Eyimofe Atake

Atake was born in Sapele, a town in southern Nigeria to Honourable Justice FOM Atake, a Judge of the High Court of Mid-western Nigeria (1967-1977) and a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1979-1982) and his wife, Victoria Arugha Patricia Atake (née Foss).[3][2]

Atake attended St. Saviours School in Ikoyi, Lagos, while his father served as a Senior Magistrate in the colony of Lagos in the 1950s and early 1960s.[4] He also attended a number of other schools across Nigeria as his father was occasionally transferred to work as a judicial officer in different parts of the country and his family moved along with him, the schools include Emotan Preparatory School, Benin, Our Lady's Preparatory School, Sapele, and Hussey Model School Warri.[5] Atake was educated at an independent boarding school for boys Copford College, Copford, Colchester, England, where he became a School Prefect, House Captain, Athletics and Table Tennis Captain and played Soccer and Rugby for the school teams.[6]

Atake attended the London School of Economics and Political Science and Darwin College, University of Cambridge[7] where he earned a doctorate degree in law in 1987, under the supervision of David Williams (British legal scholar). His PhD thesis titled Contempt in the Face of the Court and the Procedure for Committal made comparisons between the legal systems of England and Wales, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Nigeria. That work formed the basis for a book Contempt in the Face of the Court published in 1992.[3]

Eyimofe Atake attended The Hague Academy of International Law (1980 and 1981) and studied International Law under the guidance of Rosalyn Higgins, Baroness Higgins, while at the London School of Economics and wrote an LL.M dissertation under her supervision - Is restitution an appropriate remedy for taking of foreign property in contemporary International Law?[3]

Chief Justice Mohammed Bello (jurist) Eyimofe Atake and Yakubu Gowon (former Head of State) in 1993 at the launch of Atake's book Contempt in the Face of the Court

Lord Owen (former British Foreign Secretary) and Eyimofe Atake in 2005 at a Public Lecture “The Future of West Africa” in Lagos

Atake was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in July 1983.[7] In 1987, he did his pupillage for one year with Chief G O K Ajayi, at law firm GOK Ajayi & Co. In 1988, he set up his law firm Eyimofe Atake & Co. Barristers and Solicitors specializing in Maritime Law, Oil and Gas, Arbitration and commercial litigation.[8] In about 12 years of being in law practice and setting up of his Law Firm, he took Silk becoming a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 1999 at the age of 41.[9]

Atake has represented clients in the areas of Maritime/Admiralty Law, Constitutional and Commercial Law in Nigerian courts of various levels. In 2009, Atake convinced a Judge in a trial involving American witnesses that the court be moved to New York in the United States to hear further proceedings as the American witnesses were too old and ill to travel to Nigeria for the trial.[10][11][3]

In a 1997 case where Atake represented the defendants/Appellants, he convinced the Justices of the Supreme Court to rule that a case that has been discontinued and struck out, did not prevent a Court from making consequential orders, where it is established that, the Plaintiff who discontinued the case has abused the legal process by using the process of the court to gain unmerited advantages over the defendant, to the detriment of that Defendant.[12] In 1994, Atake persuaded a full bench of seven Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria to decide that a judicial officer who has seized to be one could appear for himself in person in a court of law rather than being represented by counsel and that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did not place such a bar on a judicial officer who has seized to be one.[3][13][14] Atake wrote on the Legal Aspects of Privatisation during the exercise in Nigeria in the 1990s.[3] As a result of his extensive writings in the press and comments on television, he was invited to deliver and delivered the Public Lecture on the Legal Aspects of Privatisation and Commercialisation at the International Conference organized by the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC) in 1990. He served in the sub-committee of the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (TCPC) for the privatisation of the Nigerian Fish Company.[15][3]

He is married to Dorothy Atake (née Kuku).[21] He has four Children, Eyitoritse, Timofe, Oritselaju and Amatoritsero.