ESQ Legal Practice Magazine, the number one legal practice magazine in Sub-Saharan Africa, has restructured the ESQ Nigerian Legal Awards and announced the date for the award ceremony. Also, a team of eminent experts has been constituted as the judges.
The key component of the restructuring of the award, which will be held on September 18, 2014 in Lagos, is the new approach to the judging process and criteria for the various categories of awards.
The ESQ Nigerian Legal Awards will honour outstanding law firms and legal professionals in Nigeria and in the diaspora. The Award will reward contributions in key business transactions, practice areas, strategic growth, excellence and innovation in client service, advancement in technology and support to the growth of the legal profession at large.
The award is based on the legal deals or unique contributions to legal business in Nigeria within the last eighteen months. The award will recognize and honour novel deals and transactions across different sectors of the country’s economy, corporate organisations legal teams as well as the law firms who were involved in structuring such deals.
Speaking at the press conference announcing the awards in Lagos, Mr. Lere Fashola, CEO of Legal Blitz Limited, said: “As globalisation of legal services reinforces the need for standardisation of practices and systems, the legal profession in Nigeria continues to witness greater changes and innovative achievements far higher than many other sectors in the economy. There is therefore the need to celebrate the unique contributions that lawyers make to the growth of businesses in Nigeria.
“This award is set out to recognise the important contribution the legal business community makes to the development of the Nigerian economy. The quantity and quality of entries received during the maiden edition indicate that the accolades are valued highly by the industry.”
In order to guarantee the credibility of the award, several changes have been made to the nomination and assessment systems. All submissions are made electronically after which the ESQ Research Team will contact the referees to gather more information about the deals submitted for the award. Judges will then mark entries based on clearly-stated criteria. The first five deals with the highest votes from judges will be announced as nominees for each category.
Dr. Adesegun Akin-Olugbade, Executive Director/General Counsel of the Africa Finance Corporation will head the Panel of Judges that also includes experts like Mrs Toyin Sanni, CEO of UBA Capital; Mrs Nike Laoye, Chief Legal Officer at Eco Bank Plc; Mr Michael Otu, General Counsel, Zenith Bank Plc; Mr Ore Olajide, Head of Legal, Coca Cola Nigeria and Mrs Ngozi Okonkwo, Chief Legal Officer, OANDO, among others.
