OBA OLUFON & CO.
Senior Associate · Private Wealth & Legacy
Solicitor & Advocate of the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria — Senior Associate in the firm’s private-client practice — trusts, succession planning and family-office structuring for principals who want their wealth governed.
Practice focus
Sectors, in figures
Family offices
9 governing instruments drafted
HNW individuals
40+ succession plans authored
Family businesses
6 founder-transition mandates
Faith-observant estates
Sharia-compliant practice since 2019
Diaspora clients
Across 8 jurisdictions
Illustrative figures — updated on engagement.
Zainab leads the firm’s private-client work — trusts, succession planning and family-office structuring for principals who want their wealth governed across generations.
The practice is patient by design. Most engagements run on a multi-year horizon: living-trust architecture, family constitutions, founder-transition plans and cross-border asset structuring that converts a contested succession path into a governed one.
Each family is read on its own terms — the relationships, the assets, the geography, the faith framework where relevant. From there, the work is unhurried: trust deeds and supporting instruments are drafted to fit the family, not the other way around, and reviewed against changing tax and regulatory positions on a fixed cadence.
On succession files, the posture is preventative. The aim is not to win the dispute that follows a death — it is to design the arrangements so the dispute never arises in the first place.
Representative experience
Anonymised in line with the firm’s confidentiality obligations. Specific matters are discussed under engagement.
Trusts · Family architecture
Designed and drafted a layered living-trust architecture — an operating trust, a legacy trust and a philanthropic trust — with a co-ordinated trustee protocol and a written family-governance instrument sitting above them.
Succession · Estate
Restructured the succession path for a high-value estate ahead of a foreseeable dispute — codicils, side-letters and beneficiary arrangements engineered to make the arrangement resistant to a challenge on the death of the principal.
Family office · Governance
Drafted the family constitution, shareholders’ agreement and founder-transition instrument for a family business moving from first-generation control into a governed committee structure.
Islamic law · Succession
Estate arrangement aligned with the client’s faith framework and reconciled with the applicable statutory succession regime — drafted so the instruments survive scrutiny by both authorities.
Notary · Cross-border
Set up a standing notarial pipeline for a diaspora principal’s Nigerian affairs — powers of attorney, deed executions and apostille co-ordination handled from Abuja on a working timetable.
Family law · Structure
Pre-nuptial and matrimonial-property instruments designed to protect a family-owned enterprise from a possible future dissolution, without foreclosing on ordinary spousal entitlements.
Wealth held without structure is wealth held in suspense. The work of private practice is to convert that suspense into a plan.
Zainab I. Musa · Senior Associate
Credentials & admission
Admission
Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Role
Carries the firm’s private-client and succession files; accountable for trust architecture and family-governance instruments.
Notarial
Notarial capacity for diplomatic, corporate and individual instruments.
Conduct
Practice maintained under the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners.
Reach
Representation before federal courts, state high courts and specialised tribunals nationwide.
Cross-border
Coordinated counsel for foreign investors, diplomatic principals and cross-border enforcement.
Selected writing
