Profile

Joseph Onele (Joseph) has earned an industry reputation for cutting-edge legal expertise and wealth of experience in the legal services industry, having served leading multinationals, stakeholders and industry leaders in different parts of the world. He cut his teeth in legal practice, at one of the top tier law firms in Africa, having graduated with First Class Honours in his law degree from the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and bagged a PGD (Merit) in Oil and Gas Law from the University of Aberdeen (UK). He is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

An energy, corporate and commercial law specialist, Joseph routinely advises on complex as well as market-defining corporate, commercial transactions, Energy and Natural Resources Law and is highly recommended by The Legal 500, for his cutting-edge cum in-depth legal expertise and insightful analysis of complex legal issues. He routinely provides legal support on all aspects of the oil and gas value chain including upstream operations, midstream and downstream activities as well as the oil services.

In addition to being a finance and projects lawyer with experience in energy (power, oil and gas inclusive), natural resources, infrastructure, banking, finance, and tax advisory, Joseph has significant experience in advising International Oil Companies, Indigenous Oil Companies, commercial banks, development finance institutions (DFIs), startup firms, multinational and international corporations as well as international organizations.

Joseph serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of African Law (Cambridge University Press) and Journal of International Dispute Settlement (Oxford University Press). He was at a time, a Researcher and Contributing Writer with The Arctic Institute (Washington DC, USA) where he contributed weekly to The Arctic This Weekly, the flagship publication of The Arctic Institute.

He routinely reviews scholarly publications made to the Journal of International Dispute Settlement published by the Oxford University Press covering area such as international commercial and investment arbitration, international dispute settlement, proceedings before the Law of the Sea Tribunal as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration, international negotiation and mediation. Joseph also contributes to the Kluwer Arbitration Blog on topics ranging from international arbitration to contemporary issues in domestic arbitration. He recently published an article in the Journal of International Dispute Settlement (Oxford University Press) titled 'Revisiting Unilateral Exploitation of Mineral Resources in Disputed Water under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Any New Matter Arising?'