Olanrewaju Lassise-Phillips

EXPERIENCE

Olanrewaju M. Lassise-Phillips, LLM, BL, ACTI, is a lawyer, tax practitioner, litigator, adjudicator and legal author with over 24 years of post-call professional experience. He is a Partner and Head of the Dispute Resolution/Litigation Department at Ukiri & Lijadu, where he leads the firm’s dispute resolution practice and advises clients on complex contentious, commercial, regulatory and tax-related matters.

He brings to the firm an unusual combination of extensive litigation experience and six years of judicial experience as Chairman of the Tax Appeal Tribunal, Lagos Zone 1. He served as Chairman from 2018 to 2024, presiding over more than 100 matters arising from the administration of federal taxes, including Companies Income Tax, Petroleum Profits Tax, Personal Income Tax and Value Added Tax.

His wider litigation experience spans civil and commercial disputes, banking litigation, regulatory matters, arbitration, tax controversy and appellate practice. Before joining the Tribunal, he served as Practice Lead at ASCO LP, a specialist tax litigation and advisory practice, and subsequently held senior legal positions within the banking sector, including Head, South West Region, Legal Services Department at Skye Bank Plc and Head of Litigation at Polaris Bank/Skye Bank Plc. As Head of Litigation, he managed a portfolio comprising more than 2,000 cases and interfaced with regulatory and law-enforcement agencies on behalf of the Bank.

He is a graduate of the University of Lagos, where he obtained his LL.B. and LL.M., with postgraduate concentration including Tax Law, and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 2002. He is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (ACTI), a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, Convener of the Nigerian Society of Tax Attorneys and a member of the International Association of Tax Judges.