Meet Olayemi Anyanechi, a remarkable business personality who vividly made a noteworthy contribution in the vast sphere of business compliance. She has been recognized as a leading Corporate & Financial as well as Energy & Infrastructure Lawyer in Nigeria by IFLR1000, Legal 500, and Chambers & Partners since 2006, and is internationally commended for her “exceptional service delivery” (Legal 500, 2015), as “one of the very few astute commercial lawyers who asks what is the economic objective the transaction seeks to accomplish” (IFLR1000, 2014), and as “very smart, and intellectually creative if you need to find a solution and sort things out” (IFLR1000, 2013). She is known as a mission-driven leader who partners with senior executives and government officials to deliver performance and stakeholder value. Being a detail-oriented professional with an impressive track record, she advises on sophisticated local and international commercial transactions.
Olayemi began her career at the then MBC International Bank Limited, from where she left to study and obtained a Master’s degree in corporate and commercial law at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. She went to Cambridge as a Chevening Scholar and whilst there, became a Pegasus Scholar of the Inner Temple. Upon return to Nigeria, she joined the law firm of Olaniwun Ajayi and left to become the General Counsel of the Sahara Energy Group of companies. She joined Templars as a Partner in 2006 where she headed the Banking & Finance Practice. After more than two decades of experience in advising various organizations and multinational companies on a range of local and cross-border transactions, Olayemi founded Sefton Fross in 2013. She currently serves as a Managing Partner of this leading full-service law firm in Nigeria. Her company advises on corporate and commercial law with main expertise in banking and finance, capital markets, oil and gas, mergers, and acquisition. Despite its smaller size, the firm ranks in the same league as the largest law firms because it handles the same transactions. Under her leadership, Sefton Fross has won several notable awards and recommendations including Business Day’s “Top 100 Fastest-Growing SMEs in Nigeria” in 2018; “Energy Team of the Year” and “Oil and Gas Team of the Year” by ESQ Legal Awards in 2014 & 2015 respectively, IFLR 1000, Chambers Global and Legal500. “Our Quality defines us,” says Olayemi. “And we like to tell people that we’re not aspiring to be the biggest law firm.” Unlike many other large corporations, the company believes in offering quality and comprehends the value for money. She continues, “Thus, I will say that our motto and what drives us is quality services bespoke to the needs of the client.”