Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie is a full service, multi-disciplinary law firm that is focused on facilitating corporate and commercial business throughout Nigeria, and across Africa.
Founded in 1983, UUBO has evolved into a multi-disciplinary, 15-partner concern with 137 professional employees, including more than 55 lawyers, with offices in Nigeria’s key commercial centres.
We enjoy an extensive network of long-term regional and international relationships with reputable African and international law firms, and strategic affiliations with leading global organisations that contribute to our strong capacity to seamlessly deliver dynamic solutions and to coordinate multi-jurisdictional assignments across over 23 practice areas to the diverse local, African and international clients with whom we are privileged to work.
Our practice areas include aviation, compliance and investigations, media, entertainment and sports, real estate and construction, banking and finance, corporate advisory, mergers and acquisitions, tax, business establishment, corporate immigration, employment, oil and gas, telecommunications, media and technology, capital markets, intellectual property, power, infrastructure and projects, fintech, litigation, arbitrations and alternative dispute resolution, private equity, and corporate governance and company secretarial services through our subsidiary, Alsec Nominees Limited.
We are privileged to enjoy a reputation for our culture of excellence and long-term commitment to quality service delivery. Our philosophy from inception has been that legal advice should be of the highest possible standards, accessible, commercially oriented, and consistently sound on principle.
As a firm, we have developed a reputation for being trusted with innovative assignments, facilitating complex, unusual transactions, resolving a broad range of disputes, generating legal solutions within a relatively short space of time. The diverse backgrounds, skills and insights of our lawyers’ and our collaborative, ‘hands-on’ approach to solving problems all contribute to the recurrently high independent peer and positive client reviews of our work. This has resulted in top tier rankings in leading global directories including Chambers Global Directory, Chambers FinTech Guide, the Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal and the IFLR 1000, which summarised research findings to report that UUBO is “…widely accepted as the corporate firm of choice in Nigeria and the go-to firm for a wide percentage of international outfits looking for local counsel in Nigeria.’’
Chambers and Partners currently ranks our firm’s Banking & Finance, Corporate Commercial (including Mergers & Acquisitions), Capital Markets, Disputes, Fintech, Intellectual Property and Projects & Energy (including Power, Infrastructure and Oil & Gas) Partners, Teams and specialisations. Citing interviewees’ recognition of UUBO’s “…deep bench strength…” and reporting “…market sources’ praise of its creative and insightful approach to matters…”, explaining that “when we have a quandary, they think outside the box to get a resolution," as well as the firm being "commercially oriented in their approach to legal advice and being solutions-driven in their advice.”
Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc’s IFLR 1000 also ranks the firm Tier 1 for banking, capital markets (debt & equity), and mergers and acquisitions, noting client feedback that it is “…without a doubt the premier firm and leader within the corporate finance and project development sectors …”. IFLR 1000 further stated that “Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie is one of the top commercial law firms in Nigeria. They are efficient and have a rich pool of resources to draw from in dealing with transactions…’'.
The firm’s banking, finance, and capital markets; commercial, corporate and M&A, dispute resolution, energy and natural resources and real estate and construction practice areas are all ranked Tier 1 by the Legal 500, with 10 lawyers recognised across these specialisations. In the current edition of Who’s Who Legal, UUBO achieved 28 listings across 11 practice areas (banking & finance, capital markets, energy, natural resources & mining, intellectual property, labour & employment, litigation, maritime & aviation, M&A, governance, and project finance). The publication notes that this represents ''more listings than any other firm in this year’s research, showcasing the depth and breadth of expertise on offer...''
Without exception, all of our male and female partners have been recognised by a variety of regional and international publications and organisations for the quality of their work and leadership in the legal space, and the depth of our bench is demonstrated by the independent recognition and awards accorded to several of our associates as ‘up and coming’ stars in their areas of specialisation. We are particularly proud of the fact that for almost 40 years, our 15-partner firm has been and remains a meritocracy with unparalleled gender parity across its partnership from inception and all levels of employment in Nigeria.
As a large and evolving firm, our internal structure is a key contributor to our continued success. In addition to our lawyers and other professionals, we have strong organisational structures and the support of a fully fleshed operations unit with experienced back office talent including a robust technology and business enterprise team, all led by a chief operations officer. We attribute the readiness with which we sustain our business continuity and have been able to continue to facilitate our clients’ business in variable and even challenging circumstances – including the unprecedented global pandemic - to the drive and dedication of our dynamic support team.
The institutionalisation of the firm’s structure allows us to remain a top-ranked firm in the legal space while ensuring that we can execute and contribute to our many CSR and pro bono projects. We strongly believe in giving back and do so via a variety of initiatives and organisations such as the Lex Mundi Hurricane Disaster Relief Trust, various COVID-19 relief efforts, Child Lifeline (an association for the care and education of street children and young persons in need) among many others. We provide support on pro-bono and charitable basis to a variety of institutions including in the healthcare, micro, small and medium enterprises, arts and business space and other sectors.
