge and a strong court presence’. Her outstanding cases include; acting for a South African retailer and its local subsidiary against a claim for breach of contract, loss of economic opportunity and economic interference with a contract; defending Rusal against claims of conspiracy and interference with the bidding process for Nigeria’s Aluminum Smelter, and representing General Electric in an appeal before the Supreme Court in respect of a master services agreement.
Lawrence Fubara Anga and Theophilus Emuwa were recognised for being ‘at the top level of corporate and commercial practice in Nigeria. Lawrence Fubara Anga gets marks for ‘a rich understanding of the market and its issues and key players, and he practically applies the law for optimal outcomes’ while Akinloye Ajayi is ‘brilliant and a true pleasure to work with’. Some of their transactions include; acting as sole Nigerian counsel to a UK-based private equity fund in its $14m buyout of a manufacturer and advising a South African-owned target during the sale of its business to an oil service company.
Happy at this development, Aelex Partners have explained that the firm from its inception, set out to deepen expertise in the areas in which specialized firms like theirs were already well-known and accepted by the market. To this end, they organized their business around these practice areas in the Nigerian legal services market.
“We have stuck to this mantra,” Said Soji Awogbade, one of the founding partners of the law firm. “And today, the Legal 500 Europe, Middle East and Africa publication and the WHO’SWHOLEGAL award is a validation of our strategy and effort” he added.
For the past 25 years, Legal 500 Europe, Middle East & Africa, one of the world’s largest independent legal referral guides, has been providing readers with an annually updated, impartial, third-party opinion on the leading law firms and lawyers in countries across the region. Legal 500 provides researched coverage of almost 80 countries and more than 3,300 law firms.
On the other hand, Who’sWhoLegal has since 1996, identified foremost legal practitioners in multiple areas of business law. In total, it has featured over 16,000 of the World’s leading private practice lawyers from over 100 national jurisdictions.
Every year at an award ceremony, individuals and firms that have performed exceptionally well are honoured after a comprehensive, independent survey with both general counsel and private practice lawyers worldwide. They identify a lawyer and a firm of the year in featured practice areas; and awards will be issued to these leading lawyers and firms in over 60 jurisdictions. Aelex was named the Nigerian Firm of the year 2015!
The 2015 Awards ceremony was held on 27 April at the W Hotel in Washington, DC.
