2009 Executive Officers | The Nigerian Lawyers Association

Folake Ayoola is an associate in the Securities and Capital Markets Group of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s New York office. She attended the Columbia University School of Law where she obtained her Juris Doctorate and Masters of Laws degrees in 2004 and 2002, respectively. At the Columbia School of Law, she was, among other distinctions, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a Parker School Certificate for Achievement in International & Comparative Law awardee. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University College London, University of London (2000), graduating with upper class honors (magna cum laude). She started her legal career at the Houston office of Baker Botts LLP and is admitted to the New York State Bar and the Texas State Bar. She is also a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, Houston Bar Association and the Houston Young Lawyers Association. Ms. Ayoola was the President of African Professional Organization in Houston and a former Director of The Endeavor for Hope Foundation, a U.S. based charitable organization. She is also a mentor for the Dress for Success Houston Woman to Woman Mentoring Program.

Abayomi O. Ajaiyeoba (“Yomi”) was recently appointed Hearing Officer with the New York City Environmental Control Board/Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, is a certified mediator, and adjunct professor at Touro College. Yomi graduated from Rutgers School of Law-Newark in May 2004, where she was an associate editor of the Race and the Law Review, member of the Moot Court Board, clinician with the Community Development Clinic and provided pro bono services to the Domestic Violence Project. In addition, Yomi interned with the Honorable Debra A. James, New York Supreme Court Justice. She received her B.A. from Connecticut College, graduating cum laude with distinction in Psychology and a Helen Lehman Buttenweiser scholar.

She started her legal career at the New York City Law Department, where she served as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Administrative Law Division and is admitted to the New York State Bar, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. She is also a member of the Association of Black Women Attorneys, Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, Brooklyn Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, and New York City Bar Association. Ms. Ajaiyeoba is committed to empowering and servicing the community through her involvement in various organizations: she chairs the Community Service Committee of the Association of Black Women Attorneys, a mentor for the Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Mentoring Program, a volunteer mediator with the Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Inc., a pro bono attorney with Changer, Inc., and provides volunteer services to InMotion, Inc.

Prior to being elected as Vice President of NLA, she served as Public Relations Officer, Secretary, Editor of the publication, the “Nigerian Lawyer”, and served on several committees. In addition she has a featured essay in the publication, Conquering the Bar Exam, Insight for First-Generation and Minority Law Students and Graduates.

Ms. Ajaiyeoba is the proud mother of Olukemi Ajaiyeoba. In her spare time, she enjoys writing poetry and short stories.

Oladiran Ajayi (Diran) LLM, is a qualified lawyer. He obtained his LLB from the University of Lagos in 2004, where he served as the President of the Law Society. He practiced law in Nigeria from 2005 to 2007. He subsequently went on to obtain his master of laws degrees from the University of Dundee, Scotland and American University, Washington College of Law in Wasington DC. Diran was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Legal Studies Program Law Journal at the Washington College of Law. He also organized its maiden Conference on the International Rule of Law in Washington DC.

His work experience includes practice in the areas of international law and international arbitration in the law firms of Feshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in Paris and Baker Botts LLP in London. He presently works as an Associate Director with Kaplan Inc in New York.

He is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the American Society of international Law, the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators and ICDR Young and International. He recently published an article titled “Resource Taxation as a Tool for Development” in the International Energy Law Review.

Mr. Etufugh has a background in Electrical Engineering for which he received a Bachelor's of Science in Electrical Engineering (B.S.E.E.) degree from Manhattan College. He received his law degree from Pennsylvania State University and is a registered patent attorney licensed to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). He is licensed to practice in both New York and New Jersey. Mr. Etufugh is also admitted to practice before the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York (EDNY & SDNY), and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). Mr. Etufugh began his career at Morgan & Finnegan, LLP, an intellectual property law firm based in New York.

Mr. Etufugh is an active member of a number of bar associations including the American Bar Association (ABA), the New York City Bar (formerly known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (ABCNY)), the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the Metropolitan Black Bar Association (MBBA), the Nigerian Lawyers' Association (NLA) and the New York Intellectual Property Law Association (NYIPLA).

Chisom Ananaba, Parliamentarian and Acting Treasurer