Kingsley Jesuorobo is a Nigerian-Canadian who joggles profession as a lawyer by day and writer by night. Born in Nigeria, Kingsley was trained as a lawyer, and practiced law in Nigeria before moving to Canada where he returned to law school and continues to practice law. He has won numerous awards for professional excellence in the legal field.
Kingsley Jesuorobo holds several leadership positions in legal associations of his peers. He has also led several other organizations, including those promoting human rights and commerce.
According to information on his poetry website, Kingsley Jesuorobo grew up in a “nuclear” (to use his expression) family unit comprising of a father, a mother–who passed on early, three step-mothers and 24 siblings. It was extra-ordinarily eye-opening for him. He says that uprooting himself from his upbringing and relocating to and resettling in a new and different Canadian environment and successfully running his law firm were challenging and overwhelming, but it is rearing his autistic son that has been the most profoundly life-altering event for him.
In between his family, professional and social life, Kingsley converts his love for letters and logic into tools to construct poetic narratives that encompass and dissect sundry subjects: his personal life, autism, governance, politics, religion, philosophy, nature, romance and more.
Mr. Kingsley Jesuorobo is a recipient of many awards honoring his extraordinary professionalism and accomplishments in legal practice. In March 2017, he was elected as the President of the Canadian Association of Nigerian Lawyers (CANL). In October 2016, he was appointed as Vice President (North America)of the African Bar Association (AFBA). In September 2010, he was invited to guest-lecture on refugee protection and human rights law at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, under the sponsorship of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Fahamu Refugee Program.
In April 2017, he was featured as Thisday (Nigerian Newspaper) Legal Personality. Also in 2017, he was given an Award of Excellence by Nigerian Bar Association (Benin Branch). Kingsley co-founded Canada’s first 24-hour black television network, First Entertainment Voice of Africa Television (FEVA TV), and acted as the Chief Legal Counsel at FEVA TV (2013 – 2016). In September 2010, he was invited to guest-lecture on refugee protection and human rights law at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, under the sponsorship of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Fahamu Refugee Program. Kingsley was in 2010 featured as one of the ten most influential Nigerians in Canada by the Planet Africa Magazine. In 2004, he received the Planet Africa Television Award For Professional Excellence, and also received an Award of Recognition from the Nigerian Canadian Association for his outstanding contribution to the community.
From 1996 till date, Kingsley has has won many victories for clients at Canada’s Federal Court. In April 1994, he won the case for his first refugee client in Canada, while he was still a law student at the University of Toronto. In 1996, he won his first jury trial (Insurance Litigation) case in Canada, and successfully argued for the court to award solicitor and client’s costs in favour of his client. In 2002, he won 154 out of 185 asylum cases argued before the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board. He was featured in the news for mounting ground-breaking successful challenges at Canada’s Federal Court in a cases of mass deportation of immigrants on short notice in 2003 and 2004. His legal exploits on behalf of immigrants in Canada prompted a local Toronto newspaper, The Nigerian Monitor, to christen him “Senior Advocate of the Masses” (SAM). He has trained over three dozen lawyers and paralegals. He is a founding, principal and managing partner at JED Solicitors, an international law firm which operates from Canada and Nigeria.
