Babatunde Lawal, Esq. is a lawyer by profession, a writer by inspiration and a blogger by volition. He is the Founder and Principal Partner of HARLEM Solicitors (‘HARLEM’), a full service Corporate & Commercial Law Firm located at Agodi G.R.A, Ibadan, Oyo State of Nigeria.
Babatunde began his tertiary educational career as a Music Technology student at the Polytechnic of Ibadan. His unquenchable passion for the legal profession made him jump to that next chapter of his life after he obtained his Diploma in Music Technology, channelling his dedication and near-religious commitment towards gaining admission from Diploma in Law through Direct Entry at the Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State. The quest for more knowledge of law took him to Obafemi Awolowo University, Osun State, just a couple of years after he got called to the Nigerian Bar, from where he graduated summa cum laude with a Masters Degree in Law. He later trained to assume the membership of both the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.
Babatunde’s vast experience and redoubtable skills in the general law practice, and profoundly in the corporate sector, extend to a variety of areas, including telecommunications, government & community relations, contract negotiations, corporate/commercial matters and real estate & property law. He also has sufficiently cogent experience with confronting general grievances and drafting commercial agreements and leases.
Prior to founding HARLEM, Babatunde cut his teeth on the profession in the Litigation Unit of late Chief Bon Nwakanma, SAN & Co. in Owerri, Imo State and later continued in active l practice in the Law firm of the late Learned Silk, Alhaji Yekini A. Agbaje, SAN at Agbaje, Agbaje & Co. Legal Practitioners in Ibadan.
Babatunde ventured into corporate legal practice in 2004, first with the then Odu’a Telecoms (O’net) before moving to the Lagos-based, multi-national telecoms company, Helios Towers, where he garnered a handful of awards for consistent hardwork and religious commitment to excellence and perfection, receiving accolades so numerous enough to give electronic calculator severe circuit trouble, with his entire career as an in-house counsel in the telecoms industry spanning 14 years, cutting across all areas of Regulatory/Compliance, ADR/Arbitration, Litigation, Real Estate, Lease Negotiations/Renewals & Drafting, Crisis Management, Recovery cases as well as Community and Government relations.