Tola is the head of the firm’s Litigation group and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. He has been very active in litigation practice since his admission to the Bar and has acted as Counsel in a number of arbitral and other alternative dispute resolution proceedings. He also heads the firm’s taxation group and provides general legal services to clients in Nigeria and abroad.
Tola has advised a major multinational Oil company in an extra-jurisdictional suit over a dispute with host communities involving a multi-billion dollar claim. He is also currently representing an integrated Oil and Gas company in respect of a multi-million dollar multi-jurisdictional matter, which arose from the construction of a crude oil export terminal.
- Member, Nigerian Bar Association
- Member, International Bar Association
- Member, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.
- Tola acted as Counsel in a US$33 million claim arising from an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the construction of a petroleum products depot and the associated infrastructure. He also acted as Counsel in a US$54 million claim arising from an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the dredging and upgrading of navigational facilities along a river channel to facilitate marine transportation of petroleum products.
- Tola has also advised and acted as senior counsel to a Special Presidential Committee set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria to investigate and recover lost revenue on import duties arising from under-invoicing of imported goods. This work led to the recovery of over US$250 million by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
- He has worked with a team of solicitors in the firm, to extract a 95% reduction in the assessed tax liability of a major American Multi-National Corporation after a leading international audit and tax consultant had advised that the corporation was liable for the Best of Judgment assessment due to its failure to challenge the assessment promptly. The team’s intervention led to parties executing terms of settlement.
- Tola also led the solicitors team responsible for advisory, documentation, perfection of title and litigation in respect of the largest and most successful private residential/commercial real estate development project in Nigeria. He also heads the group acting as Lead Legal Consultants to the Federal Government of Nigeria on the sale of Federal Landed Property throughout Nigeria. The project has so far, involved the sale of over US$300 million worth of real property.
- Tola is responsible for designing a process that radically reduced the time for perfecting title to land in Lagos State by cutting out much of the red-tape. The Lagos State Government adopted the process for the perfection of title of some allottees in a residential estate developed by one of the firms client as a pilot scheme and following its success extended the scheme to the whole State.
- In 2008, Tola represented the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission before the House of Representatives Committee on Finance on their fiscal obligations to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Furthermore, he advised one of the major International Oil companies at a hearing before the National Assembly on a petition submitted by some of the oil producing communities in the Niger-Delta.
- Since 2008, he advised the concessionaire of a road concession transaction with the Federal Government of Nigeria. He negotiated the concession agreement of what is notably the first concession agreement of a Federal Highway in Nigeria and is currently advising the concessionaire on the financing of the project.
- Between 2009 and 2010, Tola advised the Joint Committee of the House of Representatives on the Petroleum Industry Bill. In this capacity, he reviewed all existing laws and regulations in the Nigerian energy sector, the Nigerian Energy Policy and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Policy. He is also a member of the team of legal consultants to the Federal Government on the implementation of aspects of the Gas Master Plan. Currently, Tola is advising a client that won a multi-million dollars concession from a State Government to develop a major international market with an integrated commercial, industrial and residential complex.
- He is also currently advising the Nigerian partner in an International Joint Venture for the development of major solid mineral mining project in Nigeria, on all aspects of the prospecting, development and financing of the project.
- Steps through the Law, Judgments of Hon. Justice Umar FarukAbdullahi, (Co-Editor)
- The Challenge of Pricing Domestic Gas under the Petroleum Industry Bill- presentation at the CWC Groups Gulf of Guinea Oil and Gas Conference, London, 2009
- Prospects for the Gas Sector under the Petroleum Industry Bill- presentation at the CWC Groups Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference, 2009
- Litigation as the Haven of the 21st Century (Nigerian) Lawyer: Challenges and Opportunities-presentation at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Faculty of Law Career Week, 2010.
- Effect of Section 137(3) of the electoral Act 2010 on the Joinder of Statutory Necessary Parties in Election Petitions, Chapter contribution to Essays in Honour of Hon. Justice Muhammadu Lawal Uwais (2010).
- Enhancing the Legal and Regulatory Framework for the Nigerian Mortgage System- Presentation at the 55th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association, August 2015.