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BOMA ALABI
BOMA ALABI, OON, SAN, A NIGERIAN TRIAL LAWYER, HAS AN AMAZING PERSONAL STORY. SHE WAS THE EIGHTH OF TEN CHILDREN THAT HER PARENTS, FORMER TEACHERS, RAISED IN PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA. AS A CHILD, SHE WAS A VORACIOUS READER. BEFORE SHE WAS TEN, SHE HAD READ THE ENTIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA TWICE, AS WELL AS SHAKESPEARE AND MANY CLASSICS. HER ADVOCACY SKILLS WERE DEVELOPED EARLY AS THE SELECTED SPOKESMAN BY HER MANY SIBLINGS IN DISCUSSIONS WITH THEIR PARENTS. HER FAVORITE UNCLE WAS A LAWYER WHO OFTEN VISITED AFTER COURT AND WHO DAZZLED HER IN HIS BLACK AND WHITE COURT CLOTHES LIKE THOSE THAT SHE NOW WEARS ON COURT BUSINESS.
After graduating from college and law school in Nigeria in 1988, she came to London and earned an LLM from Kings College. She practiced law in London but always planned her return to Nigeria as democracy was returning there. She was active in the fifty-four member country Commonwealth Lawyer’s Association and became, in 2011, its first and only female president in its fifty-year history. The OON after her name stands for Officer of the Order of the Niger, the Nigerian equivalent of the British Honors List conferred by the English Mon- arch. The SAN stands for Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the equivalent of QC (now KC), which she received in 2021, recognizing her as having distinguished herself in the legal profession.
Nigeria has over 200 million people. There are only 693 SAN’s, less than four percent of whom are women. Those seeking to be considered for SAN must have practiced at least
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