Adeolu Idowu

Adeolu Idowu is a Partner heading the Governance Risk and Compliance practice of the Firm.  Adeolu is a seasoned expert with experience across several sectors, including oil & gas and telecommunications. At different times, she was a top management executive in the largest telecommunications companies in Nigeria as well as Senior Legal Counsel (Compliance) covering Europe, Africa and the Caspian at a multinational oil and gas service company, amongst others.

In these roles, she coordinated the mapping of legal and operational risks affecting the businesses of these large corporates and helped them achieve significant corporate governance improvements and compliance.

Her experience as in-house Counsel for many years gives her a first-hand understanding of the needs of our clientele and equips her properly to adopt a client-centric approach in her work.

She is an alumnus of the London School of Economics and is admitted to the Nigerian Bar.

• Nigerian Bar Association

1998    London School of Economics & Political Science, LL.M.

1995    Nigeria Law School

1994    University of Ibadan, Oyo, LL.B. (Hons)

2021 – Date: Partner, Aluko & Oyebode

2015 – 2010: Director, Legal Services, – Etisalat Nigeria

2010 – 2007: Senior Legal Counsel, Compliance – Europe, Africa and Caspian, Schlumberger

2007 – 2003: Legal Counsel, Nigeria – Schlumberger

2003 – 2001: Company Secretary – MTN Nigeria

2001 – 1995: Associate – Aluko & Oyebode

Governance, Risk and Compliance

Schlumberger

• Advising the company in connection with FCPA, OECD Convention, and Federal Sentencing Guidelines, UK Bribery Act etc. as they affected Schlumberger’s business.
• Mapping legal risk of business operations and countries of operations.
• Managing reviews & investigations in Nigeria and Kazakhstan related to US Department of Justice inquiry into the activities of Panalpina on behalf of Schlumberger resulting in clearing Schlumberger and zero indictment or formal charge. DOJ declined to extend its investigations to Angola.
• Conducting due diligence on third party relationships; business assurance reviews in Kazakhstan, Azerbailjan, Algeria , Libya, Romania, Angola, Cameroon and other  company locations; functional audits and allegations or violations investigations or incident reviews.
• Conducting several investigations further to various allegation reports ranging from improper payments, conflicts of interest, kickbacks, harassment, improper financial conduct, breach of policy or code of ethics etc. These included forensic analysis of electronic data and hard copy documents.
• Developing ethics and compliance training content addressing customs hazards, third party agent risks and other job/transaction specific hazards. Developed scenario-based training for staff.
• Ensuring regulatory compliance in areas of trade control, hazardous materials, visa & immigration laws, telecommunication regulations, competition law etc

Oil and Gas

Schlumberger

• Advising in connection with government taxes and levies at all levels, operational issues, liabilities and indemnities enforcement, environmental issues, review and advise on laws governing Hazardous materials, including Radioactive sources and explosives (creating a HazMat legal procedure), liaising with Nigerian Nuclear and Regulatory Agency and the Department of Petroleum Resources.
• Advising on local content strategy and represented Schlumberger in industry group for contribution to local content bill and set up of Joint Qualification System. Negotiated NiPEX User agreements on behalf of oil service companies.
• Supervising the management of corporate matters for 13 companies. Sat as Director on the board of Schlumberger Nigeria. Developed and executed due diligence plan for investors via sale of shares managed by the Bureau of Public Enterprises.
• Litigation portfolio management

Telecommunications

Etisalat Nigeria

• Member of the Etisalat UAE Group High Potential (HiPo) Employees Program, selected as one of the top employees from across 18 operational countries/subsidiaries.
• Managing 15 lawyers in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt, including providing key legal support in relation to due diligence, transaction structure and advisory services, documents preparation and review, negotiations, execution and closing of conditions precedent on several key transactions including:
• $1.2bn syndicated loan refinancing (Euromoney Project Finance Deal of the Year 2013)
• $ 650m syndicated loan financing (Euromoney Project Finance Deal of the Year 2011)
• $120m proposed network backbone acquisition,
• $150m IT outsourcing
• Spectrum acquisition & 3G license acquisition
• Corporate reorganisation resulting in absorption of a subsidiary
• Sale of towers and ancillary assets.
• Drafting multimillion dollar telecommunications/technical contracts, IT contracts, marketing contracts, clients’ services contracts, employment contracts, sales and services contracts, co-location agreements, leases etc. with service providers, including Huawei, Alcatel Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Apple, Blackberry/RIM, Main One, Glo, Airtel and MTN.
• Achieving significant corporate governance improvements by upgrading the company’s ethics and compliance program. Actively developed in-house lawyers through ethics & compliance training.
• Creating compendium of all regulations affecting the company under Nigerian law and liaising with Regulatory Department to keep the company in good standing with regulatory agencies.
• Developing a contract manual and standardised contract templates to increase efficiency and consistency in content and quality in organisation’s contracts.

MTN Nigeria Communications

• Pioneer company secretary: set up the company secretariat, managing a 16-man board of directors (8 non-resident directors) and 8 board subcommittees and shareholders proceedings.
• Ensuring compliance on all relevant company laws and regulations, the memorandum and articles of association of the Company and the shareholders’ agreement, including amending the Company’s memorandum and articles of association to bring them in accord with the shareholders agreement.