Professor Lola Akin Ojelabi

Lola Akin Ojelabi is Professor and Head of Department (Law) in the Graduate School of Business and Law. Lola is an Australian Lawyer and a Nationally Accredited Mediator. Also admitted to legal practice in Nigeria, she was engaged in legal practice for over 10 years before commencing a career in academia in 2005. Lola has taught a range of subjects including dispute resolution, negotiation, cultural aspects of dispute resolution and international conflict resolution, public international law, consumer protection law, business law and constitutional law.  Lola’s research focuses on access to justice and conflict resolution: appropriate dispute resolution (ADR) including in relation to ethics, mediator responsibilities, teaching ADR in the law curriculum, cultural appropriateness, ADR and access to justice and ADR and social justice. Lola is interested in the role of international law in promoting global peace and justice particularly, how finding shared values may assist in the resolution or management of seemingly intractable conflicts.

Her academic writings can be found in high quality journals. She is co-author of Ethics and Justice in Mediation (2018) and Dispute Resolution in Australia: Cases, Commentary and Materials (2018).

Lola has taken up various leadership positions both in legal practice and academia. As a practising lawyer, she was head of chambers in a private law firm leading the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice team and managing junior lawyers. In academia, Lola has managed large teaching teams and was Acting Director of Research, Director of Programs and Clinical Legal Education, Director of Undergraduate Law Programs responsible for compliance with industry and professional regulation, Academic Integrity Advisor and Complaints Officer. Lola has also served as Journal Editor and is on the Editorial Board of various journals.

• PhD, School of Law, La Trobe University, Australia. (Research Topic: Culture and its Impact on Conflict, Conflict Resolution Processes and Outcomes) (2009).
• PDLP (Postgraduate   Diploma   in   Legal   Practice), Monash University, Australia (2004).
• LLB, La Trobe University, Australia (2003).
• LLM (Corporate Management and Finance with minor thesis on International Commercial Arbitration), Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria (1999).
• Practical Legal Training, Nigerian Law School, Lagos, Nigeria (1992).
• LLB (Honours), Obafemi Awolowo University, (previously University of Ife), Nigeria (1991).