Benjamin Olalekan Oladeji

¶ Conduct extensive legal research, analyzing case law, relevant policies, statutes and regulations to provide well-reasoned legal opinions to clients;

¶ Draft and review a wide range of legal documents, including contracts, pleadings, motions, agreements, among others;

¶ Conduct trials and represent clients' interests in the proceedings at different levels of court hierarchy;

¶ Manage significant high-profile and complex litigation cases, deadlines, and billing records of clients ;

¶ Collaborate with colleagues to review briefs, develop effective legal strategies, and follow-through the implementation;

¶ Facilitate negotiations and mediate disputes to achieve amicable settlements resulting in saving clients time and resources;

¶ Advise clients on complex regulatory issues, safeguarding their operations and transactions complied with industry-specific regulations;

¶ Provide mentorship and supervisory responsibilities to junior associates and work as a team with other senior associates;

¶ Regularly interface with the regulatory authorities on behalf of clients;

¶ Supervise documentation and legal advisory works relating to Corporate Affairs Commission and related entities;

¶ Recently appointed by the Managing Partner to serve as the Editor of the contents fed to the firm's websites and social media accounts;

¶ Developed strategies for court proceedings and negotiations;

¶ Explained available causes of action and possible outcomes of cases to clients;

¶ Collaborated with team to brainstorm cases and implement solutions for clients.

¶ Scheduled appointments with clients to discuss progress of case.

¶ Participated in meetings to negotiate with opposing solicitors and parties.

Achievements

¶ Sequel to initiating debt recovery processes, recovered 98% of multimillion Naira debt for a security company with respect to services rendered to an information technology company;

¶ Successfully negotiated downward-ward review of the 20-year tenure term of a real estate Building Development/Lease Agreement when dispute arose due to breach of the terms and parties resorted to Court;

¶ Rendered legal advisory, business development and management of a multi-million Naira landed property of a deceased person's Estate subject to mortgage;

¶ Through a thorough review of a Loan Facility Agreement secured by Contract of Guarantee, successfully defended clients whose bank accounts were frozen by a far-reaching Mareva Injunction for debt of over 100, 000, 000 . The order was vacated after 6 months with cost of N2,000, 000 (Two Million Naira in favour of the clients);

¶ Took over, negotiated and mediated a over 3-years contract enforcement action out of court.

¶ Drafted and reviewed legal processes relating to diverse subject matters, and conducted proceedings at different levels of court hierarchy within and outside jurisdictions;

¶Manage volumes of complex and high-profile litigation cases, deadlines and client billing records efficiently and effectively;

¶ Maintained solid client relationships, regularly provided clear communication and strategic legal advisory to meet client’s objectives;

¶ Actively conducted informed legal and tax related researches for South-East Tax Appeal Tribunal currently chaired by the founder of the firm I worked for;

¶ Held pretrial conferences with the witnesses, conducted trials and represented the clients' interests at different levels of court hierarchical system including the appellate;

¶ analyzed National Assembly legislative Bills for certain organizations for their engagement at the public hearings of National Assembly Bills;

¶Provide mentorship and supervisory responsibilities to junior associates and work as a team with other senior associates;

¶Drafted and reviewed a wide range of legal documents, including contracts, agreements, Memorandum of Understanding, professional letters, among others.

¶Provided expert guidance to junior associates and legal staff, overseeing their work;

¶ Represented the law firm in different strategic meetings involving government agencies, regulatory authorities, businesses, non-profit organizations, and private individuals;

¶ Monitored state and federal regulations to keep certain class of clients to date with changing laws;

¶Developed strategies for court proceedings and negotiations and negotiated settlements with opposing counsel;

¶Communicated with clients and received instructions to and prepare settlement offers;

¶prepared questions, conducted written examinations and interviewed applicants for the v a c a n t positions of lawyers and support-staff in the Firm, a work I have satisfactorily done to the utmost impression of the Management based on substance of results;

¶ tutored and supervised law school student externs and university interns;

Major Achievements

¶ Successfully defended interests in Suit No. FHC/L/AMC/124/2021 leading to vacating of the Mareva Injunction and terminating cause of action against a company (client) whose bank account was illegally frozen by Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON);

¶ Led the team from my office in collaboration to collaborate with two law firms briefed to defend the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN ) against Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) principally on the questions of regulation of tax practices and tax practitioners in Nigeria. The two cases were marked Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1480/2018 and Suit No. FHC/L/C/CS/2019. All the questions were resolved in favour of CITN as the only tax practice regulatory authority in Nigeria;

¶ Led and conducted parts of trial in a detinue action marked Suit No. IDR/184/15 and successfully recovered the heavy-duty vehicles leased to a Chinese mining company based in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria;

¶ I was part of the team that defended a company as a party to a oil financing tripartite agreement and consequently absorbed the said company from about N50, 000, 000 liability claim. The suit was marked Suit No. LD/758/09;

¶ Led the team that successfully defended and appeal on a multi-million Naira real estate project dismissed at the Court of Appeal. The case was marked Appeal No. CA/L/117/15;

¶ Drafted defence and appeared for Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in an action instituted by a multinational oil company to stop recover multi-million dollars Valued Added Tax debt. Parities settled the case out of court. The case is marked Appeal No. LZ/VAT/018/2022;

¶ Actively conducted legal research for Tax Appeal Tribunal, South East Region, including the researches that led to the celebrated decisions in Appeal No: TAT/SEZ/001/17: Polaris Bank Plc. v Abia State Board of Internal Revenue and Appeal No. TAT/SEZ/002/17: Nigerian Breweries Plc. v Abia State Board of Internal Revenue;

¶ Represented and contributed to the legal memorandum/opinion on Public Finance and Tax Matters drafted by a group of legal experts and presented by the CITN to the National Assembly pursuant to proposed amendment of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999;

¶ Represented the Firm to negotiate , carry out due diligence and review of legal documents relating to two fully developed houses worth N450, 000, 000 purchased by a client in Lekki, Nigeria;

¶ prepared legal advisory for a new company (Ground Zero Worldwide Resources Ltd) on compliance with relevant and applicable corporate and individual taxes;

¶ Defended and got a criminal case instituted against five Obafemi Awolowo University Students Union Officers dismissed on pro-bono basis in 2018 (The case was widely reported by both online and main stream newspapers. See https://dailypost.ng/2018/06/14/court-strikes-case-5-oau-students/ );

¶ Advised the Federal Inland Revenue Service( in a case) with respect to legal proprietary of subjecting acquisition and transfer of rights in oil mining lease (OML) to VAT; optional legal defence (s) on the acclaimed remittances of VAT and Stamp Duties; recovery of Petroleum Income Tax default resulting from the sale of crude oil at disparity rates with the official COMD/DPR’s official selling price, etc;

¶ Authored significant papers presented by the Chairman of the Firm at different fora and contributed chapters on a yet-to-be-published book on tax practice regulation in Nigeria;

¶ Contributed Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 in Tax Profession Regulation in Nigeria (yet to be published)

• Safeguarded client interests throughout legal proceedings.
• Moderated legal negotiations between clients and third parties.

• Conducted legal research and conferred with colleagues with subject matter expertise to develop strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases.
• Developed legal strategies to protect client interests and resolve disputes.
• Drafted, reviewed and negotiated contracts and other legal documents to support client needs.
• Researched and interpreted laws, rulings and regulations to advise clients on business and legal transactions.
• Analyzed legal documents and identified pertinent issues for clients.
• Prepared and filed pleadings, motions and other legal documents in court proceedings.
• Analyzed probable outcomes of cases using knowledge of legal precedents.
• Negotiated settlements of disputes and litigation.
• Interviewed witnesses and advised them in line of the case theory.
• represented clients at different levels of courts for clients and presented their cases in most favorable light.
• ·Filed timely case pleadings to meet firm deadlines.
• Scheduled appointments with clients to discuss progress of case.

Achievements

• prepared professional letters (including a letter of expression in a real property worth N37,000,000.00 for a client residing in US) and carried out due diligence on different subjects;
• prepared Addendum to a Contract of Sales to vary some terms in a billion naira (N1, 000, 000, 000) landed property transaction in Lekki for a real estate company. The client was able to secure its right having failed to meet deadline contained in the Contract.
• I was part of the team that advised a senior staff member of Federal Inland Revenue Services who was sacked without due process.

¶took clients’ instructions and drafted legal processes on different matters and procedures including cases for recovery of debts from Banks and other organizations;

¶ represented clients in courts and before different divisions of law enforcement agencies;

¶ conducted legal researches and rendered legal opinions;

¶Filed timely case pleadings to meet firm deadlines;

¶Researched and interpreted laws, rulings and regulations to advise clients on business and legal transactions.

¶ Developed strategies and arguments for hearings, trials and appeals;

¶Minimized risk exposure through careful advice on business operations and strategic plans;

¶Rendered advisory to clients on potential outcomes of legal matters;

¶Analyzed legal documents and identified pertinent issues for clients;

¶Communicated with clients and collected information to research cases and prepare settlement offers.

Achievement

• Received instruction and advised car-dealer clients on organized financial fraud committed against them by a criminal syndicate.
• Received instruction, provided relevant investigative findings to the law enforcement agency with respect to visa processing scams (inter-state crimes), assisted the said agency in tracing the CEO of the company involved and recovered the money fraudulently collected from the client.
• recovered salary arrears and compensation for a former employee of “Osun Defender” Publishers through principled negotiation.

• Took clients’ instruction, analyzed documents and rendered legal opinions.
• Represented clients in Court of Appeal, High Courts, and Magistrates at different stages of cases and across different jurisdictions in most favorable light.
• Filed timely pleadings, motions, and other court processes to meet firm deadlines.
• Conducted legal research and conferred with colleagues with subject matter expertise to develop strategies and arguments in preparation for presentation of cases.
• Drafted, reviewed and negotiated contracts and other legal documents to support client needs.
• Represented clients in civil litigation, criminal proceedings and appeals in state and federal courts.
• Represented clients in administrative proceedings before government agencies and regulatory authorities.
• Conducted pretrial conference and advised witnesses in line with the case theory.
• Assisted Principal Partner on legal researches, and academic resources while he was a Lecturer-in-Law at Adeleke University, Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria.
• Prepared diverse professional letters on different matters.

Key Achievement

Prepared a Written Address in an 8 year protracted armed robbery case in which my arguments were upheld by the court by the Chief Judge of the state and the same were copiously made reference to while I was still less than two years in practice.). The Defendant was discharged and acquitted.