A few months ago, the Legal Practitioners’ Privilege Committee announced the names of 53 successful applicants for consideration as Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SAN. The very rigorous process involved intense screening, scrutiny, interviews and an online and offline vetting process to ensure that candidates’ applicants met the stipulated high standards. Among the 53 candidates that were successfully conferred with the SAN title, nine others academics were successful as well. Then about three weeks ago, the actual conferment took place and one of those who made the list is 37-year-old Michael Jonathan Numa, thus making him the youngest SAN today in Nigeria.
The SAN is the highest rank in the legal profession. In addition to other requirements candidates must meet is that he/she must have prosecuted to judgement level 20 cases at the High Court, 5 at the Court of Appeal and 4 at the Supreme Court in the last ten years. The candidate must have a modern office with a well-stocked library and a minimum of five junior lawyers and competent non-legal staff. All of these requirements Numa met. From Bayelsa State, Numa schooled at the Delta State University where he obtained the Bachelor of Law In 2008, he was called to the Bar as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2010. In 2013, he obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M) in International Business Law from the prestigious Queen Mary University of London.
He also completed the International Comparative Arbitration course at Queen Mary University. In 2018, Michael concluded a certificate program on U.S. Business Law from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. Numa is the Managing Partner of M.J Numa & Partners LLP. Numa has advised several corporate and high net individual clients in complex commercial transactions such as corporate restructuring, corporate finance, acquisitions, insurance claims, power purchase agreements, gas trading agreements, regulatory compliance, secured finance and other corporate transactions.
He is tested for trying some recondite and novel disputes in all superior courts up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He has equally appeared as counsel before several local and international arbitral tribunal. In 2021 he was ranked Top 50 Global Influencers in International Dispute Resolution by Prime Dispute, ranking Number: 22 on the list by virtue of the outlook on his work on international dispute resolution. In 2022 he equally ranked in the top 60 Global Influencers in Global Dispute Resolutions. He is a member of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), International Bar Association (IBA) and Fellow of the Prime Dispute, United Kingdom (FDP) and Member of the School of International Arbitration London, United Kingdom.
