Senior Partner

Mr. Isaiah Odeleye

Mr. Isaiah Odeleye is a Senior Partner and heads the Energy and Project Management Team of the Firm.

Education

• LLB, University of Lagos (1979)
• BL, Nigerian Law School (1980)
• LLM, Obafemi Awolowo University (1983)

Mr. Odeleye has over thirty-five (35) years experience as a Solicitor and advocate. He served as the Legal Adviser to SPDC (Warri) in 1987, Legal Manager/Company Secretary in 1994, Company Secretary to Seven (7) Shell Group of Companies in Nigeria in 2001 and was responsible for managing legal aspects of legislative matters and government relations until he retired in 2004. He joined the firm as a Senior Partner in 2005. In 2011, he joined Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc (Seplat) where he served as the General Manager Legal/Company Secretary and a member of the Leadership/Management Team of Seplat and later Legal Adviser until October 2016. He returned to the firm in November 2016. He has actively headed and participated in various major energy, oil and gas related projects/transactions. He is an expert in corporate governance matters, negotiations, drafting of oil & gas field agreements and other specialist agreements peculiar to oil & gas business and related commercial transactions. He is a qualified Arbitrator and Mediator. In addition, Mr Odeleye has deep, extensive and rich experience in the various aspects of oil & gas matters including JVs, GSPAs, JOA, PSCs, Contracting matters. Land acquisition, major EPIC Contracts, oil & gas Service and Field Agreement, Pipelines Construction Agreements, Power Purchase Agreement, claims resolutions, assets acquisition and divestment etc.

Publications

Co – Author of “Corporate Social Responsibility: The Corporate Governance of the 21st Century” edited by Ramon Mullerat and published by the IBA and Kluwer Law in 2005 and revised in 2010.

Professional Associations/Committees

• Member, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA)
• Member, National Executive Committee of the NBA, 1998 – 2004
• Member, International Dispute Resolution Institute (M.DRI)
• Member, Association of International Petroleum Negotiator (AIPN)
• Member, Council of Legal Education, 2003-2004
• Member, Gas Committee of the IBA (SERL), 2000-2004
• Member, Dispute Resolution Committee of the AIPN, 2016.