Mr Chima Umezuruike

England:
The Barrister Group,
Equity House,
Blackbrook Park Avenue,
Taunton TA1 2PX
Tel: 01823 247 247
E-mail: chima.umezuruike@tbgbarrister.co.uk
Website: www.thebarristergroup.co.uk

Nigeria:
The Chambers of I.N. Umezuruike, SAN
6th Floor,
27/29 King George .V. Road,
Onikan, Lagos
Nigeria
Tel: +234 70 3189 9078
Email: chimaumez@msn.com
Website: www.umezchambers.com

Mr Chima Umezuruike
LLB(Hons) LLM(Lond)

Barrister

Mr Chima Umezuruike regularly settles pleadings for use in the Nigerian courts. He appears regularly as an advocate before the High Court of Abia State of Nigeria, the High Court of Lagos State of Nigeria, the High Court of Rivers State of Nigeria, the Federal High Court of Nigeria, and the Court of Appeal of Nigeria. He has also appeared before the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

From 2007 to 2008, Mr Umezuruike conducted a complex trial in the High Court of Lagos State of Nigeria concerning the determination of the validity of a customary marriage.

He regularly prepares expert reports on Nigerian law for use in the County Courts, High Court, and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. His areas of expertise include the validity of customary and statutory marriages, financial relief in matrimonial proceedings, child custody, litigation costs and duration, enforcement of foreign judgments in Nigeria, succession, property law, criminal law, constitutional law, and commercial law.

In February and September 2010, Mr Umezuruike gave expert evidence on Nigerian criminal law and constitutional law in a fraud and money laundering trial involving James Ibori, a former Governor of a State in Nigeria, at Southwark Crown Court. In February 2012, he provided expert evidence on Nigerian constitutional law on behalf of the Crown during the trial of Mr Ibori at Southwark Crown Court. Of the conflicting expert opinions presented, Mr Umezuruike’s evidence was accepted by the presiding judge.

In 2015, Mr Umezuruike acted as an expert witness for the defendants in a modern-day slavery case before Harrow Crown Court. He provided expert evidence on the Nigerian customary law relating to the adoption of children.

Mr Umezuruike has also appeared as an advocate before various County Courts, the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the House of Lords in England. A list of his reported English cases is attached here.

Mr Umezuruike can take instructions on behalf of either claimant or defendant or as a Single Joint Expert. 

PUBLICATIONS

• “Reform of Legal Education and the Legal Profession in 21st Century Nigeria” (published in www.thenigeriabusiness.com/column7.html) and Legal Profession, Modern Approach (Published by The Icfai University Press) at page 136.
• “Review of the Civil Procedure Rules in the Various High Courts in Nigeria and the Court of Appeal” (published in www.thenigeriabusiness.com/column30.html and The Daily Independent, 9th and 16th September 2010)
• “The Concept of Double-decker marriages in Nigeria” (published in www.thenigeriabusiness.com/column7.html).
• “The Validity of a ceremony of a Nigerian Customary Law Marriage Celebrated outside Nigeria or in Nigeria but Outside the Bride’s Place of Domicile” (published in www.umezchambers.com)