TheNigeriaLawyer Celebrates The First Female Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Folake Solanke @ 88

Dear Chief Mrs. Folake Solanke, SAN, as you clock a year older today, the management and the entire staff of TheNigeriaLawyer (TNL), celebrates you.

May you have the happiest birthday of your life. May God bless you with things you deserve and may you have a fun-filled birthday today and for the years to come.

Folake Solanke is the first female Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). A woman whose trailblazing feats in the legal profession in Nigeria have inspired many women in the industry, her contributions in other fields of endeavour are equally outstanding.

Aside from being a legal giant, she is also a teacher and a public administrator of note. Her enormous career accomplishments have anchored a personality that is audacious and steely.

A second look at the subjects that she chose to study before she studied law—Latin and mathematics—makes this evident. That at a time in history when educating women was neither fashionable nor encouraged by society, a woman would dare to pursue higher education, is remarkable. Yet more telling still is the fact that she chose to do so in areas of study that even men dreaded.

It is no surprise therefore that Folake achieved for herself an enviable place in history.

Folake, SAN is a devout Christian and was married to Toriola Solanke. Together they had three children. Dr. (Mrs) Oluyemi Koya is a medical doctor and a lawyer; B. A Solanke, an engineer; and Miss Olushola Solanke, a mathematician and MBA London Business School degree holder.

Now that Folake is no longer in active service, she devotes her time mentoring young lawyers who aspire to reach the heights that she herself reached in the legal profession.