Kemi Pinheiro, OFR, SAN, LLD, FCIArb., has said the death of renowned legal scholar and advocate, Professor Alfred Bandele Kasunmu, SAN, has altered the hierarchy of seniority within Nigeria’s legal profession, with Chief Folake Solanke, SAN, now emerging as the most senior living Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

In a tribute to the late legal icon, Pinheiro said Kasunmu was, until his death, the living most senior Senior Advocate of Nigeria and, by virtue of that distinction, the statutory Vice-Chairman of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

“With his passing, that distinction and position now fall on Chief Folake Solanke, SAN, herself a towering figure of the Nigerian Bar,” Pinheiro stated.

He described Kasunmu as a “living institution of the Nigerian Bar” whose name carried weight in the courtroom, the academy and the administration of justice.

According to him, Kasunmu was a formidable and forensic advocate, distinguished scholar, former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Lagos State, and Professor of Law at both the Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Lagos.

Pinheiro said beyond his titles and accomplishments, Kasunmu was “a lawyer’s lawyer” and “a gentleman through and through,” adding that his intellectual rigour, celebrated photographic memory and mastery of the law made him one of the great legal minds of his generation.

Recalling his courtroom encounter with the late SAN, Pinheiro said Kasunmu once appeared against him in the case of Dioudonne Donnie Ngnoumen v Texaco Overseas, where he conducted what he described as a precise, penetrating and devastating cross-examination.

“There was theatre in his advocacy; there was intellect in every question; there was purpose behind every pause,” he said.

He noted, however, that his most enduring memory of Kasunmu was not of him as an adversary in court, but as a friend who stood by him during one of the most difficult periods of his career about 21 years ago.

“Prof. stood by me like the rock of Gibraltar. He defended me like I was of the same bloodline with him,” Pinheiro said, adding that Kasunmu did so without initially asking for a fee.

He described the late scholar as a man driven not by money, but by principle, law and justice.

“Prof. was fearsome in court, warm in friendship, generous in spirit and unshakeable in loyalty. His wit could disarm you, his cross-examination could dismantle you, but his friendship could sustain you,” he added.

Pinheiro said the Nigerian Bar had lost one of its finest forensic minds, while the academy had lost a distinguished teacher and the legal profession had lost one of its great repositories of knowledge and experience.

He said Kasunmu’s legacy would not be measured only by the titles he held, but by the lives he strengthened and the generations of lawyers and judges he influenced.

“Professor Alfred Bandele Kasunmu, SAN; my friend, my mentor, my confidant, my soldier and my personal and professional uncle. You may have taken your final bow, but my bow to you is one of respect, gratitude, admiration and, above all, love,” Pinheiro said.

He prayed that the late legal icon would rest eternally, adding that just as he advocated for justice on earth, the good angels of heaven should advocate for his peaceful passage into paradise.

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