Williams Ukonu is a lawyer, civil rights/liberty advocate, public policy contributor and current affairs analyst. He is a regular commentator on burning national issues, especially as it concerns governance, government policies and citizen`s rights. 

He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. He is an upwardly mobile and bright innovative mind, dynamic and attentive to details.

Williams is alumni of University of Benin and the Nigerian Law School. Upon qualification and subsequent call to the Nigerian Bar as Barrister and Solicitor and enrolment at Supreme Court of Nigeria, Williams went into active private practice.

After a brief stint with some highly reputable law firms, he founded Swift Solicitors Chambers. Williams is into general practice, but has in his nature been occupied by human rights practice as well as grass root civil liberties defence and advocacy.

He has also been actively involved in other practice areas including Banking & Finance, Real Estate, Family and Inheritance, Employment, media & journalism, Corporate & Commercial Laws, among others.

Over the years, Williams has made visible imprints and garnered cognate experience and skills in various broad range and aspects of the legal practice, as well as related fields ancillary and complementary to his commitment to equal justice through the rule of law. He also has a broad practice experience in corporate and commercial transactions as well as stint in commercial litigations.

Particularly, Williams has been retained as a Nigerian consultant by major foreign due diligence companies, wherein he has been advising clients in identifying and analysing the risks involved in their transactions in Nigeria or with Nigerian partners.

He has also been assisting clients on how to mitigate and hedge those risks through strategic inputs, leveraging on diverse risk management tools provided by the law.

During this period, he has been opportune to have had a broad range of experience and skills acquisition in advising top national and multinational businesses in the areas of international trade, distribution and licensing agreements, business development, commercial contracts and corporate strategy with respect to doing business in Nigeria.

He has also been advising and actively involved in the management of clients’ interests in relation to employment/ labour laws in Nigeria, and has successfully represented individual employees against their employers in areas of unfair dismissal and relevant compensations.

As a debt recovery expert, he has personally been involved in several recovery briefs involving top rated financial institutions such as Access Bank Plc, UBA Plc, Eco Bank Plc, Standard Capital Management & Trust Limited, Standard Brand International Limited, Blueseed Company Limited and a host of others.

He once served as the Managing Partner at Swift Solicitors Chambers, but in the recent times, Williams concentrates much of his time now on research, writing and advocacy in the areas of human rights, civil liberties, topical contributions to the media and political commentaries.

Williams Ukonu is the founder and a Principal Partner at Swift Solicitors Chambers.