…holds women in law mentoring programme, regional convening 2.0
The push for a more inclusive legal profession is gaining momentum as Women in Successful Careers (WISCAR) steps up efforts to equip young women lawyers with the mentorship, advocacy skills and institutional support needed to rise into leadership.
Through its Women in Law Mentoring Programme Regional Convening 2.0, the organisation brought together emerging women legal professionals, members of the bench and bar, and other key stakeholders to confront barriers to women’s advancement and explore practical pathways to making leadership in the profession more accessible, transparent and inclusive.
Beyond mentorship, the convening underscores the need for deliberate action, stronger professional networks and institutional reforms that will enable more women to occupy decision-making positions and shape the future of the legal profession.
Amina Oyagbola, WISCAR’s founder and chairperson, in her opening address, called on institutions to move from goodwill to concrete action in strengthening women’s pathways to leadership in the legal profession.
“We must not confuse progress at the summit with progress across the entire leadership pipeline,” she said, noting that women’s presence in the highest offices does not by itself guarantee that the path to those offices is open to other qualified women.
WISCAR is calling on institutional partners to listen, commit and act by taking at least one practical step, with an owner, a timeline and a way of measuring progress.
“Meaningful change does not happen through goodwill alone,” Oyagbola said. “It happens when goodwill is translated into decisions, policies, resources and sustained institutional practice.”
She highlighted WISCAR’s three-year Memorandum of Understanding with the NBA Women Forum, noted the encouraging recent engagements with the leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Nigerian Law School and FIDA Nigeria.
Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye, the Administrative Judge of the High Court of Lagos (Lagos Judicial Division), delivering the keynote address, titled “Beyond the Bench: Women Redefining Leadership in Law and Governance,” said, “Women’s leadership in law and governance is not merely about representation, but about transformation.”
She urged women in the profession to look beyond titles and milestones, stressing that “attaining a position is not the culmination of leadership. It is the beginning of a greater responsibility.”
According to her, the real measure of leadership is whether it has made institutions more open, accountable and effective, and whether it has widened opportunities for others.
The event held on Thursday in Lagos under the theme “From Learning to Leading: Networking, Leadership, and Advocacy for Women in Law,” brought together mentees, mentors, judges, senior lawyers, academics, policymakers and development partners.
The aim was to move from learning to leading: equipping young women lawyers with the networks, mentorship and advocacy skills to advance in their careers, while engaging the bench, the bar, academia and policymakers on practical steps to make leadership pathways in the legal profession more open, transparent and accessible to qualified women.
WISCAR’s approach to the programme is grounded in research. A WILMP needs assessment of 428 legal practitioners, 99 percent of them women, found that more than seven in ten regard patriarchal norms as a severe barrier to their advancement, while more than half reported limited access to mentorship, sponsorship and professional networks.
The findings point to a wider issue: women’s progress in the profession depends not only on individual talent and determination, but also on the opportunities available to them and the structures in which they work.
With the second cohort, WILMP is shifting its focus from preparing women to succeed within existing systems to working with the institutions that shape those systems.
The first cohort demonstrated the value of structured mentoring but also showed that mentoring alone cannot open the way to leadership if institutional pathways remain inaccessible.
To put this into practice, mentees across eight mentoring circles examined the challenges facing women in Nigeria’s legal profession and developed policy proposals to address them.
Following a review by the WILMP Steering Committee, the two leading proposals were presented at the convening, positioning the mentees not only as emerging leaders but as contributors to the reform of the profession.
The convening followed a round of advocacy visits in Abuja the previous week. On October 14-15, 2026, a WISCAR delegation led by Toki Mabogunje, WISCAR advisory member, comprising Ekemini Akpakpan, executive secretary, and other members of the WISCAR team, including WILMP mentees and alumni, met with the leadership of the Nigerian Law School, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and FIDA Nigeria.
At the Nigerian Law School, Olugbemisola Odusote, the director-general and the first woman to hold the office since the school was established in 1962, committed in principle to creating a pathway for students to join WILMP, including the WILMP programme to campuses in Nigeria.
Distinguished guests included Lawal Pedro, Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lagos State, who joined virtually; Adejoke Oyewunmi, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; Eliana Martins, National President, FIDA Nigeria; Uchenna Akingbade, chairperson, Nigerian Bar Association, Lagos branch; and Yewande Deji-Omotayo, Lagos State lead, NBA Women Forum.
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