Templars announces promotion of two new partners

The two new partners, Zelda Akindele and Ijeoma Uju were selected from the firm’s Banking & Finance and Corporate & Commercial practice groups respectively.

According to Managing Partner, Oghogho Akpata, “Zelda and Ijeoma are fantastic additions to our partnership and I would like to congratulate them on behalf of the entire firm. Each of them brings an impressive track record and capabilities that will further strengthen our offering and ensure that we continue to deliver world class service to our clients. I am extremely proud to welcome them to the partnership.’’

Together with the promotion in January 2016 of Disputes Resolution partner Igonikon H. Whyte, today’s announcement brings to three the number of partnership admissions made by the firm so far this year.

Short biographies of the new partners are set out below:

Zelda Akindele

Zelda holds a Master of Laws in Banking and Finance from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Bristol.

She is admitted to practise in Nigeria and in England & Wales. She began her career in the banking group of the international law firm, Clifford Chance in London and later moved to the Milan office where she worked on various structured finance and capital markets transactions.

She also previously worked in the Legal Team of the investment bank, UBA Capital (formerly UBA Global Markets).

Her practice entails advising clients on syndicated lending, leveraged acquisition structures, RBLs, securitization, capital markets offerings, bank re-structuring as well as domestic and cross-border public and private mergers & acquisitions.

Ijeoma Uju

Ijeoma holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ibadan, and is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in both Nigeria and England & Wales.

She began her career at Templars and currently serves as the deputy head of the Corporate and Commercial Law practice.

Her practice entails advising clients on various aspects of doing business in Nigeria including: business formation, foreign direct and portfolio investments, general company law, business regulation and compliance, as well as employment law issues. She is a regular speaker on corporate and compliance law issues, and also conducts regulatory compliance seminars for leading Nigerian and multinational corporations.