Osarieme Ezekiel is the Managing Partner at Oakwell Partners, a Commercial and Dispute Resolution Law Firm.
She is a Commercial Lawyer, Corporate Governance Consultant, Debt Recovery Practitioner, Mediator, Dispute Resolution Practitioner, Trainer, Human Capacity Consultant, and Investment Advisor, with over thirty years of experience advising on various commercial public sector, and local and international transactions.
Ms. Ezekiel has held several strategic positions in different sectors of major Financial Institutions in Nigeria, comprising Treasury, Marketing, Credit, Public Sector, Legal, Company Secretarial, Compliance, Administration and Corporate Affairs. At various times during her banking career, she headed Naira Treasury, Legal, Debt Recovery, Administration, and Commercial Banking. She was a Company Secretary/Legal Adviser in two Commercial Banks.
Osarieme obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree from the University of Benin in 1984, the LL.B, with honours from Lagos State University in 1989, a Masters in Business Administration (1999) and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1990.
Osarieme is a passionate advocate of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and is a CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) UK accredited Mediator. She mediates commercial and civil disputes, with expertise in financial services, construction, power, financial services, family, oil & gas, employment, real estate, telecommunications, and community disputes. She is also certified by the International Mediation Institute (IMI). She is on the panel of Neutrals of the Lagos Multi-door Court House (LMDC), the Enugu State Multi-Door Courthouse (ESMDC), and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Osarieme is a Dispute Resolution Practitioner on the Dispute Resolution Panel of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Ms. Ezekiel is on the training Faculty of the Lagos Multi-Door Court House (LMDC) and the Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates (SCMA) Mediation Advocacy Trainer.
Osarieme is a member of SCMA UK, the Civil Mediation Council, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK, and the Nigeria Chartered Institute of Arbitration.
She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Construction Arbitrators and has arbitrated in privatisation disputes.
Osarieme was a Consultant in the LMDC/British Council UN J4A Project for capacity building and monitoring mediators, to ensure access to justice for indigent people.
She has attended several advanced training programmes in mediation, including the Advanced Mediation Skills Training at the Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University, California.
She is frequently invited to speak on ADR at National Conferences, Workshops, and consults with Organisations, to design as well as put in place a dispute resolution policy. She also facilitates learning for several corporate organisations and professional bodies.
Her firm Oakwell Partners is committed to promoting and using mediation and has organised several mediation Conferences over the years, for this purpose. She is on the Advisory Board of Oakwell Mediation Centre (OMC), one of the finest domestic dispute resolution centres, set up to help people resolve disputes through mediation, using a panel of Neutrals from within Nigeria and other parts of the world.
She is on the Board of Resource Intermediaries Ltd.