Olagbegi-Oloba Victoria Banke

Olagbegi-Oloba Victoria Banke (FICMC) (MCArb) is a lawyer called to the Nigerian Bar. She is also a researcher, law lecturer, mediator and arbitrator, and currently lectures at the Faculty of Law, Department of Jurisprudence & International Law, Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.

Banke previously held the role of national officer of the Nigerian Bar Association, and today, she serves as American Bar Association Section of International Law’s (ABA-SIL) liaison to the Nigerian Bar. She is a past Co-chair, ABA – SIL International Refugee Law Committee, a past Co-vice Chair of the IBA Academic & Professional Development Committee, a past Diversity & Inclusion Officer – IBA Academic & Professional Development Committee and a (current) member of the ABA Africa Law Initiative Council.

Her further roles entail serving as the Vice Chairperson of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Ekiti State Branch. Meanwhile, she is a 2022 Weinstein JAMS International Fellow, a Governing Council member of the Institute of Chartered Mediators & Conciliators (ICMC), Nigeria, as well as the Pioneer Chair, ICMC Akure, Ondo State Branch, a Fellow and Faculty of ICMC, and a member and Faculty of the Nigerian Institute of Chartered Arbitrators (NICARB).

Banke is renowned for facilitating professional ADR training in Nigeria. During the course of her career, she has trained more than 2000 students, professionals, traditional rulers / community leaders and religious leaders in arbitration and mediation. Moreover, she has handled several landmark commercial, sports, oil & gas, investment and employment arbitration cases with an international angle, alongside several domestic arbitration matters as a sole arbitrator (ad hoc).

She is a member of the Panel of Neutrals, NICARB, and the Panel of Neutrals, Ondo State Multi-Door Courthouse (which she was instrumental in establishing), where she resolves high-profile cases through negotiation, arbitration or mediation. On an ongoing basis, she consults for State judiciaries in Nigeria on how to establish, sustain and promote their court-connected ADR programmes in a bid to promote access to justice. To this end, she sat as the sole arbitrator in the first arbitration held at the Multi-Door Courthouse – an occasion that afforded other arbitrators the opportunity to shadow the process. As one of the most esteemed arbitrators in Ondo State, she consistently promotes the use, practice and popularity of arbitration and ADR through scholarship and advocacy programmes.

Last, but not least – as an academic, Banke teaches ADR to undergraduate law students and clinicians, conducts research and publishes findings in reputable, peer-reviewed journals. She has published articles in several local and international journals, and has attended, facilitated and presented at numerous domestic and global conferences. Her speciality research/practice areas span arbitration, mediation, peacebuilding, international human rights law (with a special focus on women’s & children’s rights, international refugee law, statelessness and asylum issues), diversity & gender issues, rule of law, as well as access to justice.