Online legal services for the low and mighty: A dream come true
Former National Secretary of the Labour Party, Ondo State-born lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, in his plans to introduce On-line legal services with over 50,000 online legal partners and associates as well as over 500,000 law students as interns to his professional services all over the world is a mix of class, candor, courage and comradeship, waiting to launch himself into a new innovation.
The good tidings in his Kayode Ajulo & Co. Castle of Law Chambers in Abuja is quite revealing that first time visitors are likely to be struck by this obvious attention to details in design and finishing with soft hymns played across the lobby from a metallic black grand piano being orchestrated by a young well dressed man at the corner.
That the legal practitioner is a man of class both in and outside the courtroom is a fact that needs no debate. Always smiling, his calm but unassuming demeanor conceals the steely determination and burning passion with which he has pursued his goals.
He attributes his focus and other positive character traits to a strict Anglican Church upbringing and the orientation and tutelage received during his early days as student at Aquinas College, Akure, University of Jos, Middlesex University Hendon London and law offices of former Attorney General of Federation, Chief Afe Babalola and Dr. Tunji Abayomi.
“I passed through great institutions and I am privileged to have passed through some grandmasters in law practice. I served my country at the Federal Ministry of Justice, with the late Bola Ige, SAN when he was Minister. The present Chief Judge of Ondo State, Hon. Justice Sehinde Kumuyi was my Head of Department, my direct boss.
Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, GOK Ajayi (SAN) and Dr. Tunji Abayomi need no introduction”, he said, “They taught me three indelible lessons and my mind is constantly impregnated with these three things: never to consider anything impossible, and to be daring in our imaginations, and to strive for integrity, compassion and excellence in our exploits.”
In legal practice, Ajulo parades an array of ‘heavyweight’ clients who include several federal and state government agencies in Nigeria and international organizations; his acquaintanceship with the high and mighty in the land is a testimony that he is savvy in the courtroom.
He ascribes his ability to mingle effectively with his elders to the popular Yoruba saying about how properly washed hands could facilitate a young man’s dining with the elders. He has close relationships with the top echelon of Nigeria’s political firmament and has functioned in advisory capacity to past presidents and several governors.
As an advocate for social justice, good governance and social opportunities, his legal advocacy practice spread beyond the nation’s shores to countries such as the United Kingdom, Ghana, Guinea, providing consulting services for the governments of about twelve countries across Africa and Europe.
He holds membership of several organizations, including Avant Garde international, International Association of Human rights Lawyers, Nigerian Red Cross society, the Nigerian Institute of Management, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), International Bar association (IBA) and Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK.
His personality finally found full expression when he established the Egalitarian Mission For Africa, a non-profit making organization established for the promotion of the rule of law, social and economic equality in Africa which has been a voice in the local and international media campaigning for global good governance and democracy as well as being one of the leading voices against corruption, nepotism and injustice across Africa.
As Founding Chairman, his activities have straddled the global landscape as he continues to champion the rights of the oppressed while cross fertilizing ideas with governments and personalities. Today, the NGO act in advisory capacity to many states in Nigeria and sixteen African countries at no cost.
In 2013, he was appointed by the government of Ondo State as the Chairman of the Board of Ondo State Radio Vision Corporation.
He also sits atop several corporate and commercial entities that have hands in aviation, oil & gas, communication, Agriculture and real estate as Director.
He displays his political icons in framed paintings of Manhatman Ghandi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, Barrack Obama, General Benjamin Adekunle (Black Scorpion), Justice Kayode Esho and his mother, Princess Christiana Monisola Ajulo. Up and above them all sits an artistic impression of Jesus Christ, his moral and political influences, he calls them.
“I like to judge my moral conducts and professional choices by asking what would these persons do in any scenario I find myself. The answers I have gotten have never failed me till date,” he said.
Ajulo remains a shining light among his people, prides himself as locally bred and he gushes with honest appreciation of his time amongst intellectuals in the world.
“I travel a lot around the world and each time, after presenting my papers during seminars, workshops and conferences, I take delight in telling them that I am proud to be a product of the Nigerian educational system”.
Novel and unique in the expansion of his legal service is the fact that, Barrister Kayode Ajulo is injecting well over 50,000 online legal partners and associates as well as over 500, 000 law students Para legal’s as interns to his professional service, this promises to be the largest Legal Resources Hub in Sub-Saharan Africa with the capacity to attend to clients anywhere they are in the world only with the aid of phones, computers and internet facility.
In specific terms Ajulo maintained that with the online legal service, clients are seamlessly open to high quality lawyers through what he called easy to use marketplace. In his view everyone should have easy access to robust legal assistance which can meet their individual needs with the care and diligence they deserve.
He maintained further that everyone needs a lawyer in his or her daily endeavors whether for legal consultancy, litigation and arbitration, strategic consultancy, corporate and commercial document review, or document preparation as the case may be.
In his words; “It is a matter of thinking big, it is a matter of selfless quest to be a pathfinder of great innovation. It is not about me but our world which makes leaving a lasting and enduring legacy a priority.
As a lawyer of over 15 years in practice, my recent preoccupation centers around what I will positively contribute to the legal profession which has given me so much. We can not stop dreaming, and this genuine passion has essentially informed what I’m doing which is dreaming big and thinking out of the box.”
