Olamide Mojigbotoluwa Adekunle has been sworn in as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria at the age of 40, becoming the youngest woman ever elevated to the rank. She was one of four women among the 68 lawyers conferred with the rank, who took their oaths at the opening of the Supreme Court legal year on Monday, October 12, 2026.
Adekunle is a partner at Afe Babalola & Co. and holds a law degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, after which she qualified as a barrister and solicitor at the Nigerian Law School. Her practice spans oil and gas litigation, arbitration, election petitions, commercial and transactional law, legal consultancy and regulatory compliance, and she has appeared in high-profile matters before both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. She has also published in national and international journals, and her firm celebrated her when the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee first announced her as a Senior Advocate designate earlier this year.
The milestone was singled out during the legal year ceremony itself, where Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, a Senior Advocate who was herself conferred barely a year ago, offered a special word of congratulations to the women among the new silks. She named Adekunle as the youngest female Senior Advocate ever elevated to date and noted that she turned 40 in June this year.
The distinction is specifically about being the youngest woman, however, and not the youngest Senior Advocate overall, since younger men have held the rank before, including Mofesomo Tayo-Oyetibo, who was conferred at 34 in 2024. Women have also held the rank since 1981, when Chief Folake Solanke became the first Nigerian woman to be made a Senior Advocate, so Adekunle’s elevation arrives 45 years after that first breakthrough. Reports have noted that the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee is best placed to confirm the record from its own files.
Adekunle has also made clear that she sees the rank as more than a personal honour, stressing that it comes with responsibilities that go beyond professional recognition.
Congratulations have continued to come in from prominent figures and institutions, among them Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo, the senior pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, which promotes the development of women and children in Nigeria. Her colleagues across the Bar have also joined in, and the celebration is especially pointed because only four of the 68 new Senior Advocates, about six percent, are women. Alongside Adekunle, the other women elevated were Soibi Ideriah Ovia, Igonikan Abiola Adekunle and Olujoke Enitan Aliu.
