O.J | Richards + Co. is a Nigerian law and advisory firm headquartered at Churchgate Tower in Abuja. We act for principals on the regulatory, commercial, transactional, and dispute matters where the cost of error is high and the timeline does not permit a second attempt.
The firm operates at the intersection of law, capital, regulation, technology, and real estate — advising clients whose interests are sophisticated and whose execution must be precise.
We act for Nigerian corporates and high-net-worth families, multinational businesses operating in Nigeria, and international clients with cross-border exposure to Africa's largest economy. Our work is anchored in four convictions: precision in execution, discretion as a default posture, commercial practicality in legal analysis, and fluency across borders.
Headquartered at Churchgate Tower in Abuja's Central Business District — a deliberate choice that places the firm at the federal regulatory perimeter, where the matters that shape Nigerian business are first decided.
A small selection of recent engagements, anonymised in compliance with client confidentiality. Detailed referenceability is available to qualified prospective clients through formal request.
Cross-border due diligence, FCCPC merger clearance, CBN regulatory approval, and structuring of the holding architecture.
Application prepared and submitted within compressed timeline; engagement managed through grant of licence and integration into ongoing supervisory framework.
Documentation, SEC Nigeria approvals, regulatory capital treatment, and coordination with international counsel on Rule 144A / Regulation S placement.
Land Use Act framework, SPV architecture, governor's consent, development conditions, and exit waterfall negotiation.
Counsel through the full arbitral process, including emergency relief application, evidentiary hearings in London, and post-award enforcement strategy.
DPIA, processor agreements, breach response protocol, board governance framework, and NDPC registration.
All matters listed are subject to ongoing client confidentiality. Public references are made only with explicit client consent.
Request a referenceability conversationFourteen disciplines, organised to mirror how clients actually structure their legal and business questions. Each practice is led by partners with deep subject-matter expertise.
Advisory on Nigerian regulatory frameworks, licensing, and engagement with CBN, SEC, NDIC, NCC, NDPC, and FRC.
Counsel across incorporation, governance, shareholder arrangements, joint ventures, and commercial contracting.
Lending transactions, debt and equity capital raises, structured finance, and SEC-regulated securities offerings.
Acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, development structuring, and title due diligence across asset classes.
Transaction structuring, fund formation, holding-company architecture, and tax-efficient capital deployment.
End-to-end counsel on domestic and cross-border M&A, due diligence, regulatory approvals, and integration.
Industries operate by their own logic. The regulators, counterparties, capital structures, and risks that define financial services are not those that define energy, technology, or real estate. The firm organises sectoral expertise around seven principal verticals.
Substantive commentary on the regulatory, transactional, and strategic questions shaping business in Nigeria — written by the partners who advise on them.
The Central Bank of Nigeria's revised framework for capital importation and repatriation has material implications for inbound investors.
Read commentaryThe NDPA perimeter is expanding faster than most boards have refreshed their governance frameworks.
Read moreThe architecture of a Nigerian real estate JV is shaped as much by Land Use Act considerations as by capital structure.
Read moreThe cost of resolving a regulatory gap discovered at Series B is multiples of resolving it pre-launch.
Read moreFor sophisticated Nigerian operators, compliance has shifted from cost centre to competitive moat.
Read moreA monthly long-form conversation between the firm's founder and a senior counterparty — regulators, founders, investors, jurists — on a question shaping Nigerian business and law.
Each episode runs 40–60 minutes, unhurried and substantive. We avoid the news of the week in favour of the questions that will still matter in a year.
Listen to the seriesIn conversation with a former Director-General of a principal Nigerian regulator on cross-border friction, the CBN's revised framework, and what serious investors look for in their counsel.
Clients who engage the firm engage its partners. The firm is partner-led and partner-staffed; matters are not delegated to junior counsel and then signed off by partners who never engaged with the substance. This is a deliberate architectural choice, not an aspiration.
Richard founded the firm on the conviction that Nigerian and international clients deserve counsel combining local fluency with global standards of execution — without compromise on either dimension.
He leads the firm's regulatory and compliance practice and advises on corporate, real estate, and cross-border transactions of significance. His practice spans financial services, real estate, and technology sectors, with particular depth on engagement with CBN, SEC, NDPC, and other principal Nigerian regulators.
Tracking the data that defines our core practice areas — capital flows, real estate transactions, regulatory enforcement, M&A. Updated quarterly.
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