Odinaka Akpamgbo is a key Associate at Templars. Odinaka is the first person to achieve a Double First-Class from both the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (“ESUT”), and the Nigerian Law School (“Law School”). In ESUT, Odinaka graduated top of his class with the all-time 3rd highest CGPA achieved from the Faculty of Law of the University and won various academic awards. At the Law School, Odinaka also finished within the top of a national class of 5802, with the Prince Bola Ajibola SAN National Prize in Civil Litigation. He gained a professional certification (with Distinction) in Corporate Finance from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020.
Odinaka is also the winner of the FDI ECOWAS Regional Rounds Moot 2021, and recipient of the Femi Gbede Law School Scholarship Award.
As an undergraduate, Odinaka dexterously combined various aspects of his skills: top leadership positions in the University (including being the Vice-President of LAWSA ESUT and Chairman of the ESUT Law Clinic); internships at West Africa’s largest law firms— including Templars, Aluko & Oyebode, Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie, Aelex, Odujinrin & Adefulu; international student competitions; and being on the Board of a Rwandan tech startup. With budding interest in human rights and humanitarian causes, Odinaka was the Chairman of the Network of University Legal Aid Institutions—Open Society for Justice Initiative West Africa (NULAI-OSIWA) ESUT, which significantly assisted in the jail delivery in 2019 of over 100 inmates.
Odinaka was an Associate at Olaniwun Ajayi, where he played a crucial role assisting local and cross-border organizations inoculate their intellectual property rights. Odinaka’s work portfolio in Templars includes advising clients within the upstream, midstream and downstream petroleum sectors on joint venture arrangements, gas processing agreements, gas pipeline concessions, acquisitions and divestments of participating interests in oil prospecting licences and oil mining leases. Odinaka also acts in institutional and ad hoc arbitrations and mediations involving corporate entities, state-owned enterprises, sovereigns and IOCs over governance issues, disputes arising from joint venture operations, production sharing contracts, foreign direct investments, and general commercial arrangements.
Odinaka routinely appears before superior courts in Nigeria where he represents IOCs and other clients in debt recovery and labor disputes. Odinaka is highly regarded amongst young lawyers and students and regularly gets invitations to speak to young lawyers and law students on subjects as academic excellence and career decisions.
