Steve Austin Nwabueze

Partner

Steve Austin Nwabueze

Stevenwabueze@perchstoneandgraeys.com

+234-7045984786

Steve is a Dispute Resolution lawyer and is the team lead of the Dispute Resolution team of Perchstone and Graeys LP. He also heads the Leisure Industry team of the firm.  Steve obtained his LL.B (Hons) from University of Nigeria Nsukka in 2008. He was admitted to practice as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2009.   He is renowned by his colleagues and peers for the depth of his knowledge of the law and has, over the course of his career, demonstrated capacity in a string of notable cases.

Steve has been involved in some aspects of corporate and commercial dispute resolution in Nigeria, and has expertise in litigation involving the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, banking law, intra-company shareholder disputes, as well as insolvency and insurance litigation. Several of the matters in which he has been involved have come before the highest appellate courts in Nigeria, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Steve also has extensive experience in all aspects of commercial arbitration, both domestic and international. 

Steve has also demonstrated commendable competence in Maritime litigation and has represented midstream energy companies in negotiating voyage and time charters, contracts of affreightment, sub-freight agreements, and the shipping terms of its crude oil sales agreements, as well as developing the company’s general terms and conditions for its marine terminals.

Throughout his rather eventful career, Steve has been opportune to develop competence in various specialized fields, including Arbitration, Corporate Practice, Maritime, Chieftaincy, Election Petition, and Intellectual Property. He has, however, recently made remarkable inroads into the sports and entertainment law practice. 

Election Petitions Cases 

  • Part of the legal team that prosecuted a tax/pre-election matter against the Abia State Governor which was argued up to the Supreme Court and subsequently before the Federal High Court, Abuja for re-trial. 
  • Part of the legal team that represented Senator Ajibola Ajadi at the Senatorial election petition at Kwara state and defended his mandate at the tribunal and subsequently before the Court of Appeal. 
  • Part of General Muhammadu Buhari’s legal team that challenged the 2011 Presidential election petition that was eventually decided at the Supreme Court.  Represented Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa state for the 2011 election petition at the Tribunal holden at Yola and subsequently part of the team that argued a pre-election matter against the former governor at the Supreme Court. 
  • Part of the legal team that represented President Muhammadu Buhari in the plethora of pre-election cases seeking to disqualify him from contesting the 2015 Presidential election for alleged non-possession of certificate. 

Arbitration. 

  • Part of the Legal team briefed by an IOC to resolve a dispute regarding gas entrainment with another IOC.  
  • Currently involved in a big-ticket arbitration involving the state-owned oil corporation in respect of a dispute revolving around an IOC’s claim for recovery of Operating Costs. 
  • Currently part of the legal team defending the interest of the NNPC in a dispute involving an alleged breach of a Production Sharing Contract.

Some of his recent publications includes:

  • Adeleke v INEC: Discordant Judicial Tunes and the dark clouds of technical justice in Nigeria’s election jurisprudence.
  • Revisiting The Hyperandrogenism Conundrum: A Review of the CAS Decisions In Dutee Chand v. AFI & IAAF and Caster Semenya Semenya v. IAAF
  • The right to use images of athletes for commercial purposes: gold mine or undermined.
  • From Bosman to Perchstein – The Finality of the Arbitral Awards of the Court of Arbitration for Sports Examined 
  • Needles & Stitches: Understanding the Nigerian Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Law. 
  • Samson Siasia and the integrity of football: an application of the deterrence theory of criminal jurisprudence taken too far?
  • Samson Siasia: the balancing act task before the court of arbitration for sports and the question of proportional penalty.