Ayotunde Phillips


Ayotunde Phillips is a Nigerian Jurist and former Chief Judge of Lagos State.

Early life

Ayotunde Phillips was born on July 26, 1949 in London, the first child of the late Justice James Oladipo Williams and Henrietta Aina Williams, a Lagos state born judge.
She had her primary education in London before she returned to Nigeria with her sibling, Oluwafunmilayo Olajumoke Atilade.
She obtained the West Africa School Certificate Examination at Queen's College, Lagos before she proceeded to the University of Lagos where she obtained a bachelor's degree in Law on June 1973. She completed the compulsory one year Youth Service at Enugu State Ministry of Justice and was Call to the bar in 1974.

Law career

She started her career at Kehinde Sofola's Chambers on November 1975, a year after she was Call to the bar. She left the chamber on September 1976 to join the services of the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation as a legal Officer and rose to the position of legal adviser in 1990, the same year she got a transfer to the Ministry of Justice where she attained the rank of a High Court Judge in 1994.
On July 2012, she was appointed as the Chief Judge by Babatunde Fashola and after her retirement on June 2014, she was succeeded by Justice Oluwafunmilayo Olajumoke Atilade, her younger sister.